And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what [shall be] the end of these [things]?
Ver. 8. And I heard, but I understood not.] This he ingenuously confesseth, for the best know but in part. 1Co 13:12 And if any man thinketh that he knoweth ought, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. 1Co 8:2 Let this be noted by such as profess to know, beyond the periphery of human knowledge, all that is knowable. Any created understanding is but, as Aeschylus saith of fire stolen by Prometheus, παντεχνου πυρος σελας, a spark of the all-wise God's fire. The prophets themselves understood not some things that were shown unto them without a further light from the Father of lights, whose alone it is to enlighten both organ and object, as Plato a also could say.
What shall be the end of these things?] An end he much desired, and the angel for him. Dan 12:6 But men must have patience, and wait God's end. "Ye have need of patience or tarryance," saith the apostle, Heb 10:36 "that after ye have done the will of God (and suffered it too, grievous though it be for the present) ye may receive the promise." Good men find it often more easy to bear evil than to wait till the promised good be enjoyed.
a οψιν τε ποιει οραν και τα ορωμενα πρασθαι. - Lib. vi. De Rep.