Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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1 He is note responsible for
helping and defending me.
2 And what I am now going to tell
you is true.”
The Kingdoms of Egypt and Syria
2 The angel said, “Three more kings
will rule over Persia, followed by a
fourth, who will be richer than all
the others. At the height of his
power and wealth he will challenge
the kingdom of Greece.
3 “Then a heroic king will appear.
He will rule over a huge empire and
do whatever he wants.
4 But at the
height of his power his empire will
break up and be divided into four
parts. Kings not descended from
him will rule in his place, but they
will not have the power that he had.
5 “The king of Egypt will be
strong. One of his generals, however,
will be even stronger and rule a
greater kingdom.
6 After a number of
years the king of Egypt will make an
alliance with the king of Syria and
give him his daughter in marriage.
But the alliance will not last, and
she, her husband, her child, note and the
servants who went with her will all
be killed.
7 Soon afterward one of
her relatives will become king. He
will attack the army of the king of
Syria, enter their fortress, and defeat
them.
8 He will carry back to Egypt
the images of their gods and the articles
of gold and silver dedicated to
those gods. After several years of
peace
9 the king of Syria will invade
Egypt, but he will be forced to retreat.
10 “The sons of the king of Syria
will prepare for war and gather a
large army. One of them will sweep
on like a flood and attack an enemy
fortress.
11 In his anger the king of
Egypt will go to war against the king
of Syria and capture his huge army.
12 He will be proud of his victory and
-- --
of the many soldiers he has killed,
but he will not continue to be victorious.
13 “The king of Syria will go back
and gather a larger army than he
had before. When the proper time
comes, he will return with a large,
well-equipped army.
14 Then many
people will rebel against the king of
Egypt. And some violent men from
your nation, Daniel, will rebel because
of a vision they have seen, but
they will be defeated.
15 So the king
of Syria will lay siege to a fortified
city and capture it. The soldiers of
Egypt will not continue to fight; even
the best of them will not have
enough strength.
16 The Syrian invader
will do with them as he
pleases, without opposition. He will
stand in the Promised Land and
have it completely in his power.
17 “The king of Syria will plan an
expedition, using his whole army.
Then, in order to destroy his enemy's
kingdom, he will make an alliance
with him and offer him his
daughter note in marriage; but his plan
will not succeed.
18 After that he will
attack the nations by the sea and
conquer many of them. But a foreign
leader will defeat him and put an
end to his arrogance; indeed he will
turn the arrogance of Syria's king
back on him. note
19 The king will return
to the fortresses of his own land, but
he will be defeated, and that will be
the end of him.
20 “He will be followed by another
king, who will send an officer to oppress
the people with taxes in order
to increase the wealth of his kingdom.
In a short time that king will be
killed, but not publicly and not in
battle.”
The Evil King of Syria
21 The angel went on to explain:
“The next king of Syria will be an
evil man who has no right to be king,
but he will come unexpectedly and
seize power by trickery.
22 Anyone
who opposes him, even God's High
Priest, will be swept away and
wiped out.
23 By making treaties, he
will deceive other nations, and he
will grow stronger and stronger,
even though he rules only a small
nation.
24 He will invade a wealthy
province without warning and will
do things that none of his ancestors
ever did. Then he will divide among
his followers the goods and property
he has captured in war. He will
make plans to attack fortresses, but
his time will soon run out.
25 “He will boldly raise a large
army to attack the king of Egypt,
who will prepare to fight back with a
huge and powerful army. But the
king of Egypt will be deceived and
will not be successful.
26 His closest
advisers will ruin him. Many of his
soldiers will be killed, and his army
will be wiped out.
27 Then the two
kings will sit down to eat at the
same table, but their motives will be
evil, and they will lie to each other.
They will not get what they want,
because the time for it has not yet
come.
28 The king of Syria will return
home with all the loot he has captured,
determined to destroy the religion
of God's people. He will do as
he pleases and then return to his
own land.
29 “Later on he will invade Egypt
again, but this time things will turn
out differently.
30 The Romans will
come in ships and oppose him, and
he will be frightened.
30 “Then he will turn back in a rage
and try to destroy the religion of
God's people. He will follow the advice
of those who have abandoned
that religion. note
31 Some of his soldiers
will make the Temple ritually unclean.
They will stop the daily sacrifices
and set up The Awful Horror. note note
32 By deceit the king will win the
support of those who have already
abandoned their religion, but those
who follow God will fight back.
33 Wise leaders of the people will
share their wisdom with many others.
But for a while some of them
will be killed in battle or be burned
to death, and some will be robbed
and made prisoners.
34 While the killing
-- --
is going on, God's people will receive
a little help, even though many
who join them will do so for selfish
reasons.
35 Some of those wise leaders
will be killed, but as a result of
this the people will be purified. This
will continue until the end comes,
the time that God has set.
36 “The king of Syria will do as he
pleases. He will boast that he is
greater than any god, superior even
to the Supreme God. He will be able
to do this until the time when God
punishes him. God will do exactly
what he has planned. note
37 The king will
ignore the god his ancestors served,
and also the god that women love. In
fact, he will ignore every god, because
he will think he is greater than
any of them.
38 Instead, he will honor
the god who protects fortresses. He
will offer gold, silver, jewels, and
other rich gifts to a god his ancestors
never worshiped.
39 To defend
his fortresses, he will use people
who worship a foreign god. He will
give great honor to those who accept
him as ruler, put them into high offices,
and give them land as a reward.
40 “When the king of Syria's final
hour has almost come, the king of
Egypt will attack him, and the king
of Syria will fight back with all his
power, using chariots, horses, and
many ships. He will invade many
countries, like the waters of a flood.
41 He will even invade the Promised
Land and kill tens of thousands, but
the countries of Edom, Moab, and
what is left of Ammon will escape.
42 When he invades all those countries,
even Egypt will not be spared.
43 He will take away Egypt's hidden
treasures of gold and silver and its
other prized possessions. He will
conquer Libya and Sudan.
44 Then
news that comes from the east and
the north will frighten him, and he
will fight furiously, killing many
people.
45 He will even set up his
huge royal tents between the sea
and the mountain on which the Temple
stands. But he will die, with no
one there to help him.”
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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