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that there would also be a rejection of the Jewish nation after the coming of the one who would proceed from the seed of David; which indeed the outcome of events confirms. But Moses delivers a prayer to them, fitting the words of the prayer with prophetic power to the person of the fallen and rejected people. When, therefore, it says: "Turn not man back to humiliation;" and "You said: 'Return, you sons of men,'" it seems to me to teach them this meaning, to say in prayer: O Lord, you have been our refuge through the ages and in every generation; for first, when we were in Egypt, and were oppressed by Pharaoh and the Egyptians, you became our refuge; and again in the wilderness, when we were warred upon sometimes by Amalek, and sometimes by the Canaanite, we had you as a refuge; indeed, even after entering the land of promise, and being under foreigners, and often after this under our kings, and finally in the captivity in Babylon, we had you 23.1133 as a refuge. And so now we beseech you to obtain the same things from you, and to possess you as a refuge; therefore we pray, "Turn not man back to humiliation;" that is, "Do not turn us back to complete falling away and humiliation." For you, in your love for mankind, have said, and have brought forth proclamations to all men, saying: "Return, you sons of men." If, then, your love for mankind has called all nations and all the sons of men, and you command those long turned away from you, and enslaved to demons and wicked spirits, to turn to you, do not turn away from us either, nor leave to come into complete desolation those who were formerly your own, we who, having flourished for a short time, have passed away like a torrent. For our thousand years, in which we flourished, have passed away like yesterday, which is past. But being among these things, I consider how these thousand years are spoken of. For if it is for the sake of the glorification of God and for the representation of the eternal life of God, I do not think the saying contains anything magnificent. For I do not consider the whole age, nor the time extending from the first creation of the world until the consummation, to be an instant, not only in comparison with a day, but not even with the briefest hour, when set beside the unoriginate and unbegotten life of God, who exists before all ages, and before every conceivable and infinitely extending thought, and who endures beyond the boundless and unending ages that follow. Therefore, the present prayer seems to me to suggest another meaning, teaching the people to say: "For a thousand years in your sight are as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." The venerable things of Jerusalem, then, in which their whole nation flourished and blossomed in its days, as if it had become light, these were the thousand years. For the worship in that place was established and lasted for only a thousand years; which indeed are numbered in this way. From the first building of the temple and the times of Solomon until the siege by the Babylonians, a total of 432 years are reckoned; and after this, when the place had become desolate, again Jesus and Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, in the second year of Darius the Persian, renew the house; and from that time until the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar

a total of 548 years are reckoned; so that the total is 980. And the city remained tempest-tossed and unstable for another 40 years after their plot against our Savior; after which complete destruction came upon them, and the final siege, which was carried out by the Romans under the emperors Titus and Vespasian. These, then, were the thousand years about which it is said, "As yesterday when it is past." For they who propitiate God through prayer lament these years as having passed and being no more; but they also speak of them as a watch in the night

