In the first year that Darius the Mede was king, I stood up to support Michael and fought with him against the prince of Persia. “I will now reveal the truth to you: Three more kings will rise to power in Persia; a fourth will come who will be much richer than all the others. His great wealth will cause his power to grow until his empire wages war against all the kingdoms of Greece. Then a warrior-king will arise who will govern a vast empire and do whatever he pleases. But at the zenith of his power, his empire will be shattered and scattered to the four winds of heaven, though not to his descendants. It will not be as powerful as when he ruled it, for his dominion will be uprooted and will be passed on to others who are not his descendants.”
“The king of Egypt will grow powerful, but one of his commanders will rise to become even more powerful and rule a kingdom greater than his. Then, after some years have passed, an alliance will form. And in order to ensure the peace, the daughter of the king of Egypt will marry the king of Syria. However, her grip on power will not last for long, and the king, too, will lose his throne. In those days, she, her husband, her child, and those who escorted her to Syria will all be killed. Yet later, one of her family members will rise to become the king of Egypt. He will come against the defenses of the walled city of the king of Syria and defeat the Syrian armies. He will plunder their wealth and take it back to Egypt as spoils —all their precious gold, silver vessels, idols, and statues. For some time, he will leave the kingdom of Syria in peace. Eventually, the king of Syria will invade the kingdom of Egypt, but he will have to retreat to his own country. The king’s sons will prepare for war, assembling a powerful group of warriors. One of his sons will swiftly advance, sweeping over the land like a powerful flood. Their armies will press forward and fight all the way to the strong, walled fortress of the king of Egypt.
“Then the king of Egypt will fly into a rage and set out to launch an offensive against the king of Syria, who will have an immense army on his side. However, the king of Egypt will conquer the Syrian forces. The king of Egypt will be filled with pride over his victory and of the many tens of thousands of soldiers he slaughtered, but he will not continue to be victorious.
“Then the king of Syria will recruit an even larger army than before, and after some years, he will advance a second time with a massive army, fully equipped with weapons and supplies.
“At that time, many will take up arms against the king of Egypt. Renegades from among your own people will rebel in the hope of realizing the vision; but they will fail. Then the king of Syria will advance and build up siege-ramps to capture a strongly fortified city. The Egyptian forces will not stand their ground; even their elite troops will not be strong enough to resist. The invading king of Syria will do as he pleases, and no one will be able to resist him. He will occupy the land of splendor, and all of it will be under his control.
“Then, with the might of his entire kingdom, he will resolve to conquer Egypt by cunningly making a peace treaty with the king of Egypt. The king of Syria will offer one of his daughters in marriage to the king of Egypt in order to defeat his kingdom, but his plan will fall apart and will not work to his advantage. The king of Syria will next turn to the coastlands and capture many cities, but a foreign commander will put a stop to his arrogance and make him suffer the consequences of his defiant insolence.
“He will then retreat to the well protected fortresses of his own country. In time, he will be defeated, lose his grip on power, and disappear.
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