Then these men said, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the Law of his God.

Now, O king, establish the ban and sign the writing, so that it may not be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians which cannot be changed.

Then they came near and spoke before the king concerning the king's ban, Have you not signed a ban that every man who shall ask a petition of any god or man within thirty days, except of you, O king, shall be thrown into the lion's den? The king answered and said, The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be changed.

Then they answered and said before the king, Daniel, who is of the exiled sons of Judah, has not respected you, O king, nor the ban that you have signed, but makes his prayer three times a day.

And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den. And the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords, that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel.

Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting. And diversions were not brought before him; and his sleep fled from him.

My God has sent His Angel, and has shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me, because before Him purity was found in me. And also before you, O king, I have done no harm.

I make a decree that in all the domain of my kingdom, there shall be trembling and fear before the God of Daniel. For He is the living God, and endures forever, and His kingdom is that which shall not be destroyed, and His rule shall be to the end.

Daniel spoke and said, In my vision by night I was looking: and behold, the four winds of the heavens were stirring up the Great Sea.

After this I looked in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, frightening and terrifying, and very strong. And it had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the rest with its feet. And it was different from all the beasts before it; and it had ten horns.

I saw in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him.

And dominion and glory was given Him, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages, should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

And as I was watching, behold, a he-goat came from the west, over the face of the all earth, and did not touch the ground. And the he goat had an outstanding horn between his eyes.

And as for that being broken, and four stood up in its place; four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in its power.

And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power. And he shall destroy marvelously, and shall prosper and work, and destroy the mighty and the holy people.

We have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah our God, to walk in His Laws which He set before us by His servants the prophets.

Yea, all Israel has transgressed Your Law, and turned aside, that they might not obey Your voice. Therefore the curse has been poured out on us, and the oath that is written in the Law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against Him.

And He has confirmed His Words which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing on us a great evil. For under all the heavens it has not been done as it has been done to Jerusalem.

As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this evil has come on us. Yet we did not make our prayer before Jehovah our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand Your truth.

Therefore Jehovah has watched over the evil, and has brought it on us. For Jehovah our God is righteous in all His works which He does; for we did not obey His voice.

O my God, bow down Your ear and hear. Open Your eyes and behold our ruins, and the city which is called by Your name. For we do not present our prayers before You on account of our righteousnesses, but because of Your great mercies.

O Jehovah, hear; O Jehovah, forgive; O Jehovah, listen and do. Do not delay, for Your own sake, O my God; for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.

And after sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself. And the people of the ruler who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. And the end of it shall be with the flood, and ruins are determined, until the end shall be war.

And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision. For the men who were with me did not see the vision; but a great quaking fell on them, so that they fled to hide themselves.

Then he said to me, Do not fear, Daniel; for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to chasten yourself before your God, your words were heard. And I have come for your words.

and said, O man greatly beloved, do not fear. Peace to you; be strong; yes, be strong. And when he had spoken to me, I was made stronger, and I said, Speak my lord, for you have made me stronger.

And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken and shall be divided toward the four winds of the heavens. And it shall not be given to his sons, nor according to his power with which he ruled; for his kingdom shall be pulled up, even for others besides these.

And in the end of years they shall join together; for the king's daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make a treaty. But she shall not keep the power of the arm. Nor shall he stand, nor his arm. But she shall be given up, and those who brought her in, and her begetter, and he who made her strong in these times.

And when he has taken away the multitude, his heart shall be lifted up. And he shall cast down many ten thousands, but he shall not be made stronger.

So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a siege mound, and take a fortified city. And the arms of the south shall not hold out, nor his chosen people, nor will there be any strength to hold out.

He also shall set his face to enter with the strength of all his kingdom, and upright ones with him. So he shall do. And he shall give the daughter of women to him, to destroy it; but she shall not stand, nor be for him.

And he shall turn his face to the fortresses of his land. But he shall stumble and fall, and shall not be found.

And one who sends an exacter shall stand in his place, for the glory of the kingdom. But within few days he shall be broken, not in anger nor in battle.

And a despised one shall stand up in his place, and they shall not give to him the honor of the king; but he will enter while at ease and seize the kingdom by intrigues.

He shall enter safely, even into the rich places of the province. And he shall do what his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers. He shall plunder, and spoil, and scatter goods among them. And he shall devise his plots against the strongholds, even for a time.

And he shall stir up his power and his heart against the king of the south with a great army. And the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army, but he shall not stand. For they shall devise plots against him.

And both these kings' hearts shall be to do evil, and they shall speak lies at one table. But it shall not succeed. For still the end comes at the time appointed.

At the time appointed he shall return and come against the south. But it shall not be as the former or as the latter.

He will not regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god. For he shall magnify himself above all.

But in his place he shall honor the god of forces; and a god whom his fathers did not know, he shall honor with gold and silver, and with precious stones and desirable things.

And he shall stretch out his hand on the lands. And the land of Egypt shall not escape.

And I heard, but I did not understand. Then I said, O my lord, what shall be the end of these things?

But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and will save them by Jehovah their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.

And He said, Call his name Not-my-people. For you are not My people, and I will not be for you.

Yet the number of the sons of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered. And it shall be, in the place where it was said to them, You are not My people, there it shall be said to them, You are the sons of the living God.

Contend! Contend with your mother, for she is not my wife, nor am I her husband. Let her therefore put away her fornications out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts,

And I will not have mercy on her sons, for they are the sons of adulteries.

Therefore behold, I will hedge your way with thorns, and wall up her wall, that she shall not find her paths.

