²⁰ “His successor^[a] will be remembered as the king who sent a tax collector into Israel, but after a very brief reign, he will die mysteriously, though neither in battle nor in riot.

²¹ “Next to come to power will be an evil man not directly in line for royal succession.^[b] But during a crisis he will take over the kingdom by flattery and intrigue. ²² Then all opposition will be swept away before him, including a leader of the priests.^{[c] 23} His promises will be worthless. From the first his method will be deceit; with a mere handful of followers, he will become strong. ²⁴ He will enter the richest areas of the land without warning and do something never done before: he will take the property and wealth of the rich and scatter it out among the people. With great success he will besiege and capture powerful strongholds throughout his dominions, but this will last for only a short while. ²⁵ Then he will stir up his courage and raise a great army against Egypt; and Egypt, too, will raise a mighty army, but to no avail, for plots against him will succeed.

²⁶ “Those of his own household will bring his downfall; his army will desert, and many will be killed.

²⁷ “Both these kings^[d] will be plotting against each other at the conference table, attempting to deceive each other. But it will make no difference, for neither can succeed until God’s appointed time has come.

²⁸ “The Syrian king will then return home with great riches, first marching through Israel and destroying it. ²⁹ Then at the predestined time he will once again turn his armies southward, as he had threatened, but now it will be a very different story from those first two occasions. ^30-31 For Roman warships^[e] will scare him off, and he will withdraw and return home. Angered by having to retreat, the Syrian king will again pillage Jerusalem and pollute the sanctuary, putting a stop to the daily sacrifices, and worshiping idols inside the Temple. He will leave godless Jews in power when he leaves—men who have abandoned their fathers’ faith. ³² He will flatter those who hate the things of God^[f] and win them over to his side. But the people who know their God shall be strong and do great things.

³³ “Those with spiritual understanding will have a wide ministry of teaching in those days. But they will be in constant danger, many of them dying by fire and sword, or being jailed and robbed. ³⁴ Eventually these pressures will subside, and some ungodly men will come, pretending to offer a helping hand, only to take advantage of them.

³⁵ “And some who are most gifted in the things of God will stumble in those days and fall, but this will only refine and cleanse them and make them pure until the final end of all their trials, at God’s appointed time.

³⁶ “The king will do exactly as he pleases, claiming to be greater than every god there is, even blaspheming the God of gods, and prospering—until his time is up. For God’s plans are unshakable. ³⁷ He will have no regard for the gods of his fathers, nor for the god beloved of women,^[g] nor any other god, for he will boast that he is greater than them all. ³⁸ Instead of these, he will worship the Fortress god^[h]—a god his fathers never knew—and lavish on him costly gifts! ³⁹ Claiming this god’s help, he will have great success against the strongest fortresses. He will honor those who submit to him, appointing them to positions of authority and dividing the land to them as their reward.