¹In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king, a vision appeared to me – to me Daniel – after what had appeared to me at first, ²and I saw in the vision, and it came to pass as I saw that I was at the citadel of Shushan, which is in the province of Elam. Then I saw in the vision that I was at the Ulai Canal. ³And I lifted up my eyes and looked, and there was a ram standing before the canal, and it had two horns, and the two horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one arose later. ⁴I saw the ram butting westwards and northwards and southwards, and no animal could stand against it, and there was no-one who delivered anyone from its grip, and it did as it wished, and it became great. ⁵And as I was contemplating this, what I saw was a goat buck come from the west over the expanse of the whole land, not touching the ground, and the goat buck had a conspicuous horn between its eyes. ⁶And it came to the ram which had the two horns, which I saw standing at the canal, and it ran to it in its intense fury. ⁷And I saw it come up to the ram, and it acted ferociously against it, and it struck the ram and shattered its two horns, and there was no strength in the ram to stand against it. And it cast the ram down onto the ground and trampled on it, and there was no-one who delivered the ram from its grip. ⁸And the goat buck became very great, but just as it was displaying strength, the large horn broke, and four others arose conspicuously in its place, facing the four winds of heaven. ⁹And from one of them a very small horn came out, but it became exceedingly great southwards and eastwards and towards the Splendid Land. ¹⁰And it became great – as great as the host of the sky – and it brought some of the host and some of the stars down to the ground and trampled on them. ¹¹And it magnified itself to the heights of the prince of the host, and the perpetual sacrifice was removed from him, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown, ¹²so that the host would be delivered up at the place of the perpetual sacrifice in transgression, and truth could be cast to the ground. And it did this and prospered. ¹³And I heard a holy one speak, and a holy one said to the particular one speaking, “How long is the vision of the perpetual sacrifice and the devastating transgression – the delivering up of both the holy place and the host to being trampled on?” ¹⁴And he said to me, “Until two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary will be purified.” ¹⁵And it came to pass as I, Daniel, saw the vision, that I sought understanding. And what I saw was that there stood before me an apparition of a man. ¹⁶And I heard the voice of a man in the middle of the Ulai, and he called out and said, “Gabriel, explain the vision to this man.” ¹⁷And he came to my station, and as he came, I was terrified and I fell face down. But he said to me, “Understand, son of Adam, that the vision is for the end time.” ¹⁸And as he spoke to me, I slumped down to the ground face down, and he touched me, and he stood me up at my station. ¹⁹And he said, “I am here making known to you what will take place at the end of the indignation, for it is for the end time period. ²⁰The ram which you saw, having two horns, represents the kings of Media and Persia. ²¹And the hairy goat represents the king of Greece, and the large horn which is between its eyes is the first king. ²²And as for the horn which was broken, and the four which stood in its place, these are four kingdoms out of a people which will stand up, but not in its own strength. ²³And at the end of their kingdom, when transgressors reach their conclusion, a king of fierce appearance, and shrewd in dealing with problems, will stand up. ²⁴And his power will be mighty, but it will not be in his own power, and he will spoil in an astounding way, and he will prosper and be active, and he will spoil mighty people including the holy people. ²⁵And through his expertise he will prosper, with deceit under his control, and in his heart he will magnify himself, and in calmness he will spoil many, and he will take a stand against the prince of princes. Then without human power he will be broken. ²⁶Now the vision of the evening and the morning which was declared is true, but you close the vision, for it is for many days from now.” ²⁷And I, Daniel, became ill for a number of days. Then I arose and did the king's work, but I was astounded at the vision, and there was no-one who understood it.

Reference(s) in Chapter 8: v.26 ↔ Revelation 10:4, Revelation 22:10.