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"others standing — one on this bank of the river and one on that bank." The angel hovering above the water then took it upon himself to swear the oath with due solemnity, not naming the right hand.
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Daniel said: "And I heard the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the river, as he raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven and swore by the Living of all ages: 'For a time, times, and a half.'"
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The two angels heard "a time, times, and a half" from him and were satisfied, for they knew its interpretation. But Daniel did not know the interpretation of "a time, times, and a half" — so he asked the angel above the water, saying: "And I heard but did not understand."
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The angel went on to first give him the reason why he had encoded the answer before interpreting it, saying: I encoded it so that the common people and the ignorant would not grasp it and be agitated —
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for they are not motivated by the path that motivates the scholars — the reward of the World to Come and everlasting life — but are drawn toward what comes quickly, the dominion and might of this world. The scholars, however, will grasp it.
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As it says: "Go, Daniel, for the words are sealed and closed until the time of the end; many will purify themselves, become white, and be refined."
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Then he interpreted it for him as one thousand three hundred and thirty-five years, as it says: "Blessed is he who waits and reaches the days: one thousand three hundred and thirty-five."
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The term "days" is used to mean years — as it says: "Its redemption time will be days" and then it follows: "until a full year is complete for it." We find that every appointed term the Lord sets for a kingdom is set in years, not days.
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Sometimes He stated it explicitly in years — as it says: "At the end of seventy years the Lord will visit Tyre," and also: "At the end of forty years I will gather Egypt." And sometimes He expressed the years by calling them days — as He said to Ezekiel the Priest, peace be upon him: "And I have given you the years of their iniquity as a number"
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— "three hundred and ninety days" — combining the term "years" with the term "days," indicating thereby that "days" are in fact years.
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So too in this passage: Daniel understood how "a time, times, and a half" yields 1,335 years — and he kept silent.
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We — may God guide you — exert our minds on the sum of "a time, times, and a half." We have examined and found that it fits if we hold that by "times" he means the period of the reign of Israel.
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The appointed term will then equal the years of their reign plus half of them — without exception. The total years of the reign are eight hundred and ninety, no more and no less.
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That is: 480 before the building of the Temple, plus 410 during the Temple's standing, plus half of 890 which is 445 — giving a total of exactly 1,335, no more and no less.
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The verse "From the time the daily offering was removed and the abomination of desolation set up — 1,290 days" — this counts from the time of the event that occurred in the Second Temple at its very beginning, which would be forty-five years after the time this was said to Daniel.
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And the verse "Until evening-morning, two thousand three hundred — then the sanctuary will be vindicated" — half must be taken from it, because it spread the days out as nights and days; the half is 1,150 years, and this period would be after
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— the time when this was said to Daniel by 185, until the ends of all three measures converge on the very same year.
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Chapter 4. Now I say: just as the three measures converge in this appointed term of our present exile, our Lord similarly made the appointed terms of the two earlier exiles converge.
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This is so we do not imagine that such convergence occurred only in this appointed term — for that would not be accurate. When we see that the two earlier terms, whose correctness we know, also have this feature, doubt departs from our hearts.
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Let me explain this and say: the matter of the Egyptian enslavement is a period of four hundred years of the exile, humiliation, and servitude of Abraham's seed — as it says: "Know well that your seed will be strangers in a land not theirs, and they will serve them and they will oppress them four hundred years."
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This runs from the birth of Isaac. The 430-year figure includes within it thirty years of Abraham's own sojourning — for Abraham's departure from Haran to Canaan is recorded, but his departure from Kutha to Haran is not recorded; so those thirty years are Abraham's account. This is as it says: "And the dwelling of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was thirty years and four hundred years."
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Nevertheless, the total time actually spent in Egypt is 210 years — no one can claim they spent 400 years in Egypt, given the lifespans of Kehat, Amram, and Moses; but this is not the place to explain it. So there are three figures: 400 years, 430 years, and 210 years.
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As for the Babylonian exile — it has two measures. The first is seventy-two years, as it says: "For"