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Three slaverys, the most grievous, were experienced by the Jews, and God did not bring a single one upon them without foretelling, on the contrary, He foretold them all, foretelling with accuracy the place, and the time, and the person, and the type of calamity, and deliverance from it, and all the rest. First of all, I will say about Egyptian slavery. Speaking to Abraham, (the Lord) thus says: "Know that thy seed shall be in a land that is not thy own: and they shall enslave me, and they shall make me angry for four hundred years." And to the tongue, which shall be worked, I judge, said God: but in the fourth generation they shall return to this with the possessions of many" (Gen. 2:11). XV, 13, 14, 16). You see how God spoke about the number of four hundred years, and about the quality of slavery, because they will not only enslave, but also embitter. Listen, then, as Moses later tells of this anger: "Hymen is not given to thy servants, and plinths are spoken unto us" (Exod. V, 16). Moreover, every day they were scourged. This is what it means: they will enslave and embitter. As for the tongue, which will be worked, I judge Az (says God), and by this he points to the drowning of the Egyptians in the Black Sea. And Moses, describing this in songs, says thus: "Cast the horse and the rider into the sea" (Exod. XV, 1). Then it is said about the type of return (of the Jews from Egypt), that they will return with a multitude of vessels: let him ask of his neighbor and friend vessels of silver and gold (Exod. III, 22). And the prophet exclaimed, "And I have made me sick with silver and gold, and I shall not be sick in their tribes" (Ps. CIV, 37). So one slavery is predicted in full detail! Now let us turn our speech to another one. To which one? To the Babylonian. And Jeremiah foretold of him with exactness, saying, "For thus saith the Lord, When the seventy years shall be fulfilled in Babylon, I will visit you, and I will set my word of good against you, that I shall restore you to this place." And I will turn your captivity, and I will gather you from all tongues and from all countries, in which I have cast you out, saith the Lord, And I will bring you back to the place whence I have commanded you to bring you (Jer. XXIX, 10, 14). Do you see how God again indicated the city, and the number of years, and where He wanted to gather them, and where to gather them? Therefore, Daniel did not pray for them until he saw that the seventy years were already fulfilled. Who is talking about this? Daniel himself thus: "O Daniel, do the works of the king, and it seemed to him that he saw a vision, and he did not understand it" (Dan. VIII, 27). And the number of years is understood in the books, as the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, at the end of the desolation of Jerusalem, seventy years. And I have given my face to the Lord God, that I may seek prayers and petitions in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes (IX, 2, 3). Thou hast heard how this slavery was foretold, and how the prophet did not dare to offer up prayer and supplication to God before a certain time, lest thou pray in vain and in vain, lest thou hear the same thing that Jeremiah heard: "Pray not for these people, neither pray for them, nor ask for them, lest I hear thee" (Jer. VII, 16)? But when (Daniel) saw that (God's) decree had been fulfilled, and the time had already come to return (from captivity); then he begins to pray, and not simply, but in fasting and in sackcloth and in ashes. In relation to God, he acted as it usually happens between people. And when we see that some (masters), for great and frequent offenses, have put their servants in prison, not now, not immediately, not at the very beginning of the punishment (for the guilty), but, having allowed them to come to their senses for a few days, then we approach the masters with a request, having help for ourselves and in time itself. This is what the prophet did: when the Jews had already suffered a punishment, although not commensurate with their crimes, but had suffered completely, then he came to God to pray for them. If you wish, let us listen to the prayer itself. "Confess," says the prophet, and he said: "O Lord, great and wonderful God, keep Thy covenant and Thy mercy unto them that love Thee, and keep Thy commandments" (Dan. IX, 4). What are you doing, Daniel? When you intercede for people who have sinned and offended (God), do you mention those who keep His laws? Do those who transgress His commandments deserve forgiveness? I say this not for the sake of these, the prophet answers, but for the sake of the ancient forefathers, for the sake of Abraham, for the sake of Isaac, for the sake of Jacob. To them, he says, God promised (His mercy), to them who kept His commandments. Since these (descendants) have no right to salvation, that is why I mentioned the ancestors. And lest you think that the prophet is speaking of these (descendants), he, after the words: "Keep Thy covenant and Thy mercy to them that love Thee and keep Thy commandments," immediately added: "Those who have sinned, the wicked, the wicked, the apostatic, those who have departed from Thy commandments and from Thy judgments, and have not obeyed Thy servants of the prophets" (Dan. IX, 56). Sinners, after their sins, are left with only one justification, the confession of their sins. And here you pay attention to the virtue of the righteous man, and to the wickedness of the Jews. He, not knowing anything evil about himself, condemns himself very severely, saying: "Sinner, wicked, wicked; but these, guilty of innumerable sins, did the opposite, saying, "Let us keep it: even now we bless strangers, and all who do wickedness are built" (Malach. III, 14, 15). For just as it is customary for the righteous to humble themselves even after good works, so it is for the wicked to be vain after sins. He who knew nothing of himself said, "Ungodly and deviate from Thy commandments; and those who had an innumerable number of sins on their consciences said, "Let us keep Thy commandments!" I say this so that we may avoid this (vanity), and imitate that (humbly).

