The Story of Daniel

I am Daniel, one of the sons of Jeconiah, the king of the House of Judah. I am Daniel, one of the sons of Jeconiah, the king of the household of Judah. When I was in Jerusalem in the Temple, there was one with us and his name was Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah. And he always followed God’s rule. There were also among us a few men who disobeyed God’s rule and were unable to speak God’s name or even to hear it and were busy night and day with forbidden acts. They worshiped idols, whored, and engaged in self-destruction.

Then God, His name be praised, sent them Jeremiah to rebuke them and to bring them back under God’s rule. The king at that time was Zedekiah. And Jeremiah said to them, “God commands, ‘Return to [My] rule, and if not, I will strengthen the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, your foe, and I will send him to lay waste to Jerusalem and to destroy you.’”

And when Jeremiah spoke this prophecy before King Zedekiah, the king said, “Go and do to Jeremiah whatever you wish!” Then at that moment they seized Jeremiah and threw him in a well. And there was no water in that well, only mud. And they left Jeremiah in the mud without water. Then God’s wrath waxed great against them, and He commanded Nebuchadnezzar to send his army, and they laid siege at the gates of Jerusalem; Nebuchadnezzar himself remained in Baghdad and sent Nebuzaradan with his army to Jerusalem.

But they still had two commandments at hand—as long as they fulfilled them, their foes would not be victorious: one, sacrifice, and the other, circumcision. They kept no other commandments. And regarding the sacrifice: every day they would put dirhams in a basket, lower it with a rope from the rampart to Nebuchadnezzar’s army camp, and buy a lamb for the sacrifice. One day an Israelite child was on the ramparts of Jerusalem, and they [i.e., the Babylonian soldiers] asked him, “These lambs that you buy from us, what do you do with them?” The child answered them, “We sacrifice it.” Then they did not sell [the Jerusalemites] lambs anymore but tricked them and put a pig in the basket instead of the lamb and sent it up to the ramparts. When it arrived at the top of the ramparts, they shot the pig with arrows, and the blood ran down the wall and the wall cracked. It was the ninth day of the month of Av. Nebuzaradan knew that their God would deliver them into his hands. He entered Jerusalem and arrived directly at the Temple. Zedekiah, the king of Judah, fled, and Nebuchadnezzar’s commanders ran after him. When they saw King Zedekiah, they said, “Your eyes are beautiful.” He commanded that they kill his two sons in front of him and then put out his eyes. And Nebuzaradan killed a pig in the House of God. Nebuchadnezzar himself had not come to Jerusalem and remained in Riblah; he commanded Nebuzaradan to go to Jerusalem to do these things. [ . . . ]

And I, Daniel, entered the Temple, and when I saw the Temple, I said, “Until when will the House of God be in ruins and the Israelites scattered?” And an angel of God spoke to me thus at that time, “The House of God will remain in ruins until they repent and know that they are sinners before God and hold back their hands from doing sin. Then God will absolve them, and the Temple will be rebuilt.” And I praised God and prayed that He restore that sinner [i.e., Darius] his sight. The angel of God said to me, “I have accepted your prayer.” He said, “Go and bring Darius to the water, and he will put water on his face. And when he puts the water on his face, his eyes will be restored. God will give back their light.” He put the water on his eyes, and his eyes were mended by the power of God, praised be His name.

He [Darius] raised his eyes and glorified God, “Blessed be the name of the God of Daniel. It is He who is the creator of the heavens and the earth, peerless and unrivaled, and it is He who restores the downfallen and heals the blind and restored my eyes through Daniel’s prophecy.” And God set his heart, and he opened the doors of the treasury and gave gifts to the priests, the Levites, and the orphans, and gave me, Daniel, great wealth. And he returned to Shushtar, taking me with him, and we went in peace. And on that journey, the peoples of the world saw us, [who had seen] that before King Darius was blind, but then they saw that his eyes were restored. Many people were converted to Judaism [lit., “Israeliteness”] by Daniel. We came to Shushtar, and the king regained his kingdom. And I, Daniel, put on sackcloth and sat in the dust many days. I ate no meat and drank no wine day and night. I was busy with weeping, and my eyes were like two springs of water because the House of God was destroyed. [ . . . ]

And I, Daniel, saw that in their days a king will arise. His stature will be short and his color red. He will have no wealth, and he will not read God’s scripture. He will call himself a prophet and will go about by camel. He will be a camel rider from Yemen [or, “the South”]. He will make people fall under his rule. Israelites will be troubled by him, but from among the Israelites some will join his rule and belief. And you, O Daniel, counsel the Israelites so that they do not fall under his rule and do not abandon the Torah of Moses, and so that they preserve the Israelite faith. And that one who is from among them who will appear on a camel from Yemen and say, “I am a prophet,” O Daniel, also say to them, “No prophet has ever arisen from Yemen and no such will ever come.” And this, “He speaks lies and nonsense.” Men will face hardship from them. And his reign as king will be eleven years, and he will die in Yemen.

