Its leaves were beautiful, and its fruit plentiful, and in it was food for all. The animals of the field sought shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its boughs, and all flesh was fed by it.

I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen this dream. Now you, O Belteshazzar, declare its meaning, because all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make the meaning known to me. But you are able, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you.

Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was stunned for one hour, and his thoughts troubled him. The king spoke and said, Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or its meaning trouble you. Belteshazzar answered and said, My lord, the dream is to those who hate you, and its meaning to your foes.

whose leaves were fair, and its fruit plentiful, and in it was food for all, under which the animals of the field dwelt, and on whose branches the birds of the heavens had their home;

it is you, O king, for you have become great and strong, for your greatness has grown and reached to the heaven, and your rule to the end of the earth.

The king spoke and said, Is this not great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty?

At that time my reason returned to me. And the glory of my kingdom, my honor and brightness returned to me. And my advisers and my lords came for me, and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added to me.

And for the majesty that He gave him, all people, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. He killed whom he would, and whom he would he kept alive. And whom he would, he set up; and whom he would, he put down.

All the presidents of the kingdom, the prefects, and the satraps, and the officials and governors, have planned together to establish a royal law, and to make a strong ban that whoever shall ask a petition of any god or man for thirty days, except from you, O king, he shall be thrown into the den of lions.

Then the king was exceedingly glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of hurt was found on him, because he trusted in his God.

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.

And the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away. Yet their lives were made longer for a season and time.

Here is the end of the matter. As for me Daniel, my thoughts troubled me much, and my face changed on me. But I kept the matter in my heart.

And he said to me, For two thousand, three hundred evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary shall be vindicated.

And it happened when I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision, and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me the form of a man.

So he came near beside my place. And when he came, I was afraid and fell on my face. But he said to me, Understand, O son of man, for the vision is for the time of the end.

And he said, Behold, I will make you know what shall happen in the last end of the indignation. For it is for the time appointed for the end.

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 the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true. But you shall shut up the vision; for it shall be for many days.

And I Daniel fainted, and was sick for days. Afterward I rose up, and did the king's business. And I was amazed at the vision, but there was no understanding.

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.

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 Lord, I pray You, according to all Your righteousness let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain. Because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a curse to all those who are around us.

And now, O our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his holy desires, and cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.

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 while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin, and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my cry before Jehovah my God for the holy mountain of my God;

At the beginning of your prayers the commandment came out, and I have come to explain. For you are greatly beloved; therefore understand the matter, and attend to the vision:

Seventy weeks are decreed as to your people and as to your holy city, to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins, and to make atonement for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.

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 he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week. And in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease, and on a corner of the altar desolating abominations, even until the end. And that which was decreed shall be poured on the desolator.

I ate no food for delight, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, until three whole weeks were fulfilled.

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.

Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me. For my beauty was turned within me to corruption, and I kept no strength.

And he said to me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright. For to you I am now sent. And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood trembling.

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.

Now I have come to make you understand what shall happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is yet for many days.

For how can the servant of my lord talk with my lord? For as for me, immediately there remained no strength in me, nor is there breath left in me.

Then again one like a man in form came and touched me, and he made me stronger

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 I, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I was standing for a supporter and for a fortress for him.

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 he shall also carry their gods captives with their molten images into Egypt, and with their precious vessels of silver and of gold. And he shall stand for years away from the king of the north.

For the king of the north shall return, and shall send out a multitude greater than the former, and at the end of times, years, shall come with a great army and with much equipment.

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 coastlands, and shall capture many. But a ruler shall make cease his reproach for him, but his reproach will return to him.

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 after they join him, he will practice deceit. For he will come and be strong with a few people.

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.

For the ships of Kittim shall come against him. And he shall be grieved and return, and have fury against the holy covenant. So he shall do; he shall even return and give heed to those who forsake the holy covenant.

And those who understand among the people shall teach many; yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by exile, and spoil, for days.

And many of those who understand shall stumble, to refine and purge them, and to make white, to the time of the end. Because it is still for the appointed time.

And the king shall do according to his will. And he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper until the fury is fulfilled. For that which is decreed shall be done.

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.

So he shall act in the fortresses of the strongholds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge. He shall multiply in glory, and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for a price.

And at that time Michael shall stand up, the great ruler who stands for the sons of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation; until that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was on the waters of the river, when he held up his right and his left hand to Heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever that it shall be for a time, times, and a half. And when they have made an end of scattering the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.

And He said, Go, Daniel! For the words are closed up and sealed until the end-time.

But you go on to the end, for you shall rest and stand in your lot at the end of the days.

The beginning of Jehovah speaking by Hosea. And Jehovah said to Hosea, Go, take to yourself a wife of adultery and children of adultery. For the land has utterly gone lusting away from Jehovah.

And Jehovah said to him, Call his name God Will Sow. For still in a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease.

And she conceived again and bore a daughter. And God said to him, Call her name No-mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel. But I will utterly take them away.

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

Then the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel shall be gathered together, and shall set over themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land. For great shall be the day of Jezreel.

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.

For their mother has prostituted herself. She who conceived them has done shamefully. For she said, I will go after my lovers who give my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.

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 give her vineyards to her from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope. And she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they will no more be remembered by their name.

And in that day I will cut a covenant for them, with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of the heavens, and with the creeping things of the ground. And I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.

So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a homer of barley and a half homer of barley.

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.

For the sons of Israel shall live many days with no king, and no ruler, and with no sacrifice, and no pillars, and no ephod, or teraphim.

Hear the Word of Jehovah, sons of Israel. For Jehovah has a quarrel with the people of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another. For your people are as those who strive with the priest.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you from being priest to Me. Since you have forgotten the Law of your God, I will also forget your sons, even I.

And it has become, Like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them for their doings.

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

My people seek advice from their wooden idols, and their rod declares to them. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to go astray, and they have gone lusting away from under their God.

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.

For Israel slides back like a backsliding heifer. Now Jehovah will feed them as a lamb in a large place.

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 have acted treacherously against Jehovah, for they have brought out strange sons. Now a new moon shall devour them with their portions.

For I will be to Ephraim as a lion, and as a strong lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away. I will take away, and none shall rescue him.

Come and let us return to Jehovah. For He has torn, and He will heal us; He has stricken, and He will bind us up.

O Ephraim, what shall I do to you? O Judah, what shall I do to you? For your goodness is like a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goes away.

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

And as troops of robbers wait for a man, the company of priests murder in the way of Shechem; for they committed wickedness.

When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered, and the wickedness of Samaria. For they have worked falsehood. And the thief comes in, the troop of robbers plunders outside.

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.

Woe to them! For they have fled from Me. Ruin to them! Because they have sinned against Me. Though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against Me.

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.

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