1“As for me, during the first year that Darius was king, I helped and encouraged Michael.”

The message about the kings of Egypt and Syria

2The angel also said, “And what I am going to reveal to you now will truly happen. There will be three more kings to rule Persia, one after the other. Then there will be a fourth king, who will be much richer than the others. As a result of his giving a lot of money to people, they will enable him to become very powerful. Then he will incite/persuade many nations [HYP] to fight against the kingdom of Greece.

3Then a very powerful king will appear in Greece. He will rule over a very large empire, and he will do whatever he wants to do.

4But when he has become very powerful, he will die. Then his kingdom will be divided into four parts. Kings who are not his descendants will rule, but they will not be as powerful as he was.

5Then the King of Egypt [MTY] will become very powerful. But one of his army generals will become more powerful than he is, and he will rule a bigger area.

6Several years later, the King of Egypt and the King of Syria will make an ◄alliance/agreement to help each other► [MTY]. The King of Syria will give his daughter to the King of Egypt to become his wife. But she will not be able to influence him [MTY] very long, and that woman, her husband, her child, and her servants will all be killed/assassinated.

7Soon after that, one of her relatives [MET] will become King of Egypt. His army will attack the army of Syria. They will enter the fortress of the soldiers of Syria and defeat them.

8They will return to Egypt, taking the statues of the gods of the people of Syria and many items made of silver and gold that had been dedicated to those gods. Then for several years his army will not attack the army of the King of Syria.

9Then the army of the King of Syria will invade Egypt, but they will soon return to Syria.

10However, the sons of the King of Syria will prepare to start a war, and they will gather a large army. That army will march south and spread all over Israel like a huge flood. They will attack a strong fortress in the south of Israel.

11Then the King of Egypt, having become very angry, will march with his army north from Egypt and fight against the army of Syria. The King of Syria will gather together a very large army, but the army of the King of Egypt will defeat them.

12The King of Egypt will become very proud because of his army having killed a very large number of soldiers from Syria, but his army will not continue to win battles.

13The King of Syria will again gather together an army that will be bigger than the one that he had before. After a few years, he will again march south on their way to Egypt with a large army and a lot of equipment for fighting battles.

14At that time, many people in Egypt will rebel against their king. In order to fulfill a vision that one of their leaders had seen, some violent/lawless people from your country of Israel will also rebel in order to not be controlled by Egypt any more, but they will be defeated.

15Then the King of Syria will come south with his army and pile up dirt against the walls of a city that is well protected, and they will break through those walls and they will capture the city. The soldiers from Egypt who have come to defend that city, even the best troops, will not be strong enough to continue to fight.

16So the King of Syria will do whatever he wants to, and no one will be able to oppose him. His army will occupy the glorious land of Israel and completely control/subdue it.

17Then he will decide to march south with all the soldiers from his kingdom. He will make an alliance with the King of Egypt and in order that his own daughter will help him to destroy the kingdom of Egypt, he will give her to the King of Egypt to become his wife. But that plan will fail.

18After that, the army of the King of Syria will attack the regions that are close to the Mediterranean Sea, and his army will conquer many of them. But the army of a leader from another country will defeat the army of Syria and will stop their king from continuing to be proud. He will do to the King of Syria what he deserved for being very insolent.

19Then the King of Syria will return to the fortresses in his own land. But he will be defeated, and he will ◄die/be assassinated► [EUP] there.

20Then another man will ◄succeed him/become king►. That king will send one of his officers to oppress the people in Jerusalem by forcing them to pay big taxes, in order to get more money for his kingdom. But after a few years [HYP] that king will die, but he will not die as a result of people being angry with him or in a battle.

21The next King of Syria will be an evil man who, because he will not be the son of the previous king, will not have the right to become king. But he will come when people do not expect it, and he will become king by tricking the people.

22When his army advances, they will attack any armies that oppose him and destroy those armies. They will also kill God’s Supreme Priest.

