"Therefore, the hand that wrote this inscription was sent from his presence.

That night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was killed,

along with three chief administrators from them, one of which was Daniel. The regional authorities reported to these three administrators, so that the king would experience no losses.

All of the royal administrators, prefects, regional authorities, scribes, and governors have concluded that the king should establish and enforce an edict that anyone who prays to any god or man for the next 30 days (except to you, your majesty) is to be thrown into the lions' pit.

Therefore, your majesty, establish the decree and sign the written document so it can't be changed, in accordance with the laws of the Medes and Persians that can't be repealed."

When Daniel learned that the written document had been signed, he went to an upstairs room in his house that had windows opened facing Jerusalem. Three times a day he would kneel down, pray, and give thanks to his God, just as he had previously done.

So they approached the king and asked, "Didn't you sign an edict that for the next 30 days if anyone prays to any god or man, except to you, your majesty, he would be thrown into the lions' pit?" The king responded, "The decree has been established, in accordance with the laws of the Medes and Persians that can't be repealed."

But the men who had gone as a group to the king told him, "Remember, your majesty, that according to the laws of the Medes and Persians, any decree or edict that the king establishes cannot be repealed."

A stone was brought and placed over the opening to the pit, and the king affixed a seal to it with his personal signet ring and with the signet rings of his officials so that no one would interfere with Daniel's situation.

My God sent his angel and sealed the mouths of the lions. They have not harmed me, proving that I'm innocent before him. Also against you, your majesty, I've committed no offense."

"I hereby decree that in every area of my kingdom men are to fear and tremble before the God of Daniel. For he is the living God, who endures forever. His kingdom is one that will not be destroyed, and his dominion continues forever.

"While I was thinking about the horns look another horn, this time a little one, grew up among them. Three of the first horns were yanked up by their roots right in front of it. Look! It had eyes like those of a human being and a mouth that boasted with audacious claims."

"I continued watching because of the audacious words that the horn was speaking. I kept observing until the animal was killed and its body destroyed and given over to burning fire.

To him dominion was bestowed, along with glory and a kingdom, so that all nations, nations, and languages are to serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion it will never pass away and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed."

"I wanted to learn the precise significance of the fourth animal that was different from all the others, extremely awe-inspiring, with iron teeth and bronze claws, and that had devoured and crushed things, trampling under its feet whatever remained.

Also, I wanted to learn the significance of the ten horns on its head and the other horn that had arisen, before which three of them had fallen that is, the horn with eyes and a mouth that uttered magnificent things and which was greater in appearance than its fellows.

"As I continued to watch, that same horn waged war against the saints, and was prevailing against them

"During the third year of King Belshazzar's reign, I, Daniel, saw a vision after the earlier vision that had appeared to me.

It approached the ram with the two horns that I had observed while standing beside the canal, and charged at him, out of control with rage.

Because of the transgression, the Heavenly Army will be given over, along with the regular burnt offering, and in that rebellion truth will be cast to the ground, while he continues to prosper and to act."

I heard the voice of a man calling out from the Ulai Canal, "Gabriel, interpret what that fellow has been seeing.'

"As he approached where I was standing, I became terrified and fell on my face. But he told me, "Son of man, understand that the vision pertains to the time of the end.'

"Pay attention! I'm going to brief you about what will happen at the end of the period of wrath, because its end is appointed. The ram that you saw with a pair of horns are the kings of Media and Persia.

The shattered horn and the four that took its place are four kingdoms that will come from his nation, but they will not have his strength.

The vision about the twilights and dawnings that has been related is trustworthy, but keep its vision secret, because it pertains to the distant future.'

in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, noted in the Scripture the total years that were assigned by the message from the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem: 70 years.

"To you, Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us, open humiliation even to this day, to the men of Judah, the residents of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, both those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the lands to which you drove them because of their unfaithful acts that they committed against you.

and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God by walking in his laws that he gave us through his servants the prophets.

"He has confirmed his accusation that he spoke against us and against our rulers who governed us by bringing upon us great calamity, because nowhere in the universe has anything been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.

"And now, Lord our God, who brought your people from the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made a name for yourself that remains to this day we've sinned. We've acted wickedly.

Turn your ear and listen, O God. Open your eyes and look at our desolation and at the city that is called by your name. We're not presenting our requests before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great compassion.