And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them. She shall seek them, but shall not find them. Then she shall say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than now.

For she did not know that I gave her grain, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.

And I will sow her to Me in the earth. And I will have mercy on No-mercy. And I will say to Not-my-people, You are My people. And they shall say, My God.

And I said to her, You shall abide for me many days. You shall not be a harlot, nor be for a man. And I also will be for you.

And you shall stumble in the day, and the prophet also shall stumble with you in the night, and I will cut off your mother.

For they shall eat and not have enough. They shall fornicate and not increase, because they have stopped taking heed to Jehovah.

I will not punish your daughters when they fornicate, nor your wives when they commit adultery. For the men themselves go aside with harlots, and they sacrifice with temple prostitutes. The people who do not understand are thrown down.

Though you, Israel, fornicate, yet do not let Judah become guilty. And do not come to Gilgal, nor go up to Beth-aven, nor swear, As Jehovah lives.

Hear this, O priests, and listen, house of Israel. And give ear, house of the king. For judgment is toward you, because you have been a snare on Mizpah and a net spread on Tabor.

I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me. For now, O Ephraim, you have fornicated; Israel is defiled.

Their doings will not allow them to turn to their God; for the spirit of fornication is in their midst, and they have not known Jehovah.

They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Jehovah; but they shall not find Him. He has withdrawn Himself from them.

When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then Ephraim went to the Assyrian and sent to King Jareb. Yet he could not heal you nor cure you of your wound.

For I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

And they do not say within their hearts that I remember all their evil. Now their own doings have hemmed them in; they are before My face.

For they have brought their heart near like an oven, while they lie in wait. Their baker sleeps at night; in the morning it burns like a flaming fire.

Ephraim mixed himself among the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

Strangers have eaten up his strength, and he does not know. Yea, gray hairs are here and there on him, yet he knows it not.

And the pride of Israel testifies to his face. And they do not return to Jehovah their God, nor seek Him in all this.

When they go, I will spread My net on them; I will bring them down like the birds of the heavens; I will chastise them, as a report to their congregation.

And they have not cried to Me with their heart, when they howled on their beds; they gather themselves for grain and wine, and they rebel against Me.

They return, but not to the Most High. They are like a deceitful bow; their rulers shall fall by the sword from the rage of their tongue. This shall be their scorn in the land of Egypt.

They have set up kings, but not by Me; they have made rulers, and I knew it not. They have made themselves idols with their silver and their gold, so that they may be cut off.

Your calf, O Samaria, has cast you off. My anger is kindled against them. Until when will they not attain purity?

For from Israel it came also. The craftsman made it, but it is not God. For the calf of Samaria shall be splinters.

They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of My offerings, and eat it; but Jehovah does not receive them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins. They shall return to Egypt.

O Israel, rejoice not for joy, like the peoples. For you have gone lusting away from your God; you have loved a reward on every grain floor.

The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.

They shall not dwell in Jehovah's land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.

They shall not pour wine to Jehovah, nor shall they be pleasing to Him. Their sacrifices shall be like the bread of sorrows to them; all who eat of them shall be defiled. For their bread is for their soul, it shall not come into the house of Jehovah.

My God shall cast them away because they did not listen to Him. And they shall be wanderers among the nations.

For now they shall say, We have no king because we did not fear Jehovah; what then should a king do to us?

O Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah. There they stood; the battle against the sons of iniquity did not overtake them in Gibeah.

I also taught Ephraim to go; He took them on His arm. But they did not know that I healed them.

He shall not return to the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return.

I will not carry out the heat of My anger; I will not return to destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst; and I will not enter into the city.

Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses. Nor shall we say any more to the work of our hands, Our gods, for in You the fatherless finds mercy.

Gird up and lament, priests; howl, ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, ministers of my God. For the food offering and the drink offering are held back from the house of your God.

Is not the food cut off before our eyes, and joy and gladness from the house of our God?

a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread on the mountains; a great people and a strong people; there has not been ever the like, nor shall there ever be again, even to the years of many generations.

They shall run like mighty ones. They shall climb the wall like men of war, and they shall march each one on his way, and they shall not break their ranks.

And each one shall not press his brother; they each go in his paths. And if they fall behind their weapons, they shall not be cut off.

Yes, tear your heart and not your robes, and turn to Jehovah your God: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and He pities because of the evil.

Let the priests, the ministers of Jehovah, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Have pity on Your people, O Jehovah, and give not Your inheritance to shame, for a proverb among those of the nations. Why should they say among the people, Where is their God?

Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice. For Jehovah will do great things.

Do not be afraid, beasts of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness grow green; for the tree bears its fruit, and the fig tree and the vine yield their strength.

And I will cleanse their blood which I did not cleanse; and Jehovah is dwelling in Zion.

So says Jehovah: For three transgressions of Damascus, yea for four, I will not turn away from it; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron.

So says Jehovah: For three transgressions of Gaza, yea for four, I will not turn away from it; because they deported as exiles to deliver up a complete population to Edom.

So says Jehovah: For three transgressions of Tyre, yea for four, I will not turn away from it. Because they delivered up as exiles a complete population to Edom, and did not remember the brotherly covenant.

So says Jehovah: For three transgressions of Edom, yea for four, I will not turn away from it. Because he pursued his brother with the sword, and cast off all pities, and his anger tore without end, and he kept his wrath forever.

So says Jehovah: For three transgressions of the sons of Ammon, yea for four, I will not turn away from it. Because they have ripped up the pregnant women of Gilead, to make their own border larger.