Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

To the Director: A Davidic Psalm.

A Prayer for Deliverance

The Vision of the Ram and Goat

8 ^[a]“During the third year of King Belshazzar’s reign, I, Daniel, saw a vision after the earlier vision that had appeared to me. ² As I observed the vision, I looked around the citadel of Susa in Elam Province. While I watched, I found myself beside the Ulai Canal. ³ “Then I turned my head^[b] to look, and to my surprise, a two-horned ram was standing beside the canal. The two horns grew long,^[c] the first one growing longer than^[d] the second, with the longer one springing up last. ⁴ I watched the ram charging westward, northward, and southward. No animal could stand before him, nor was there anyone who could deliver from his control.^[e] He did as he pleased and exalted himself.

⁵ “As I watched and wondered, a male goat was coming from the west over the surface of the entire earth without touching the ground. The goat had a distinctive horn between its eyes. ⁶ It approached the ram with the two horns that I had observed while standing beside the canal, and charged at him, out of control with rage.^{[f] 7} I saw it approach the ram, overflowing with fury at him, and run into him with the full force of its strength. The goat^[g] shattered the ram’s^[h] two horns, and the ram could not oppose it. So the goat^[i] threw him to the ground and trampled him. No one could rescue the ram from its control.^{[j] 8} Then the goat grew extremely great, but when it was strong, its great horn was shattered. In its place, four distinctive horns grew out in all directions.”^[k]

The Insignificant Horn

⁹ “A somewhat insignificant horn emerged from one of them. It moved^[l] rapidly^[m] against the south, against the east, and against the Glory.^{[n] 10} Then it moved against the Heavenly Army. It persuaded some of the Heavenly Army to fall to the earth, along with some of the stars, and it trampled them. ¹¹ Then it set itself in arrogant opposition to the Prince of the Heavenly Army, from whom the regular burnt offering was taken away, in order to overthrow his sanctuary. ¹² Because of the transgression, the Heavenly Army will be given over, along with the regular burnt offering, and in that rebellion truth will be cast to the ground, while he continues to prosper and to act.”

The Duration of the Desolation

¹³ “Then I heard one holy person speaking, and another holy person addressed the one who was speaking: ‘In the vision about the regular burnt offering, how much time elapses while the desecration terrifies and both the Holy Place and the Heavenly Army are trampled?’

¹⁴ “He told me, ‘For 2,300 days.^[o] Then the Holy Place will be restored.’”

²⁶ For if we choose to go on sinning after we have learned the full truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but only a terrifying prospect of judgment and a raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.^{[a] 28} Anyone who violates the Law of Moses dies without mercy “on the testimony of two or three witnesses.”^{[b] 29} How much more severe a punishment do you think that person deserves who tramples on God’s Son, treats as common the blood of the covenant by which it^[c] was sanctified, and insults the Spirit of grace? ³⁰ For we know the one who said, “Vengeance belongs to me; I will pay them back,”^[d] and again, “The Lord^[e] will judge his people.”^{[f] 31} It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!