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ἔσεσθαι καὶ ἀποβολὴν τοῦ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνους μετὰ τὴν παρουσίαν τοῦ ἐκ σπέρματος ∆αυῒδ προελευσομένου· ὃ δὴ καὶ ἐπισφραγίζεται ἡ τῶν πραγμάτων ἔκβασις. Ἀλλὰ γὰρ προσευχὴν αὐτοῖς παραδίδωσιν ὁ Μωϋσῆς, προφητικῇ δυνάμει ἐφαρμόσας τοὺς ἐν τῇ προσευχῇ λόγους τῷ προσώπῳ τοῦ ἐκπεσόντος καὶ ἀποβληθέντος λαοῦ. Ἐπὰν οὖν λέγῃ· Μὴ ἀποστρέψῃς ἄνθρωπον εἰς ταπείνωσιν· Καὶ εἶπας· Ἐπιστρέψατε, οἱ υἱοὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, τοῦτόν μοι δοκεῖ διδάσκειν αὐτοὺς τὸν νοῦν, προσευχομένους λέγειν· Ὦ Κύριε, σὺ κατὰ χρόνους ἡμῖν γέγονας καταφυγὴ καὶ καθ' ἑκάστην γενεάν· πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ τυγχάνουσιν ἡμῖν, καὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ Φαραῶ καὶ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων καταπονουμένοις καταφυγὴ γέγονας· πάλιν δὲ ἐπὶ τῆς ἐρήμου πολεμούμενοι τοτὲ μὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἀμαλὴκ, τοτὲ δὲ ὑπὸ τοῦ Χαναναίου, σὲ καταφυγὴν ἐσχήκαμεν· οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ εἰσελθόντες εἰς τὴν γῆν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας, ὑπὸ ἀλλοφύλοις τε γενόμενοι, πολλάκις τε καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἐπὶ τῶν βασιλέων ἡμῶν, καὶ τέλος ἐπὶ τῆς εἰς Βαβυλῶνα αἰχμαλωσίας, σὲ 23.1133 καταφυγὴν ἔσχομεν. Καὶ νυνὶ τοιγαροῦν ἱκετεύομεν τῶν ὁμοίων παρὰ σοῦ τυχεῖν, καί σε κτήσασθαι καταφυγήν· διὸ δεόμεθα, Μὴ ἀποστρέψῃς ἄνθρωπον εἰς ταπείνωσιν· τουτέστι, Μὴ ἀποστρέψῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς τελείαν ἀπόπτωσιν καὶ ταπείνωσιν. Σὺ γὰρ τῇ σῇ φιλανθρωπίᾳ εἶπας, καὶ κηρύγματα πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις ἐξενήνοχας λέγων· Ἐπιστρέψατε, οἱ υἱοὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων. Εἰ δὴ οὖν πάντα τὰ ἔθνη καὶ πάντας τοὺς υἱοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων προσκέκληταί σου ἡ φιλανθρωπία, καὶ τοὺς πάλαι ἀποστραφέντας ἀπὸ σοῦ, καὶ δαίμοσι καὶ πνεύμασι πονηροῖς καταδουλωθέντας ἐπιστραφῆναι ἐπὶ σὲ κελεύσεις, μηδὲ ἡμᾶς ἀποστραφῇς, μηδὲ εἰς παντελῆ ἐρήμωσιν καταλείπῃς ἐλθεῖν τοὺς πάλαι σου γενομένους οἰκείους, οἵτινες πρὸς ὀλίγον ἀνθήσαντες χειμάῤῥου δίκην παρεδράμομεν. Τὰ γοῦν χίλια ἡμῶν ἔτη, ἐν οἷς ἠκμάσαμεν, ταῦτα παρῆλθεν ὡς ἡ ἐχθὲς, ἥτις διῆλθε. Γενόμενος δὲ ἐν τούτοις ἐφίστημι πῶς εἴρηται τὰ χίλια ταῦτα ἔτη. Εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἕνεκεν δοξολογίας τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ εἰς παράστασιν τῆς ἀϊδίου ζωῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ, οὐδὲν οἶμαι τὸν λόγον μεγαλοπρεπὲς περιέχειν. Οὐδὲ γὰρ τὸν σύμπαντα αἰῶνα, οὐδὲ τὸν ἀπὸ πρώτης κτίσεως τοῦ κόσμου καὶ μέχρι τῆς συντελείας παρατείνοντα χρόνον, τὸ ἀκαρὲς ἡγοῦμαι εἶναι, οὐχ ὅτι τῆς ἡμέρας, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τῆς βραχυτάτης ὥρας παραθέσει τῆς ἀνάρχου καὶ ἀγεννήτου ζωῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ, πρὸ πάντων ὑπάρχοντος αἰώνων, καὶ πρὸ παντὸς ἐπινοουμένου καὶ εἰς ἄπειρον ἐκτεινομένου λογισμοῦ, ὑπέρ τε τοὺς μετὰ ταῦτα ἀπεράντους καὶ ἀτελευτήτους αἰῶνας διαρκοῦντος. ∆ιόπερ ἕτερόν μοι δοκεῖ νοῦν ὑποβάλλειν ἡ παροῦσα προσευχὴ, διδάσκουσα τὸν λαὸν λέγειν· Ὅτι χίλια ἔτη ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς σου ὡς ἡ ἡμέρα ἡ ἐχθὲς, ἥτις διῆλθε, καὶ φυλακὴ ἐν νυκτί. Τὰ γοῦν σεμνὰ τῆς Ἱερουσαλὴμ, ἐν οἷς τὸ πᾶν ἔθνος αὐτῶν ἤκμασέ τε καὶ ἤνθησεν ἐν ἡμέραις, ὥσπερ καὶ φωτὶ γέγονε, ταῦτ' ἦν τὰ χίλια ἔτη. Ἐπὶ μόνοις γὰρ χιλίοις ἔτεσι συνέστηκε καὶ διήρκεσε τὰ τῆς ἐν τόπῳ λατρείας· ἃ δὴ καὶ ἀριθμεῖται τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον. Ἀπὸ μὲν τῆς πρώτης τοῦ ἱεροῦ κατασκευῆς καὶ τῶν Σολομῶνος χρόνων μέχρι τῆς ὑπὸ Βαβυλωνίων πολιορκίας ἔτη συνάγεται υλβʹ· μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα εἰς ἔρημον περιστάντος τοῦ τόπου, αὖθις Ἰησοῦς καὶ Ζοροβάβελ, ὁ τοῦ Σαλαθιὴλ, κατὰ τὸ δεύτερον ἔτος ∆αρείου τοῦ Πέρσου ἀνανεοῦσι τὸν οἶκον· ἐξ ἐκείνου τε καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ πεντεκαιδέκατον ἔτος Τιβερίου Καίσαρος

ἔτη συνάγεται φμηʹ· ὥστε εἶναι τὰ πάντα Ϡπʹ. ∆ιέμεινέ τε χειμαζομένη καὶ ἀστατοῦσα ἡ πόλις μετὰ τὴν κατὰ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἐπιβουλὴν αὐτῶν ἑτέροις ἔτεσι μʹ· μεθ' ἃ ὁ παντελὴς αὐτοὺς μετῆλθεν ὄλεθρος, καὶ ἡ ὑστάτη πολιορκία, ἡ ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίων γενομένη κατὰ Τίτον καὶ Οὐεσπασιανὸν αὐτοκράτορας. Ταῦτ' οὖν ἦν τὰ χίλια ἔτη περὶ ὧν εἴρηται, Ὡς ἡ ἡμέρα ἡ ἐχθὲς, ἥτις διῆλθε. ∆ιελθόντα γὰρ ταῦτα καὶ μηκέτι ὄντα ἀποκλαίονται οἱ διὰ τῆς προσευχῆς τὸν Θεὸν ἱλεούμενοι· ἀλλὰ καὶ ὡς φυλακὴν νυκτερινὴν ταῦτά φασι