And after him another will arise. His stature will be tall, his beard long, and his hair black. He will call all people to his rule and will become mighty. He will reign as king for thirteen years and will die.

And after him another will arise. His arms will be short and his face ugly. He will be deceitful. And there will be chaos among the people in his days, and he will claim to be a prophet. He will call people to him and will cause the Israelites hardship. He will reign as king for ten years and will die.

And after him, another will arise. His stature will be tall. He will be wise and bloodthirsty. He will make war and will come from the West. He will seize the entire world. He will cause men hardship. He will make war until he reaches the East and will shed blood. He will reign as king twelve years and he, too, will be killed in the East. And after him, another will arise. In his days there will be drought and want, and he will cause the people hardship. He will reign as king for fourteen years and fifteen days and will die. [ . . . ]

Then a king will come from among the Byzantines [lit., “Romans”]. He will have red garments. He will come as far as Damascus and will wage war and kill the warriors, chiefs, and kings of the Muslims. The kingship will pass from the Ishmaelites. He will uproot their minarets and demolish their mosques, and no one will any longer speak the name of the pasul [lit., “unacceptable”].¹ And he will break the kingdom of Ishmael, and it will never arise again, and the remainder of people will seek refuge with him. They will follow his rule as long as they live. Whoever will not follow his rule will be killed. And he will cause terrible hardship for the Israelites, and he will forbid circumcision and the Sabbath and will not allow reading of the Torah and prayer. He will kill many Israelites. Then, happy will be those Israelites who preserve their Judaism and do not follow their rule. Then this hardship will arise for the Israelites. All the Israelites will gather together and will repent. At that time, God will send them a redeemer and that man who will seize the entire world. And he will rule as king nine hundred years and will die.

And another will arise from the land of the West, worse and more hostile than those before. And his sign will be this: that his height will be one hundred yards and eleven spans and his width ten spans and his mouth one span. And much hair will cover his face. And he will seize all of the West. And evil and warlike men will gather from all over the world. They will come before him and will say, “He is the messiah.” And the voice of these men will go out across the world. And the entire world will be under his control. And he will kill any person who does not follow his rule. The Israelites will face great hardship and suffering. They will flee from them. And there will be great hardship all over the earth. And they will go among the mountains. And their leader will appear, accompanied by the armies of Gog and Magog. Their sign will be this: each one will have four eyes, two in front and two behind. Men will suffer hardship and evil, and the Israelites even more.

Then I, Daniel, said, “Oh God, all of this terrible suffering and evil will befall the Israelites!” And I wept and sobbed for the Israelites. And I said, “Happy is he who will not be born and will not see this hardship.”

Then God sent me an angel who said, “Happy is the Israelite who has hope in God and in the Israelite religion and follows the rule of God until his grave and does not follow the commands of that evildoer in those days and preserves himself in the religion of Israel.” [ . . . ]

Then a man will appear from afar, and every Israelite from every place will run to him and gather there. And that man will be a descendant of Ephraim. And they will go before that sinner, and he will say, “I am the messiah, your king and redeemer.”

And the Israelites will say, “We want three signs from you so that we believe in you.”

He will say, “Ask your signs so that I see [what they are].”

“We want signs like these: Moses our teacher turned that stick into a snake before Pharaoh; you do that. And another, that the staff of Aaron was dry wood, and it too at that time sprouted succulent leaves and almonds. And we want a further sign: Find the jar of manna that Aaron hid. If you do all of these three signs, we will know that you speak the truth.”

But that sinner can not perform even one.

Then later a group of Israelites and elders will gather and will go to the wilderness of Ephraim; they will put on sackcloth and sit in the dust and cry out to God, “When, O Lord, will you free us from this terrible trouble? And do not look on our sin and forgive us.”

Then the Lord will send an angel to say, “Do not be afraid! For I will not deliver you over to this sinner. But as you are Israelites you must go and say to him as follows, ‘If you are the messiah, you must resurrect the dead; then we will believe in you.’” Then he will not be able to do it and will be filled with wrath and command [your] murder and killing. The Israelites will flee. Women, men, and children will gather in the wilderness; they will sob and wail, will sit in the dust and call out to God and raise a great lament one hundred days.

After that, the divine favor will return to the Israelites. And then he will cause the wellsprings of heaven to open. One month will be like a week, one week like a day, and one day like an hour. God will aid the Israelites, and he will restore the covenant that was made with the forefathers. And he will send light in place of darkness. And the Israelites will be happy and joyful, God willing.

