Chapter 32

¹ Now when this had taken place, “the whole assembly,” it says, “cried out with a loud voice and gave praise to God, because Daniel had convicted them out of their own mouth of bearing false witness.”

² What then shall we say? In the one saying “a mastic tree” and the other “an evergreen oak,” in this the proof came about.

³ For what did they mean to say? “In our wish to lay hold of the young man, we did not observe with certainty what kind of tree it was.”

⁴ But since in all things the divine Scripture makes us wise, guiding us toward the truth, in this we must understand that they were compelled by the Spirit to name such trees as were not planted in the garden, so that out of their own mouth they might accuse themselves. For if they had named one of the trees planted there, perhaps by this word they would have prevailed upon the people. But as it is, it was not so; rather, they declared things that did not exist.

⁵ For when Daniel had refuted the thoughts of their heart through their words and had exposed that fearful desire which they still held in their eyes, and had made manifest their hidden faults from the beginning, which they were committing against the daughters of Israel, they themselves, being convicted by the Holy Spirit and darkened in mind, named strange trees, so that through the word they might be tripped up by their own selves.