Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Trust in the Salvation of Yahweh

For the music director. A psalm of David.^[a]

The Vision of a Small Horn that Oppresses Israel and Threatens the Temple

8 In the third year of the kingdom of Belshazzar the king, a vision appeared to me, Daniel,^[a] after the one that appeared to me previously.^{[b] 2} And I saw in the vision, and when I saw,^[c] I was in Susa, the citadel that was in the province of Elam. And I saw in the vision, and I myself^[d] was at the stream of Ulai.^{[e] 3} And I lifted up my eyes and I saw, and look! A ram^[f] standing before^[g] the stream, and it had^[h] two horns, and the horns were long, but the one was longer than the second, and the longer one came up after the other one.^{[i] 4} I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward, and none of the beasts stood before it,^[j] and there was no rescuing from its power,^[k] and it did what it wanted^[l] and it became strong.^[m]

⁵ And I was considering this, and look, a he-goat coming from the west across the face of the whole earth, and it was not touching the ground;^[n] and the he-goat had a conspicuous horn^[o] between its eyes. ⁶ Then it came toward the ram that had the two horns^[p] that I saw standing before^[q] the stream, and it ran at it with^[r] the rage of its power. ⁷ And I saw it approaching the ram and it was furious at it, and it struck the ram, and it broke its two horns, and there was not strength in the ram to stand before him,^[s] and he threw it down to the ground and trampled it, and there was no one who could rescue the ram^[t] from its power. ⁸ And the he-goat grew exceedingly great,^[u] and at the height of its power^[v] the great horn was broken, and four conspicuous horns^[w] came up in place of it toward the four winds of heaven.

⁹ And from one of them^[x] came forth a horn, a little one,^[y] and it grew exceedingly^[z] toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the beautiful land. ¹⁰ And it grew up to the host of heaven, and it threw down to the ground some of the host and some of the stars and trampled them. ¹¹ Even against the prince of the hosts it acted arrogantly and took away from him the regular burnt offering, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown. ¹² And on account of transgression, the host was given over to the horn in addition to the regular burnt offering. And it cast down truth to the ground, and it acted,^[aa] and it had success.

¹³ And I heard a certain holy one speaking, and a certain other holy one said to the specific one who was speaking,^[ab] “For how long^[ac] is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, and the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and the host to trampling?” ¹⁴ And he said to me, “For two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings, then the sanctuary will be restored.”

A Serious Warning Against Continuing Deliberate Sin

²⁶ For if^[a] we keep on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that is about to consume the adversaries. ²⁸ Anyone who rejected the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ How much worse punishment do you think the person will be considered worthy of who treats with disdain the Son of God and who considers ordinary the blood of the covenant by which he was made holy and who insults the Spirit of grace? ³⁰ For we know the one who said,

and again,

³¹ It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.