Dan 11 | EE | STEP | ‘Since the first year that Darius from Media ruled, I helped him. And I saved him from his enemies.’

Daniel 11

1 ‘Since the first year that Darius from Media ruled, I helped him. And I saved him from his enemies.’ ^{▼▼11:1 Verse 1 is really part of chapter 10. The man told Daniel that he helped Michael. This happened when the Medes and Persians beat the Babylonians. Then Darius became king.}

Darius and the kings of Persia and of Greece

2 ‘Now I will explain to you the things that will happen’, the messenger said. ‘There will be three more kings in Persia and then a fourth (4th) king will come. He will be richer than all the other kings. He will become powerful because he is so rich. Then he will cause everybody to become angry with the kingdom called Greece.’

3 ‘Then a very strong king will come’, he told me. ‘He will rule with great power. And he will do whatever he wants to do. 4 After he comes, his kingdom will break into 4 parts. Those parts will be in the north, south, east and west. His children and grandchildren will not rule his kingdom. Other people will rule his kingdom, but they will not be as powerful.’

Wars in the countries near Israel

5 ‘Then the king in the south will become strong, but one of his officers will become even stronger. He will rule his own kingdom and he will be very powerful.

6 After some years, the king in the south and the king in the north will agree not to fight each other. The daughter of the king in the south will marry the king in the north. This should cause the two kingdoms to become friends. But the plan will fail and they will lose their power. Someone will kill her and her husband and her father and her servants.

7 Later, someone from her family will become king in the south. He will attack the army of the king in the north and he will go into the strong city. He will fight against the army and he will win the fight. 8 He will take away their gods that they have made out of wood or stone. And he will take away their valuable gold and silver dishes. He will take these things back to the country called Egypt. Then for several years, he will not attack the king in the north again.

9 After that, the king in the north will attack the country where the king in the south lives. But they will cause him to return to his own country. 10 Then his sons will prepare for war. They will bring together a large army, which will go to the south like a powerful river. The army will attack the strong city of the king in the south. 11 Then the king in the south will be angry. He will bring out his army to fight the king from the north. The king from the north might have a large army, but the king in the south will win the fight. 12 The king in the south will destroy this large army. So then he will think that he is great. He will kill many thousands of people, but his power will not continue.

13 The king from the north will again bring together a large army. It will be even bigger than the first army. After a few years, he will come back with his larger army. And this army will have all the arms that it needs to attack other countries. 14 At that time, many people will stand against the king in the south. And the angry men from your own people will also rise up. They will fight against him. This is what the dream tells us. But they will fail. 15 Then the king from the north will come. He will build up earth round a strong city. He will take the city because the army in the south will not be able to stand against him. Even their best soldiers will not be strong enough to win the fight. 16 The king from the north will do whatever he wants to do. Nobody will be able to stand against him. He will stay in the Beautiful Country and he will have the power to destroy it.

17 Then the king from the north will decide to go south with all his power. He will agree not to fight with the king in the south. He will give a daughter to marry the king in the south. He will want very much to stop that king ruling. But his plan will fail. She will not help him.

18 After this, he will turn and attack the countries by the sea. He will take many of those countries, but one officer will stop him. He will even cause the king from the north to stop fighting. Then he will not be able to take power over other countries. 19 So the king from the north will return. He will return to the strong cities in his own country. But he will lose another fight. And he will fall so that nobody will see him again.

20 Then the next king in the north will try to make himself even more rich. He will send out someone to take money from his people, but soon God will cause him to die. This will not happen in an attack or a fight.

The life of the very bad man

21 The person who comes after him will be a very bad man. He will not become a king but he will come to take power. The people will think that they are safe. That is when he will come. He will tell lies and he will do wrong things to become king. 22 He will fight a great army and he will destroy it. He will even kill the ruler of the promise. 23 He will try to agree with people from other countries. But he will tell them things that are not true. Only a few people will help him but he will become powerful. 24 He will attack the richest places. They will think that they are safe. That is when he will attack them. He will do things that his father and grandfathers did not do. He will take valuable things in war and he will give some to his servants. And he will try to discover how he might attack strong cities. But this will only happen for a short time.

25 He will feel strong and brave against the king in the south because he has a large army. And the king in the south will fight back with a large and powerful army. But the king in the south will not win, because people will make a way to stop him. 26 Even those who eat the king’s food will try to kill him. They will push his army away and many soldiers will die. 27 These two kings will want to do many bad things. They will sit together at the same table. But they will tell each other things that are not true. God has decided the time of the end already. So he will not let them do those bad things.

28 The king from the north will return to his own country. He will be very rich. He will hate those who worship the true God. He will do whatever he wants to do against them. Then he will continue his journey back to his own country.

29 At the time that God has decided, the king will go to the south again. This time the result will be different. 30 People from the west will come in ships and they will stand against him. He will be afraid and he will turn back. He will be angry with people who worship the true God. He will give benefits to those people who have not kept their promises to God. 31 He will send some of his soldiers into God’s strong and holy place to make it dirty. Then it will not be holy any longer. Nor will they let people sacrifice gifts to God. They will put something that God hates in there. 32 The king will say that some people are good. Those are the people who do not obey God. But those who know their God will be strong. And they will work. 33 The wise leaders will teach the people, but the people will attack them for some time. People will kill some with sharp knives or they will burn them. They will rob them and they will put some of them in a prison. 34 When God’s people are dying, they will receive a little help. Many people who do not really know God will join them. 35 Some of the wise people will fall. Then God can make them clean (holy). And they will become the people that God wants them to be at the end. God has decided when the end will come.

36 And this king will do whatever he wants to do. He will say that he is greater than any god. He will even say very bad things against the God of gods. This will happen until God is not angry with his people any longer. God must do what he has decided to do. 37 This king will not have any interest in the gods that his father and grandfathers worshipped. He will not have any interest in the god that women love. He will think that he is greater than any of the gods. 38 Instead, he will give honour to the god that saves strong cities. His father and grandfathers did not give honour to that god. But he will give gold, silver, pretty stones and gifts to that god. 39 He will give honour to this foreign god who will help him to fight strong cities. Then he will give gifts to those people who give honour to his god. He will let them rule many people. And he will sell parts of the land to them.’

The end of the very bad man’s life

40 ‘In the end, the king from the south will attack him. The king in the north will fight back like a storm. He will have soldiers on horses and many ships. He will attack many countries and he will go through them like a great powerful river. 41 He will also attack the Beautiful Country and he will kill many thousands of the people there. But he will not take the people in the countries called Edom and Moab or the leaders from Ammon. 42 He will have power over many countries, including the country called Egypt. 43 He will take all the gold, silver and other valuable things in Egypt. He will also rule the countries called Libya and Cush. 44 But he will hear news from the north and the east that will cause trouble in his mind. So he will be very angry. And then he will go to destroy things and to kill many people. 45 He will stay with his soldiers between the sea and the holy mountain. But he will die there and nobody will help him.’