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into beasts. But let us see how? Those things are a myth, but these are truth. For on what account did they change those men? For no reason; but the Scripture also states the cause: That all may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men. Do you see how all things are possible for God? Both to make beasts out of men, and to change the mind? Consider what it was to see him who before this was in such splendor, living with the beasts, naked. For he did not change his form, since then it would not have been dreadful. But to receive the heart of a beast does not mean this, that he was out of his mind, but that having a human soul he was sensible of the things happening. If he had been changed into a beast, he would not have known what was happening. What then is, A beast's heart was given to him? He was made savage, that is, and did not wish to be with men, or he was afraid to be with men, or he feared men as beasts do. What could be higher than that man? What more humble than he became? And he was driven from men. Nowhere did his power stand for him. He was not a carnivorous beast, but he ate grass, and was an image of the irrational. That you may believe, he says; you will have grass for your accustomed food. How did the beasts not devour him? How was his body able to digest it? How did he not perish? For the time was not short; he went about, an example of humility to all, bearing in himself the marks of his punishment, like a branded slave. And yet it would have been better, someone might perhaps say, for him to be with men and to suffer this; but this happened so that the things of his punishment might be intensified for him. For the lesson remained the same, with everyone reporting what happened to him, and perhaps seeing him outside; but to see this was much more frightening. And the time was not short, but it was also sabbatical. For seven times, he says, shall pass over; three and a half years. And after the end of the days, I, he says, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and glorified Him who lives forever, because His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth were counted as nothing. And He does according to His will in the army of 56.220 heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and there is no one who can stay His hand, or say to Him, What have you done? My eyes, he says, I lifted up to heaven. That is, he approached and prayed to God, and sought help from there. And yet, though the time was fulfilled, he was not confident. For just as He was Lord not even to let things come to trial, so even if the appointed time was fulfilled, if he was to remain uncorrected, the decree would have availed him nothing. For the decision of God is not according to necessity, but is shaped according to our affairs. So also Daniel, even if the time was fulfilled, reasonably prays, lest