And now, O Lord our God, who hast brought forth Thy people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand, and hast mnade Thee a name as at this day: we have sinned, we have committed iniquity, O Lord, against all Thy justice: let Thy wrath and Thy indignation be turned away, I beseech Thee, from Thy city Jerusalem, and from Thy holy mountain. For by reason of our sins, and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Thy people are a reproach to all that are round about us. Now therefore, O our God, hear the supplication of Thy servant, and his prayers: and show Thy face upon Thy sanctuary which is desolate, for Thy own sake. Incline, O my God, Thy ear, and hear: open Thy eyes, and see our desolation and the city upon which Thy name is called: for it is not for our justifications that we present our prayers before Thy face, but for the multitude of Thy tender mercies. O Lord, hear: O Lord, be appeased, hearken, and do: delay not for Thy own sake, O my God: because Thy name is invoked upon Thy city and upon Thy people. The Archangel Gabriel.-Now while I was yet speaking, and praying, and confessing my sins, and the sins of my people of Israel, and presenting my supplications in the sight of my God, for the holy mountain of my God: as I was yet speaking in prayer, behold the man Gabriel,* whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, flying swiftly, touched me at the time of the evening sacrifice. And he instructed me, and spoke to me, and said: O Daniel, I am now come forth to teach thee, and that thou mightest understand. From the beginning of thy prayers the word came forth and I am come to show it to thee, because thou art a man of desires:† therefore do thou mark the word, and understand the vision. Seventy weeks are shortened upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, that transgression may be finished, and sin may have an end, and iniquity may be abolished, and everlasting justice may be brought, and vision and prophecy may be fulfilled, and the Saint of saints may be anointed. Know thou therefore, and take notice: that from the going forth of the word to build up Jerusalem again§ unto Christ the *That is, Gabriel in the shape of a man. That is, the object of desires, amiable, greatly beloved. Seventy weeks, viz. of years (or seventy times seven, that is, 490 years), are shortened; that is, fixed and determined, so that the time shall be no longer. DOUAY BIBLE. That is, from the twentieth year of king Artaxerxes, when by his commandment Nehemias rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. Esdras ii. From which time, according to the best chronology, there were just sixty-nine weeks of years, that is, 48 years, to the baptism of Christ, when He first began to preach and execute the office of Messias. DoUAY BIBLE. prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks: and 1-13. But at that time shall Michael rise up, the great prince, who Daniel XIL standeth for the children of thy people: and a time shall come such as never was from the time that nations began even until that time. And at that time shall thy people be saved, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake: some unto life everlasting, and others unto reproach, to see it always. But they that are learned shall shine as the brightness of the firmament: and they that instruct many to justice, as stars for all eternity. But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time appointed: many shall pass over, and knowledge shall be manifold. And I Daniel looked, and behold as it were two others stood: one on this side upon the bank of the river, and another on that side, on the other bank of the river. And I said to the man that was clothed in linen, that stood upon the waters of the liver: How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? And I heard the man that was clothed in linen, that stood upon the waters of the river when he had lifted up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and had sworn by Him that liveth for ever, that it should be unto a time, and times, and half a time. And when the scattering of the band of the holy people shall be accomplished, all these things shall be finished. And I heard, and understood not. And I said: O my lord, what shall be after these things? And he said: Go, Daniel, because the words are shut up and sealed until the appointed time. Many shall be chosen, and made white, and shall be tried as fire and the wicked shall deal wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but the learned shall understand. And from the time when the continual sacrifice shall be taken * That is, under great opposition. †The Roman ensigns with their superstitious emblems were brought within the temple, which was also defiled by blood shed by those called Zealots. KENOur Lord refers to this prophecy in St. Matt, xxiv. RICK. away, and the abomination unto desolation shall be set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred ninety days. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh unto a thousand three hundred thirty-five days. But go thou thy ways until the time appointed and thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot unto the end of the days. BEGAN TO TABLE OF THE PERSIAN KINGS. 634. Cyaxares, king of Media, called Assuerus in Daniel ix. 529. Cambyses, his son, called by Esdras (chap. iv.) Assuerus. 486. Xerxes, his son, called Assuerus in Esther. 465. Artaxerxes Longimanus, his son, called Artaxerxes in Esdras vii, and in Nehemias. 1 Esdras 1. 