King Ahasuerus then imposed forced labor on the land and on the coastlands of the sea.

Now ¹  in those days a decree ²  went out from Caesar ³  Augustus ⁴  to register ⁵  all the empire ⁶  for taxes.

In those days, as King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne in Susa ¹  the citadel, ² 

And let the king’s decision which he will enact be disseminated ¹  throughout all his kingdom, vast though it is. ²  Then all the women will give honor to their husbands, from the most prominent to the lowly.”

and Resen, which is between Nineveh and the great city Calah. ¹ 

He displayed the riches of his royal glory and the splendor of his majestic greatness for a lengthy period of time ¹  – a hundred and eighty days, to be exact! ² 

Letters were sent ¹  to all the Jews in the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the empire of Ahasuerus – words of true peace ²  –

Shortly after his rise to power, ¹  his kingdom will be broken up and distributed toward the four winds of the sky ²  – but not to his posterity or with the authority he exercised, for his kingdom will be uprooted and distributed to others besides these.

The primary regions ¹  of his kingdom were Babel, ²  Erech, ³  Akkad, ⁴  and Calneh ⁵  in the land of Shinar. ⁶ 

The king’s servants who attended him said, “Let a search be conducted in the king’s behalf for attractive young women. ¹ 

In the first year of Darius ¹  son of Ahasuerus, ²  who was of Median descent and who had been ³  appointed king over the Babylonian ⁴  empire –

Then the king of the north ¹  will advance against the empire of the king of the south, but will withdraw to his own land.

Everything that the God of heaven has required should be precisely done for the temple of the God of heaven. Why should there be wrath ¹  against the empire of the king and his sons?

Some time later ¹  King Ahasuerus promoted ²  Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, exalting him and setting his position ³  above that of all the officials who were with him.

Who planned this for royal Tyre, ¹  whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the dignitaries ²  of the earth?

Then there will be a fourth kingdom, one strong like iron. Just like iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything, and as iron breaks in pieces ¹  all of these metals, ²  so it will break in pieces and crush the others. ³ 

Now this Daniel was distinguishing himself above the other supervisors and the satraps, for he had an extraordinary spirit. In fact, the king intended to appoint him over the entire kingdom.

The male goat ¹  is the king of Greece, ²  and the large horn between its eyes is the first king.

The horn that was broken ¹  and in whose place there arose four others stands for four kingdoms that will arise from his nation, though they will not have his strength.

Therefore he said, “A nobleman ¹  went to a distant country to receive ²  for himself a kingdom and then return. ³