So be informed and discern that seven weeks and 62 weeks will elapse from the issuance of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed Commander. The plaza and moat will be rebuilt, though in troubled times.

"At that time I, Daniel, had been mourning for three straight weeks.

His body was like beryl, his face flashed like lightning, his eyes were like flaming torches, his arms and legs were like polished bronze, and his speech roared like that of a crowd.

He told me, "Daniel, man highly regarded, understand the message that I'm about to relate to you. Stand up, because I've been sent to you.' When he spoke this statement to me, I stood there trembling.

""Don't be afraid, Daniel,' he told me, "because from the first day that you committed yourself to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard. I've come in answer to your prayers.

and said, "Don't be afraid, man highly regarded. Be at peace, and be strong.' "As soon as he spoke to me, I gained strength and replied, "Sir, please speak, now that you've strengthened me.'

After a number of years, they'll become allies and the daughter of the southern king will go to the northern king in order to craft alliances. But she won't remain in power, nor will he retain his power. Instead, she'll be surrendered, along with her entourage, the one who fathered her, and the one who supported her at that time.

""The southern king will fly into a rage and march out to fight the northern king. He'll gather a large army, but that army will be handed over to him.

When that army has been defeated, he'll become overconfident and slaughter many thousands, but he won't succeed.

He'll decide to come with the full power of his kingdom, bringing with him an alliance that he'll implement. He'll give him a daughter in marriage to overthrow it, but it won't succeed or work out for him.

From the time that an alliance is made with him, he'll act deceitfully, and he will go up and take power with only a small group of nations.

""At that time, Michael will arise, the great prince who will stand up on behalf of your people, and a time of trouble will come like there has never been since nations began until that time. Also at that time, your people will be delivered everyone who will have been written in the book.

"I heard the man dressed in linen clothes, who was standing above the waters of the river as he lifted his right and left hands to heaven and swore by the one who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and a half. When the shattering of the power of the holy people has occurred, all these things will conclude."

The LORD told Hosea, "Name the child "Jezreel,' because in a little while I'll avenge the blood that was shed by Jehu's dynasty at Jezreel. I'll put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.

At that time I'll shatter the military strength of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel."

She didn't recognize that it was I who provided her grain, wine, and oil, and it was I who gave her silver, while they crafted gold for Baal.

"Therefore I'll return and take back my grain at harvest time and my new wine in its season. I'll take back my wool and my flax that was to have covered her nakedness.

I'll destroy her vines and her fig trees, about which she said, "These are the earnings that my lovers paid me. I'll make them grow into a forest, and the wild animals will eat from them.'

"It will come about at that time," declares the LORD, "that you will address me as "My husband,' and you will no longer call me "My master'.

I will make a covenant with them at that time, a covenant with the wild animals of the field, with the birds of the air, and with the creatures of the ground. I will banish the battle bow, the sword, and war from the earth. I will cause my people to lie down where it is safe.

I will make you my wife forever I will make you my wife in a way that is righteous, in a manner that is just, by a love that is gracious, and by a motive that is mercy.

"It will come about at that time that I will respond," declares the LORD, "I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth.

My people are destroyed because they lack knowledge of me. Because you rejected that knowledge, I will reject you as a priest for me. Since you forget the Law of your God, I will also forget your children.

For it is love that I seek, and not sacrifice; knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

Like a gang of thieves that stalk a man, priests commit murder along the road to Shechem, committing shameful crimes.

It never occurs to them that I remember all their sin. Now their actions have caught up with them, and they have my attention.

While Ephraim stands watch with my God, the prophet has snares set that will trap his ways, and hostility lodges in the Temple of his God.

"I found Israel, as one finds grapes in the wilderness; Your ancestors seemed to me like the fruit gleaned from a fig tree's first harvest. When they went to Baal-peor, they devoted themselves to that filth, and they became loathsome, like what they loved.

Give them, LORD What will you give? You will give them a womb that miscarries and dry breasts.

"The residents of Samaria will be terrified because of the cows of Beth-aven. Its people will mourn over Beth-aven, along with the priests who will mourn its glory, because that glory has departed.

Indeed, that glory will be carried to Assyria it will become a present for an avenging king. Ephraim will be disgraced, and Israel will become ashamed of its decision.

Destroyed will be the high places of Aven, that are the sin of Israel. Both thorn and thistle will grow up over their altars. They will call out to the mountains, "Cover us!' and to the hills, "Fall on us!'

Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, supporting them by their arms, but they never knew that I was healing them.

"Yet I remain the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. I will make you live in tents again, as in the festival of that name.

Therefore they will be like morning clouds, like early morning dew that evaporates, like chaff blown away from the threshing floor, or like smoke from a chimney."

When the time of childbirth comes, he will be so foolish that he will refuse to be born."

Israel's branches will spread out, and its beauty will be like an olive tree, with its scent like that of Lebanon.

That nation laid waste my vines, and stripped bare my fig tree, discarding it. It stripped off its bark.

They leap like the rumbling of chariots echoing from mountain tops, like the roar of wild fire that devours the chaff, as an army firmly established in battle array.

As they serve between the porch and the altar, let the priests and ministers of the LORD weep and pray: "Spare your people, LORD, and do not make your heritage a disgrace so that nations ridicule them. Why should they say among the people, "Where is their God?"'"

"Then I will restore to you the years that the locust swarm devoured, as did the young locust, the other locusts, and the ravaging locust, that great army of mine that I sent among you.

As a result, you will know that I am in the midst of Israel; that I myself am the LORD your God and there is none other! And my people will never be ashamed."

"Then it will come about at a later time that I will pour out my Spirit on every person. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your elderly people will dream dreams, and your young people will see visions.

Also at that time I will pour out my Spirit upon men and women servants.

"Look, now! In those very days and at that time, when I restore prosperity to Judah and Jerusalem,

"And truly you will know that I am the LORD your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. Then Jerusalem will be holy, and no foreigners will invade her again.

It will come about at that time that the mountains will drip with newly pressed wine, the hills will flow with milk, and the streams of Judah will flow abundantly. A fountain will spring from the Temple of the LORD, to water the Valley of the Acacias.

I will acquit their bloodguilt that has not yet been acquitted. For the LORD lives in Zion!"

Even the bravest of elite troops will run away naked at that time," declares the LORD.

"Listen to this message that the LORD has spoken about you, people of Israel. It concerns the entire family that I brought from the land of Egypt:

Because they do not know how to act right," declares the LORD, "they are filling their strongholds with treasures that they took from others by violence into their fortified citadels."

"because on that day I will lay out the charges against Israel. I will also bring judgment upon the altars of Bethel; the horns of the altar will be cut off and will fall to the ground.

"I therefore have withheld the rain from you three months before the harvest, causing rain to come upon one city, but not upon another, and upon one field but not upon another, so that it would wither.

"Hear this accusation that I am bringing against you: "A dirge, house of Israel:

"For this is what the Lord GOD says: "The city that is sending out a thousand will have a hundred left; The city that is sending out a hundred will have ten left of the house of Israel.'"

It is he who is raining sudden destruction upon the strong like lightning, so that ruin comes upon the fortress.

and because I know that your transgressions are many, and your sins are numerous as you oppose the righteous, taking bribes as a ransom, and turning away the poor in court

"Pursue good and not evil, so that you may live, and this is what will happen: The LORD God of the Heavenly Armies will be with you, as you have been claiming.

Will not the Day of the LORD be darkness, and not light pitch black at that, without a ray of sunshine?"

"Was it to me that you brought offerings and gifts in the desert for 40 years, house of Israel?

And you carried the tent of your king and Saturn, your star god idols that you crafted for yourselves.

Cross over to Calneh and look around, then go on to that great city of Hamath, and from there go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Or is their territory more extensive than yours?

"Disbelieving that a day of evil will come, embracing opportunities to commit violence,

You rejoice in nothing worth mentioning that is, you keep on saying, "We captured Karnaim by our own strength of will and by our own effort, didn't we?'

And so it came about that when the swarm had finished eating the grass of the land, I was saying, "Lord GOD, forgive please! How will Jacob stand, since he is small?"

This is what he showed me: Look! The Lord was standing upon a wall that stood straight and true, with a plumb line in his hand.

At that time," declares the Lord GOD, "the temple songs will be wailing. Many bodies will accumulate everywhere.

It will come about at that time," declares the Lord GOD, "I will cause the sun to set at noon and the earth to darken in the daylight.

I will turn your festivals into mourning, and all of your songs to dirges. I will cause all of you to put on sackcloth and to shave all of your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son, and its conclusion will be like the end of a bitter day."