Then Michael and Gabriel will stand before God, beseeching and saying, “When will you release the Israelites from exile? If their fathers sinned, they have received their punishment. You must bring them freedom, salvation, and redemption. And uphold that covenant you made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and for the merit of Moses our teacher who for one hundred and twenty years served you as the leader of the Israelites.”

Then God will say to Michael and Gabriel, “Go and give the Israelites the good tidings. Be happy that you did not abandon the Lord’s commandments, laws, and rules and did not come to believe in that sinner. Say to those who believed in that sinner, ‘Woe on you who became impure.’”

At that time the Lord will remember the Israelites, including you who destroyed yourselves and abandoned the religion of Israel. And at that moment, Michael and Gabriel will walk among the army camp of the Israelites, and they will see that the Israelites will have fallen to the ground in trouble and torment, crying out before God. And Michael and Gabriel will say to them, “Arise and lift up your heads from the ground and praise the Lord, for God delivers you and frees you from the hands of this sinner, and from darkness to light, and from light to kingship.” And when the Israelites hear this, they will be comforted and will immediately say thanks and give praise before the shekhinah [divine presence].

Then they will also kill that person of which it was said that he was the messiah. God will be revealed from the heavens. A great sound and a tremendous noise will emerge from Zion and the Temple. And God will be pleased with the entire people of Israel. And he will allow the heavenly Jerusalem to descend from the heavens. And the branch and root of Jesse will be revealed, meaning the messiah, son of David. As the Bible says: and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked (Isaiah 11:4). Meaning, with the breath of his lips the wicked will die. And the messiah, son of Joseph, will be killed, and the flag of the messiah, son of David, will be revealed. And the armies of Gog and Magog will be killed. And Elijah will come with good tidings for Israel. He will restore forever the living and the dead and the Temple, and he will destroy Egypt. And the Temple will remain. And the messiah, son of David, Elijah, and Zerubbabel will go to the summit of the Mount of Olives. And the messiah will command Elijah to sound a trumpet, and from that the light of the first six days of creation will appear. And the moon will be like the sun. And God will send perfect healing to all the injured of Israel.

And when Elijah blows the second blast, he will revive the dead and they will rise from the earth. And all will know each other: wives, husbands; fathers, sons; brothers with brothers. All will come before the messiah from the four corners of the earth, from east and west, north and south; on the wings of an eagle [lit., “Simurgh,” a mythical bird], the Israelites will come before the presence of the messiah. The fiery pillars of the Temple will become visible as a sign, so that all who see them will know that the Temple was created at that time, so that they will believe.

When he blows the third blast, the shekhinah will appear. And when he blows the fourth blast, the mountains will become flat, and Mount Tabor, Mount Carmel, the Hermon, and the Mount of Olives will line up straight [on] the earth [meaning of word uncertain]. And eight parasangs will separate each mountain. And the Temple will appear as Ezekiel said. And two angels will come and at God’s command will raise up the golden gate that was sunken in the earth. And they will make it as it was before.

And Abraham our father will stand at the right, and Moses our teacher and the messiah son of David at the left, and the Israelites will stand there. And then the messiah will say to Abraham, “These are your children.” And Moses our teacher will also say, “These are Israel your friend.” Then Abraham will see the Israelites and will say to the messiah, “These are my children.” As the verse states: the seed of Abraham My friend (Isaiah 41:8). And the Israelites will rejoice and praise God and give thanks that God is righteous, for He did all that He promised us.

He will give Abraham all those who are of pure seed and will lead all the Israelites to the Garden of Eden. The sinners will say to them again, “O Prophets, you are from us; do you cast us aside as illegitimate?” And they will give them no answer. And they will send them all at once to hell. And hell will have seven levels. The bottom level will be the place of those who changed the Torah. The second level will be the place of the sinners. The third level is the place of those people who did not believe entirely in Judaism. The fourth level, for apostates who did not follow the rule of God. The fifth level, for the sinners of Israel who committed illicit sexual acts. (And those who coveted their neighbors’ wives are worse.) The sixth level, for the nations of the world, those who [wrongly] claim devotion and practice false piety. The seventh level, for the one among the Israelites who was prideful and da’nut [meaning of word uncertain], and whose deeds were bad. And the remainder of the Israelites merit the world to come.

And so too the sinners of Israel will be punished in hell. And then they will be released from their punishment. And they too will receive a portion with their brothers, because they are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; they will not be destroyed;² God is with them, meaning that God’s shekhinah is in their midst. What is the meaning of this? The meaning is ngrsgal.³ For he is the commander of hell. He stands before God and says, “O Master of the Worlds! You have given me to rule over all nations and [speakers of] all tongues so that I burn them with fire. And this one nation of Israel—why do you not give me to rule over them?”