Letters

⁴ Nay, can we be better men than Daniel himself, concerning whom God, speaking to the prince of Tyre, says by the prophet Ezekiel, “Are you wiser than Daniel?” who also is placed among the three righteous men to whom alone God says that He would grant deliverance—pointing, doubtless, in them to three representative righteous men,— declaring that he would deliver only Noah, Daniel, and Job, and that they should save along with themselves neither son nor daughter, but only their own souls? Nevertheless, read also the prayer of Daniel, and see how, when in captivity, he confesses not only the sins of his people, but his own also, and acknowledges that because of these the justice of God has visited them with the punishment of captivity and with reproach.

For it is thus written: “And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: and I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said: O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep His commandments; we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and from Your judgments: neither have we hearkened unto Your servants the prophets, which spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

O Lord, righteousness belongs unto You, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither You have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against You. O Lord, to us belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against You. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against Him; neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord, to walk in His laws which He set before us by His servants the prophets.

Yea, all Israel have transgressed Your law, even by departing, that they might not obey Your voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against them. And He has confirmed His words which He spoke against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil; for under the whole heaven has not been done as has been done upon Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth.

Therefore has the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us; for the Lord our God is righteous in all His works which He does; for we obeyed not His voice. And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought Your people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten You renown as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly. O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I beseech You, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain, because, for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a reproach to all that are about us.

Now, therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and His supplications, and cause Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary which is desolate, for the Lord's sake. O my God, incline Your ear, and hear; open Your eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You for our righteousnesses, but for Your great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do: defer not, for Your own sake, O my God; for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.

And while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin, and the sin of my people...” Observe how he spoke first of his own sins, and then of the sins of his people. And he extols the righteousness of God, and gives praise to God for this, that He visits even His saints with the rod, not unjustly, but because of their sins. If, therefore, this be the language of men who by reason of their eminent sanctity found even encompassing flames and lions harmless, what language would befit men standing on a level so low as we occupy, seeing that, whatever righteousness we may seem to practise, we are very far from being worthy of comparison with them?