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Having denounced the iniquity of the Jews, the prophet then speaks of the punishment that they suffered, trying to bend God to mercy in this way: "And there came upon us," he says, "the oath inscribed in the law of Moses, the servant of God, as having sinned" (Dan. IX, 11). What is this oath? Do you want us to read it? If ye do not serve, says Moses, the Lord your God, and the Lord shall bring upon you a tongue without form, which thou shalt not hear the voice..., and ye shall remain among the least (Deut. XXVIII, 15, 49, 50, 62). This was also pointed out by the three youths; and they, showing that such a punishment had come upon them for their deeds, and confessing before God the common sins (of the people), said, "Thou hast delivered us into the hands of lawless enemies, vile apostates, and to an unrighteous and wicked king more than all the earth" (Dan. III, 32). Thou seest how the oath was fulfilled, which said, Thou shalt remain in the number of a little; And again: I will bring the language of the student to you. Daniel points to the same thing here, saying: "And the evil one came against us, and there was no one under all the heavens, according to those who were in Israel" (IX, 12). What kind of evil is this? Mothers ate their children. Moses foretells this, and Jeremiah speaks as if it had already happened. He says that the young in you, and the young in you, whose foot is not accustomed to walk on the ground of youth and youth, will come to the impious meal and eat her child (Deut. XXVIII, 56, 57). And Jeremiah, showing that this had happened, said, "The hands of the merciful wives have cooked their children" (Lamentations. IV, 10). But even after speaking of the sins which the Jews had committed, and having presented the punishment which they suffered, (Daniel) does not yet consider them worthy of pardon. Look, what a conscientious slave he is! Having shown that the Jews have not yet suffered as much as they deserved by their sins, and have not made amends for their iniquities by their sufferings, he finally resorts to the kindness and love of God, saying: "And now, O Lord our God, who hast brought thy people out of the land of Egypt, and hast made unto thyself a name, as this day thou hast sinned, the wicked" (Dan. IX, 15). As Thou didst save them, not because of their good works, but because Thou didst see (their) sorrow and distress, and heard their cry, so deliver us also from present calamities through Thy love for mankind alone; We have no other right to salvation. Having said this, and having wept enough, Daniel finally presents the city as a kind of captive wife, and says: "Show Thy face in Thy sanctuary, incline Thy ear, O my God, and hear, open Thy eyes, and behold our consumption, and Thy city, in which Thy name was called upon it" (Dan. IX, 17, 18). For, having examined the people, he did not see one among them who could propitiate God; then he turns to the buildings, exposes the city itself, points out its desolation, and having thus concluded the word (prayers), propitiated God, as is evident from what follows. But what did I talk about? It is necessary to return again to the very subject of the word; however, I did not introduce this in vain or without intention, but in order to give your mind, which is tired of incessant debates, a little rest. Let us, therefore, return to the beginning of this apostasy, and show that the calamities that were to befall the Jews were foretold with all accuracy. The discussion of the two slaverys proved that they befell the Jews after the prophecies, and not suddenly and unexpectedly. It remains at last to present the third slavery, and then to speak of the present in which they now find themselves, and to show clearly how no prophet has promised that they would receive deliverance and deliverance from their present afflictions. What is the third slavery? The one that was in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes. When Alexander, king of Macedonia, having overthrown Darius king of Persia, and subdued his dominions, died, he was succeeded by four kings. From one of them, after a long time, came Antiochus: he burned the temple, devastated the holy of holies, destroyed the sacrifices, enslaved the Jews, and overthrew their entire social order.

