1. “During the first year that Darius the Mede was king, I stood up to support Michael in his fight against the prince of Persia.
2. “Now then, Daniel, I tell you the truth: Three more kings will rule in Persia. Then a fourth king will come who will be much richer than all the other kings of Persia before him. He will use his riches to get power and turn everyone against the kingdom of Greece.
3. Then a very strong and powerful king will come who will rule with much power. He will do anything he wants.
4. Just as he comes to power, his kingdom will be broken up and scattered in all directions. It will not be divided among his descendants. And it will not be ruled in the same way because that kingdom will be pulled up and given to other people.
5. “The southern king will become strong, but then one of his commanders will defeat him. The commander will begin to rule, and he will be very powerful.
6. “Then after a few years, the southern king and that commander will make an agreement. The daughter of the southern king will marry the northern king. She will do this to bring peace, but she and the southern king will not be strong enough. People will turn against her and against the one who brought her to that country. And they will turn against her child and against the one who helped her.
7. “But someone from her family will come to take the southern king’s place. He will attack the armies of the northern king. He will go into that king’s strong fort. He will fight and win.
8. He will take their gods and their metal idols and their expensive things made from silver and gold. He will take those things away to Egypt. Then he will not bother the northern king for a few years.
9. The northern king will attack the southern kingdom. But he will lose, and then he will go back to his own country.
10. “The northern king’s sons will prepare for war. They will get a large army together. It will move through the land very quickly, like a powerful flood. That army will fight all the way to the strong fort of the southern king.
11. Then the southern king will become very angry and march out to fight against the northern king. The northern king will have a large army, but he will lose the war.
12. The northern army will be defeated, and those soldiers will be carried away. The southern king will be very proud, and he will kill thousands of soldiers from the northern army. But he will not continue to be successful.
13. The northern king will get another army that will be larger than the first one. After several years he will attack. His army will be ready for war. It will be very large and it will have many weapons.