(1.) In the third year of Belshazzar, Daniel had the following vision:—Being in Susan, in the province of Elam, near the river Ulai, he saw a ram with two unequal horns pushing towards west, north, and south. From the west came a goat with one horn, and overthrew the ram; in the place of the one horn four horns grew up in all directions; there was one small horn which pushed on against the south, the east, and Palestine; it rose even against the host of heaven and the chief of the host, and destroyed his holy place. Daniel heard one holy one saying to another, “This state of things will last till ‘evening-morning 2300.’” The angel Gabriel gave him the interpretation of the vision: The ram represented the empire of the Medes and the Persians, the goat that of the Greeks, out of which four kingdoms would be formed; in one of these a wicked king would venture to rise against the Prince of princes, but his power would in the end be destroyed. Daniel was told to keep the vision secret, for it referred to a distant future (viii. 26). (2.) In the first year of Darius, son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, Daniel reflected on the seventy years of exile foretold by Jeremiah, and fervently prayed to God for pardon and the restoration of Jerusalem. At the end of his prayer the angel Gabriel appeared to him, and told him that the hoped-for restoration would not take place before the lapse of seventy weeks of trouble and anxiety. There would elapse seven weeks before the “princely anointed” (‏משיח נגיד‎) led the Jews back to Palestine; sixty-two weeks of trouble and anxiety were predicted for the time of the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple; and one week’s misery on the arrival of a new prince or governor, who would strengthen the covenant of the enemies and entirely suspend the Divine Service in the Temple for a short time. [12]