with the addition of wickedness, more time be added again. For just as this happens in the case of loving-kindness, as in the case of Hezekiah; so also in the case of punishment it is likely to happen, just as with the Jews, He wished them to go to Palestine immediately; they caused forty years to be added for them through their lawlessness. But see him fleeing to God. I looked up, he says, to heaven, and I became a man again. And my form returned to me. Just as his form was altered from the human, but not changed into a beast; so also his mind. And what? I praised and I glorified. What proof? The Most High, he says, I blessed, and Him who lives forever I praised, and I glorified. For they consider nothing so worthy of God as to exist for all time. Because His dominion, he says, is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation. Since in this especially man differs from Him, and this among men was what is blessed. Because His dominion, he says, is an everlasting dominion, it exists for all time. Without food, he says, He nourished; without clothing, without all other things my body did not perish. Consider what he was like returning from the desert to the kingdom. For to him,

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εἰς θηρία. Ἀλλ' ἴδωμεν πῶς; Ἐκεῖνα μὲν μῦθος, ταῦτα δὲ ἀλήθεια. Τίνος γὰρ ἕνεκεν ἐκείνους μετέβαλον; ∆ι' οὐδέν· ἡ δὲ Γραφὴ καὶ τὴν αἰτίαν φησί· Ἵνα γνῶσι πάντες, ὅτι κυριεύει ὁ Ὕψιστος τῆς βασι λείας τῶν ἀνθρώπων. Ὁρᾷς πῶς πάντα τῷ Θεῷ δυνατά; καὶ ἐξ ἀνθρώπων θηρία ποιῆσαι, καὶ διάνοιαν μεταβαλεῖν; Ἐννόει ὅσον ἦν ὁρᾷν τὸν ἐν τοσαύτῃ πρὸ τούτου λαμπρότητι μετὰ τῶν θηρίων διαιτώ μενον, γυμνόν. Οὐ γὰρ δὴ τὴν μορφὴν μετέβαλεν, ἐπεὶ οὐδὲν ἦν φρικτόν. Τὸ δὲ θηρίου καρδίαν λαβεῖν οὐ τοῦτό φησι, ὅτι ἐξεστήκει τῆς διανοίας, ἀλλ' ὅτι ἀνθρωπίνην ἔχων ψυχὴν ᾐσθάνετο τῶν πραγμάτων. Οὐκ ἂν, εἰ μετεβλήθη εἰς θηρίον, ἔγνω τὰ συμβαί νοντα. Τί οὖν ἐστι, Καρδία θηρίου ἐδόθη αὐτῷ; Ἐξηγριώθη τουτέστιν, οὐδὲ ἐβούλετο μετὰ ἀνθρώπων εἶναι, ἢ καὶ ἐδεδοίκει μετὰ ἀνθρώπων εἶναι, ἢ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους καθάπερ τὰ θηρία. Τί γένοιτ' ἂν ὑψηλό τερον ἐκείνου; τί ταπεινότερον αὐτοῦ; Καὶ ἐξ εδιώχθη ἀπὸ ἀνθρώπων. Οὐδαμοῦ ἡ δύναμις αὐτοῦ προέστη. Οὐκ ἦν σαρκοφάγον θηρίον, ἀλλὰ χόρτον ἤσθιεν, καὶ ἦν εἰκὼν τοῦ ἀλόγου. Ἵνα πιστεύσῃς, φησίν· ὡς ἐπὶ συνήθη τροφὴν ἕξεις τὸν χόρτον. Πῶς αὐτὸν οὐ κατέφαγε τὰ θηρία; πῶς ἴσχυσε τὸ σῶμα πέψαι; πῶς οὐ διεφθάρη; Οὐ γὰρ ὀλίγος ὁ χρόνος ἦν· περιῄει, πᾶσιν ὑπόδειγμα ταπεινοφροσύνης, ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὰ γνωρίσματα φέρων τῆς κολάσεως, καθάπερ στι γματίας. Καὶ μὴν βέλτιον ἦν, ἴσως εἴποι τις ἂν, μετὰ ἀνθρώπων αὐτὸν εἶναι, καὶ τοῦτο παθεῖν· ἀλλ' ὥστε ἐπιταθῆναι τὰ τῆς τιμωρίας αὐτῷ, τοῦτο γέγονεν. Ὁ γὰρ σωφρονισμὸς ὁμοίως ἔμενε πάντων ἀπαγγελ λόντων τὰ κατ' αὐτὸν, καὶ ἴσως αὐτῶν θεωμένων ἔξω· τοῦτο δὲ ἰδεῖν πολλῷ φοβερώτερον ἦν. Καὶ οὐδὲ ὁ χρόνος ὀλίγος ἦν, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὸς σαββατικός. Ἑπτὰ γὰρ καιροὶ, φησὶ, ἀλλαγήσονται· τρία ἥμισυ ἔτη. Καὶ μετὰ τὸ τέλος τῶν ἡμερῶν, ἐγὼ, φησὶ, Ναβου χοδονόσορ τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς μου εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀνέλαβον, καὶ αἱ φρένες μου ἐπ' ἐμὲ ἐπεστρά φησαν, καὶ τὸν Ὕψιστον ηὐλόγησα, καὶ τὸν ζῶντα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας ᾔνεσα καὶ ἐδόξασα, ὅτι ἡ ἐξουσία αὐτοῦ ἐξουσία αἰώνιος, καὶ ἡ βασιλεία αὐτοῦ εἰς γενεὰν καὶ γενεάν. Καὶ πάντες οἱ κατ οικοῦντες τὴν γῆν, ὡς οὐδὲν ἐλογίσθησαν. Καὶ κατὰ τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦ ποιεῖ ἐν τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ 56.220 οὐρανοῦ, καὶ ἐν τῇ κατοικίᾳ τῆς γῆς· καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ὃς ἀντιστήσεται τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐρεῖ αὐτῷ· Τί ἐποίησας; Τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς μου, φησὶ, εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀνέλαβον. Τουτέστι, προσῆλθε καὶ ηὔξατο τῷ Θεῷ, καὶ ἐκεῖθεν τὴν βοήθειαν ἐζήτησε. Καί τοι τοῦ χρόνου πληρωθέντος, οὐκ ἐθάῤῥει. Καθάπερ γὰρ κύριος ἦν μηδὲ ἀφεῖναι εἰς πεῖραν τὰ πρά γματα ἐλθεῖν, οὕτως εἰ καὶ τοῦ χρόνου τοῦ ὁρισθέντος πληρωθέντος ἔμελλεν ἀδιόρθωτος μένειν, οὐδὲν αὐτὸν ὠφελῆσαι ὁ ὁρισμὸς εἶχεν. Οὐ γὰρ κατὰ ἀνάγκην ἡ ἀπόφασις τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὰ ἡμέτερα πράγματα τυποῦται. Οὕτω καὶ ὁ ∆ανιὴλ, εἰ καὶ ἐπληρώθη ὁ χρόνος, εἰκότως εὔχεται, μήποτε κακίας προσγινο μένης, προστεθῇ πάλιν. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐπὶ φιλανθρω πίας γίνεται τοῦτο, οἷον ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἐζεκίου· οὕτω καὶ ἐπὶ τιμωρίας εἰκὸς γίνεσθαι, καθάπερ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν Ἰουδαίων, ἐβούλετο αὐτοὺς εὐθέως εἰς Παλαιστίνην ἀπελθεῖν· ἐκεῖνοι τεσσαράκοντα ἔτη προστεθῆναι αὐ τοῖς ἐποίησαν διὰ τῆς παρανομίας. Ὅρα δὲ αὐτὸν πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν φεύγοντα. Ἀνέβλεψα, φησὶ, εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν, καὶ γέγονα πάλιν ἄνθρωπος. Καὶ ἡ μορφή μου ἐπ έστρεψεν ἐπ' ἐμέ. Ὥσπερ ἡ μορφὴ αὐτοῦ ἐξήλλακτο μὲν τῆς ἀνθρωπείας, οὐ μὴν εἰς θηρίον μετεβέβλητο· οὕτω καὶ ἡ διάνοια. Καὶ τί; Ἤνεσα καὶ ἐδόξασα. Τί τεκμήριον· Τὸν Ὕψιστον, φησὶ, ηὐλόγησα, καὶ τὸν ζῶντα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας ᾔνεσα, καὶ ἐδό ξασα. Οὐδὲν γὰρ οὕτω νομίζουσι Θεοῦ εἶναι ἄξιον, ὡς τὸ διὰ παντὸς εἶναι. Ὅτι ἡ ἐξουσία αὐτοῦ, φησὶ, ἐξουσία αἰώνιος, καὶ ἡ βασιλεία αὐτοῦ εἰς γενεὰν καὶ γενεάν. Ἐπειδὴ τούτῳ μάλιστα ἄνθρωπος αὐ τοῦ διέστηκεν, καὶ τοῦτο ἦν παρὰ ἀνθρώποις τὸ μα καριστόν. Ὅτι ἡ ἐξουσία αὐτοῦ, φησὶ, ἐξουσία αἰώνιος, παρὰ πάντα τὸν χρόνον ἐστί. Χωρὶς τροφῆς, φησὶ, ἔθρεψε· χωρὶς τῶν ἐνδυμάτων, χωρὶς τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων οὐ διεφθάρη μοι τὸ σῶμα. Ἐννόη σον οἷος ἦν ἐπανιὼν ἀπὸ τῆς ἐρήμου πρὸς τὴν βασι λείαν. Αὐτῷ γὰρ,