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And all this, with all exactness, even to a single day, was foretold by Daniel, foretold, and when it will be, and how, and from whom, and how, and where it will end, and what it will change for. But you will see this more clearly when you hear about the very vision which the prophet gave us in the parable, calling the Persian king Darius a ram, the Greek king, i.e. Alexander the Great, a goat, the kings who rose after him with four horns, and Antiochus himself with the last horn. However, it is better to listen to the vision itself. "I saw in a vision," says the prophet, "and he was on the hill (as he calls a place in the Persian language): "And my eyes were lifted up, and I saw: and behold, there was one ram standing before the hill, having horns, and high horns: and the one was higher than the other, and the one ascending last. And when he saw a ram butting on the sea, and to the north, and to the south, and all the beasts would not stand before him, nor deliver him out of his hand, but did according to his will, and became magnified. and I am meditating (Dan, VIII, 25). It is he who speaks of Persian power and domination, which extended over the whole earth. Then, speaking of Alexander the Great, he says, "And behold, a goat came from the goats from the west on the face of all the earth: and he did not touch the ground: and to that goat we see a horn between his eyes" (v. 5). Then he speaks of Alexander's attack on Darius and his decisive victory over him: "And the goat came to the ram that had horns, and was furious and smote the ram, and you can shorten the story, and break both his horns, and do not deliver the ram out of his hand" (v. 6, 7). Then, after mentioning the death of Alexander, he speaks of the appearance of four kings after him: "And when his great horn was strengthened, he was broken: and the four roses arose under him, according to the four winds of heaven" (v. 8). At last, having passed over to the reign of Antiochus, and showing that this Antiochus was descended from one of those four kings, thus he says: "And from one of them the generation is strong, and the nobles are magnified to the south and east," v. 9. Further, he shows that Antiochus also destroyed the kingdom of Judah, saying: "And for his sake the sacrifice shall be troubled by sin, and thou shalt be pleased with it, and the holy shall be desolate, and sin shall be given to the sacrifice." Indeed, after the overthrow of the altar and the trampling of the holy place, Antiochus set up an idol inside the temple, and ordered lawless sacrifices to demons. And righteousness shall be cast down to the ground: and do, and be prosperous, v. 11, 12. Then, speaking on another occasion about this very reign of Antiochus, about the captivity and capture (of Jerusalem) and the desolation of the temple, the prophet determines the time itself. Namely, beginning with the reign of Alexander, and towards the end of the book, having narrated all that had happened during that time, all that the Ptolemies and Seleucids and their generals had done in mutual struggle, of intrigues and victories, of campaigns and wars on sea and land, and having reached Antiochus, the prophet ends this narrative thus: "And the arms of him shall arise, and defile the holy things, and shall make things everlasting" (XI, 31), meaning by the eternal constant daily sacrifices; And they will give the abomination of desolation, and they that are wicked of the covenant, that is, the Jews who break the law, they will bring them into delusion, and they will take them with them, and they will carry them away. but the people who lead their God prevail, meaning here the feats of the Maccabees, performed by Judas, Simon, and John. And the people will understand much, and they will faint into the swords, and into the flames, this is again said about the burning of the city, and in captivity, and in the plundering of the days. And when they are exhausted, he will help them with a little help: with these words the prophet makes it clear that in the midst of those very calamities (the Jews) will have the opportunity to rest and be freed from the evils that have befallen them. And many will be added to them with delusion, and will be faint from those who understand: with these words the prophet shows that many of those who stand will fall. Then he also expresses the reason why God allowed the Jews to fall into such calamities. What is this reason? If I kindle, he says, and choose, and open even to the end of time. That is, God allowed this in order to purify them and show the faithful among them. Then, speaking of the power of the same king (Antiochus), the prophet says: "He will do according to his will, and he will be exalted and magnified." And pointing out his blasphemous designs, the prophet adds that he will cry out against the God of gods, and will rule until the wrath is over, and by this he makes it clear that Antiochus was so strengthened not by his own will, but by the wrath of God against the Jews. Finally, having spoken in greater detail about how much evil (Antiochus) he will do to Egypt and Palestine, how he will return, and at whose call, and for what motivating reason, Daniel also speaks of the change of circumstances, that the Jews, having survived all this, will receive help, it is to them that the angel will be sent to help: and in the time of it, Michael, the great prince, will arise, Stand for the sons of thy people: and there shall be a time of tribulation, tribulation, for there shall be no such thing, but a tongue shall be formed on the earth, even unto that time: and at that time shall all thy people be saved, who have been found inscribed in the book (XXII, 1), that is, worthy of salvation.

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