23By making treaties/alliances with the rulers of other nations, he will deceive them, and he will become very powerful, even though he rules a nation that does not have a lot of people.

24Suddenly his army will invade a province that is very wealthy, and they will do things that none of his ancestors did: they will capture in battles all kinds of possessions from the people whom they defeat. Then the king will divide those possessions among his friends. He will also plan for his army to attack fortresses in Egypt, but only for a short time.

25He will courageously/boldly conscript/gather a large and powerful army to attack the army of the king of Egypt. But the King of Egypt will prepare to fight against them with a huge and powerful army. However, someone will deceive him, with the result that his plan will not be successful.

26Even his most trusted advisors will plan to get rid of him. His army will be defeated and many of his soldiers will be killed.

27Then the two kings who both want to rule that area will sit down at the same table and eat together, but they will both lie to each other. Neither of them will get what he wants, because it will not be the time that God has determined/set for them to rule Egypt.

28The army of the King of Syria will return to Syria, taking with them all the valuable things that they had captured. The king will be determined to get rid of the Supreme Priest of the Jewish people. He will do what he wants to in Israel, and then return to his own country.

29When it is the time that God has decided, the King of Syria and his army will invade Egypt again. But this time he will not be successful like he was before.

30The army of Rome will come in ships and oppose his army and cause him to be afraid. So he will be very angry, and with his army he will return to Israel and try to get rid of the Supreme Priest. The King of Syria will do what those who have abandoned the Jewish religion advise/want him to do for them.

31Some of his soldiers will do things to ◄defile the temple/cause the temple to become unholy for them►. They will prevent the priests from offering sacrifices each day, and they will put in the temple something that is disgusting/abominable.

32By deceiving those who have abandoned the Jewish religion, he will persuade them to ◄become his supporters/help him to do what he wants to do►. But those who are devoted to their God will firmly oppose them.

33And wise Israeli leaders will teach others also. But for a while, some of those wise leaders will be killed in battles, and some will be burned to death, and some will be robbed, and some will be put in prison.

34While God’s people are being persecuted, some people will help them a little bit, although some of those who help them will not do it sincerely.

35Some of those wise leaders will be killed [EUP], but as a result the others will be purified [DOU]. This suffering will continue until it is the time that God has appointed for it to end.

The King of Syria who praises himself

36The King of Syria will do what he wants to. He will boast and say that he is greater than any god. He will even revile the Supreme God. He will be able to do what he wants until the time that God punishes [MTY] him. God will accomplish what he has planned.

37The King of Syria will ignore the god that his ancestors worshiped and the god that many women love. He will ignore every god, because he will think that he is greater than all of them.

38But he will honor the god who people think protects fortresses. That is a god whom his ancestors did not honor. And he will give gold, silver, ◄jewels/very valuable stones► and other expensive gifts to that god.

39He will ask that god (OR, people who worship a god) from another country to help him to defend his fortresses. He will greatly honor those who allow him to be their ruler. He will appoint some of them to important positions in the government; and to reward them, he will give them some land.

40But when his time to rule is almost ended, the army of the King of Egypt will attack his army. The army of the King of Syria will fight against them furiously [SIM]. His soldiers will be driving chariots and riding on horses and traveling in many ships. His army will invade many countries and spread all over those countries like a flood [MET].

41They will invade the glorious land of Israel and kill [EUP] tens of thousands of people. But the people of the Edom people-group and the people of the Moab people-group and the people of the Ammon people-group who are still alive will escape.

42When the army of Syria invades other countries, even the people of Egypt will be defeated.

43The army of Syria will take away from Egypt gold, silver, and other valuable items. The people of Libya and Ethiopia will allow the King of Syria to rule over them.

44But he will become very frightened/alarmed when he hears reports about what is happening in the east and in the north. So he will become very angry, and send his army to fight furiously and kill many of their enemies.

45The King of Syria will set up his royal tents in the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the hill in Jerusalem on which the temple ◄exists/was built►. But he will be killed there, because there will be no one to help him.”