Chapter 129

¹ Whatever, then, he recounted in the first vision, these things he again explains anew, a second time, for the edification of those who believe.

² For the ram butting toward the sea and the north and the south he says is Darius the king of the Persians, who prevailed over all the nations; for all the beasts, he says, will not stand before it.

³ And the he-goat of the goats coming from the southwest he says is Alexander the Macedonian, the king of the Greeks.

⁴ Now the goat’s coming to the ram, and being enraged at it, and striking it on the face, and breaking it, and casting it to the ground, and trampling it—this signifies that which also came to pass; for Alexander, having joined battle with Darius, prevailed against him and overcame all his power, slaying and trampling down his army.

⁵ Then, after the he-goat of the goats was exalted, its great horn was broken, and four horns came up beneath it toward the four winds of heaven.

⁶ For Alexander, having mastered all the land of Persia and subdued them, afterward dies, having divided his kingdom into four principalities, as has been shown above—that is, to Seleucus, Demetrius, Ptolemy, and Philip—out of whom one horn was exalted and magnified up to the host of heaven.

⁷ And through him, he says, the sacrifice was disturbed, and righteousness was cast to the ground. For there arose Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanes, who was of the line of Alexander, as king; and having become king of Syria and brought all Egypt under himself, he afterward went up against Jerusalem, and entered into the sanctuary and took all the treasures that were in the house of the Lord, and the golden lampstand and the table and the altar, and made a great slaughter in the land, and spoke arrogant words, and forbade sacrifice and offering, and built precincts and shrines for idols throughout the city, and they sacrificed swine and common beasts, so that what was spoken by the prophet might be fulfilled: And through him the sacrifice was disturbed, and righteousness was cast to the ground, and the holy place and the host shall be trampled together, until evening and morning, one thousand three hundred days.

⁸ For it came to pass at that time that for three and a half years the sanctuary remained desolate, so that a thousand three hundred days were fulfilled, until Judas the Maccabee arose, after the death of Mattathias his father, and withstood him, and cut down the camps of Antiochus, and freed the city, and they recovered the holy things, and renewed them, doing all things according to the law.