[27] See Zech. ii. 6-10; Ezek. xxxvii. 9, etc. [28] See Hag. ii. 6-9, 20-23; Zech. ii. 5-17, iii. 8-10; Mal. iii. 1. [29] Ezra (i. 1) does not mention the striking prophecies of the later Isaiah (xliv. 28, xlv. 1), but refers to Jeremiah only (xxv. 12, xxix. 10). [30] Dan. x. 1-18, vi. 10. [31] Ezra i. 5. [32] D'Herbelot, _l.c._ [33] Matt. xxiv. 15; Mark xiii. 14. There can be of course no certainty that the "spoken of by Daniel the prophet" is not the comment of the Evangelist. [34] See Elliott, _Horæ Apocalypticæ_, _passim_. CHAPTER II _GENERAL SURVEY OF THE BOOK_ 1. THE LANGUAGE Unable to learn anything further respecting the professed author of the Book of Daniel, we now turn to the Book itself. In this section I shall merely give a general sketch of its main external phenomena, and shall chiefly pass in review those characteristics which, though they have been used as arguments respecting the age in which it originated, are not absolutely irreconcilable with the supposition of _any_ date between the termination of the Exile (B.C. 536) and the death of Antiochus Epiphanes (B.C. 164). I. First we notice the fact that there is an interchange of the first and third person. In chapters i.-vi. Daniel is mainly spoken of in the third person: in chapters vii.-xii. he speaks mainly in the first. Kranichfeld tries to account for this by the supposition that in chapters i.-vi. we practically have extracts from Daniel's diaries,[35] whereas in the remainder of the Book he describes his own visions. The point cannot be much insisted upon, but the mention of his own high praises (_e.g._, in such passages as vi. 4) is perhaps hardly what we should have expected. II. Next we observe that the Book of Daniel, like the Book of Ezra[36] is written partly in the sacred Hebrew, partly in the vernacular Aramaic, which is often, but erroneously, called Chaldee.[37] The first section (i. 1-ii. 4_a_) is in Hebrew. The language changes to Aramaic after the words, "Then spake the Chaldeans to the king _in Syriac_" (ii. 4_a_);[38] and this is continued to vii. 28. The eighth chapter begins with the words, "In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel"; and here the Hebrew is resumed, and is continued till the end of the Book. The question at once arises why the two languages were used in the same Book. It is easy to understand that, during the course of the seventy years' Exile, many of the Jews became practically bilingual, and would be able to write with equal facility in one language or in the other.