1-7. THE FIRST BOOK OF ESDRAS. The author of this book was Esdras, or Esra, who was of the priestly race, and at the same time a scribe and doctor of the law. He gives an account of the events after the Captivity, from the first year of Cyrus's reigning alone (B. C. 536) to the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus (B. C. 458). The last part of the books tells us of the part he himself took in these events. SECT. CLXXXVII. CYRUS PROCLAIMS HIS PERMISSION TO THE JEWS TO Edict of Cyrus.-In the first year of Cyrus king of the * Jeremias had foretold that at the end of seventy years the captives should return. Jer. xxv. and xxix, in Judea. Who is there among you of all His people? his God be with him. Let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judea, and build the house of the Lord the God of Israel, He is the God that is in Jerusalem. And let all the rest in all places wheresoever they dwell help him every man from his place, with silver and gold and goods and cattle, besides that which they offer freely to the temple of God, which is in Jerusalem. Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Juda and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites, and every one whose spirit God hath raised up, to go up to build the temple of the Lord, which was in Jerusalem. And all they that were round about helped their hands with vessels of silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, and with furniture, besides what they had offered on their own accord. And king Cyrus brought forth the vessels of the temple of the Lord, which Nabuchodonosor had taken from Jerusalem, and had put them in the temple of his god. And now the seventh month was come, and the children of 1 Esdras Israel were in their cities: and the people gathered themselves III 1-13. together as one man to Jerusalem.* Josue and Zorobabel.—And Josue the son of Josedec rose up, and his brethren the priests, and Zorobabel the son of Salathiel,† and his brethren, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, that they might offer holocausts upon it, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God. And they set the altar of God upon its bases, while the people of the lands round about put them in fear, and they offered upon it a holocaust to the Lord morning and evening. And they kept the feast of tabernacles as it is written, and offered the holocaust every day orderly according to the commandment, the duty of the day in its day. And afterwards the continual holocaust, both on the new moons and on all the solemnities of the Lord that were consecrated, and on all in which a free-will offering was made to the Lord. From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer holocausts to the Lord: but the temple of God was not yet founded. The Temple is rebuilt. And they gave money to hewers of stones and to masons: and meat and drink and oil to the Sidonians and Tyrians, to bring cedar-trees from Libanus to the sea of Joppe, according to the orders which Cyrus king of the * The number who returned at this time is given as 42,360. Josue, or Jeshua as his name is sometimes written, was the high priest. Zorobabel, who was appointed governor, was the grandson of Joakim the son of Josias. 1 Esdras Persians had given them. And in the second year of their coming to the temple of God in Jerusalem, the second month, Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, and Josue the son of Josedec, and the rest of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all that were come from the captivity to Jerusalem began, and they appointed Levites from twenty years old and upward to hasten forward the work of the Lord. Then Josue and his sons and his brethren, Kedmihel and his sons, and the children of Juda, as one man, stood to hasten them that did the work in the temple of God, the sons of Henadad, and their sons, and their brethren the Levites. And when the masons laid the foundations of the temple of the Lord, the priests stood in their ornaments with trumpets : and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise God by the hands of David king of Israel. And they sung together hymns and praise to the Lord: because He is good, for His mercy endureth for ever towards Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, praising the Lord, because the foundations of the temple of the Lord were laid. But many of the priests and the Levites, and the chief of the fathers and the ancients that had seen the former temple, when they had the foundation of this temple before their eyes, wept with a loud voice and many shouting for joy, lifted up their voice. So that one could not distinguish the voice of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for one with another the people shouted with a loud shout, and the voice was heard afar off. The Samaritans.-Now the enemies of Juda and Benjamin IV. 1-7. heard that the children of the captivity were building a temple to the Lord the God of Israel. And they came to Zorobabel, and the chief of the fathers, and said to them: Let us build with you, for we seek your God as ye do: behold we have sacrificed to Him since the days of Asor-Haddan king of Assyria, who brought us hither. But Zorobabel, and Josue, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel said to them: You have no thing to do with us to build a house to our God, but we ourselves alone will build to the Lord our God, as Cyrus king of the Persians hath commanded us. * Then the people of the land hindered the hands of the people of Juda, and troubled them in building. And they hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their design all the days of Cyrus ing of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of the Persians. *See note at the the end of sect. xciii. |