Daniel 9–10

CHAPTER 9

Daniel’s Prayer of Supplication

¹In the first year of ^aDarius the son of Ahasuerus, from the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans—

²in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, discerned in the books the ^anumber of the years concerning which the word of ¹Yahweh came to ^bJeremiah the prophet for the fulfillment of the laying waste of Jerusalem, namely, ^cseventy years.

³So I gave my face to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

⁴And I prayed to Yahweh my God and confessed and said, “Alas, O Lord, the ^agreat and awesome God, who ^bkeeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments,

^5awe have sinned and committed iniquity and acted wickedly and ^brebelled, even ^cturning aside from Your commandments and judgments.

⁶“Moreover, we have not ^alistened to Your slaves the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and all the people of the land.

⁷“^aTo You, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us ^1bopen shame, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in ^call the countries to which You have banished them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against You.

⁸“O Yahweh, to us belongs ¹open shame, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You.

⁹“To the Lord our God belong ^acompassion and forgiveness, ¹for we have ^brebelled against Him;

¹⁰nor have we listened to the voice of Yahweh our God, to walk in His ¹laws which He ^aput before us through His slaves the prophets.

¹¹“Indeed ^aall Israel has trespassed against Your law, even turning aside, not listening to Your voice; so the ^bcurse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is written in the ¹law of Moses the ²servant of God, for we have sinned against Him.

¹²“Thus He has ^aestablished His words which He had spoken against us and against our ^bjudges who judged us, to bring on us great calamity; for under the whole heaven there has ^cnot been done anything like what was done to Jerusalem.

¹³“As it is written in the ^1alaw of Moses, all this calamity has come on us; yet we have ^bnot ²entreated the favor of Yahweh our God by ^cturning from our iniquity and acting wisely in Your truth.

¹⁴“Therefore Yahweh has ^awatched over the calamity and brought it on us; for Yahweh our God is ^brighteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not listened to His voice.

¹⁵“So now, O Lord our God, who have ^abrought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand and have ^bmade a name for Yourself, as it is this day—we have sinned; we have acted wickedly.

¹⁶“O Lord, in accordance with all Your righteousness, let now Your ^aanger and Your wrath turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your ^bholy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a ^creproach to all those around us.

¹⁷“So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Your slave and to his supplications, and for ¹Your sake, O Lord, ^alet Your face shine on Your ^bdesolate sanctuary.

¹⁸“O my God, ^aincline Your ear and listen! Open Your eyes and ^bsee our desolations and the city which is ^ccalled by Your name; for we are not ^1dpresenting our supplications before You on account of any righteousness of our own, but on account of Your abundant compassion.

¹⁹“O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, give heed and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, ^ado not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”

Gabriel Brings Understanding

²⁰Now while I was ^aspeaking and praying, and ^bconfessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and ¹presenting my supplication before Yahweh my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God,

²¹and while I was still speaking in prayer, then the man ^aGabriel, whom I had seen in the vision ¹previously, ²touched me ³in my extreme weariness about the time of the ^bevening offering.

²²Then he made me understand and spoke with me and said, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with ^aunderstanding.

²³“At the ^abeginning of your supplications the word was issued, so I have come to tell you, for you are ^1bhighly esteemed; so understand the message and gain ^cunderstanding in what has appeared.

Seventy Weeks and the Messiah

²⁴“Seventy ^1aweeks have been determined for your people and for your holy city, to ²finish the transgression, to ³make an end of sin, to ^bmake atonement for iniquity, to bring in ^ceverlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and ⁴prophecy, and to anoint the Holy of Holies.

²⁵“So you are to know and have insight that from the going out of a ^1aword to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until ^2bMessiah the ^cPrince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be restored and rebuilt, with ³plaza and moat, even in times of distress.

²⁶“Then after the sixty-two weeks the ¹Messiah will be ^acut off and have ²nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will ^bdestroy the city and the sanctuary. And ³its end will come with a ^cflood; even to the end ⁴there will be war; desolations are decreed.

²⁷“And he will make a ¹firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will make sacrifice and grain offering cease; and on the wing of ^2aabominations will come one who ³makes desolate, even until a ^bcomplete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who ⁴makes desolate.”

CHAPTER 10

Daniel’s Terrifying Vision of a Man

¹In the third year of ^aCyrus king of Persia, a word was revealed to ^bDaniel, who was named Belteshazzar; and the ^cword was true and one of great ¹conflict, but he understood the word and had an ^dunderstanding of what had appeared.

²In those days, I, Daniel, had been ^amourning for three entire ¹weeks.

³I ^adid not eat any ¹tasty food, nor did meat or wine enter my mouth, nor did I use any ointment at all until the entire three ²weeks were fulfilled.

⁴And on the twenty-fourth day of the first month, while I was by the bank of the great ^ariver, that is, the ¹Tigris,

⁵I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, there was a certain man ^adressed in linen, whose loins were ^bgirded with a belt of pure ^cfine gold of Uphaz.

⁶His body also was like ¹beryl, his face ²had the appearance of lightning, ^ahis eyes were like flaming torches, his arms and feet like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude.

⁷Now I, Daniel, ^aalone saw the vision that appeared, but the ^bmen who were with me did not see the vision that appeared; nevertheless, a great ^cterror fell on them, and they ran away to hide themselves.

⁸So I alone ^aremained and saw this great vision that appeared; yet ^bno might remained in me, for my outward splendor turned to ¹a deathly pallor, and I retained no might.

⁹But I heard the sound of his words; and as soon as I heard the sound of his words, I ^afell into a deep sleep on my face, with my face to the ground.

Daniel Is Strengthened

¹⁰Then behold, a hand ^atouched me and set me shaking on my ¹hands and knees.

¹¹And he said to me, “O ^aDaniel, man of ¹high esteem, ^bunderstand the words that I am about to speak to you and ^cstand ²upright, for I have now been sent to you.” And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up ^dtrembling.

¹²Then he said to me, “^aDo not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you gave your heart to understand this and to ^bhumble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response ^cto your words.

¹³“But the ¹prince of the kingdom of Persia was ²standing against me for twenty-one days; then behold, ^aMichael, one of the chief princes, came to help me. Now I had been left there with the kings of Persia.

¹⁴“Now I have come to ^agive you an understanding of what will happen to your people in the ^1blast days, for the vision pertains to ^cthe days yet future.”

¹⁵Now when he had spoken to me according to these words, I ¹turned my face toward the ground and became ^aspeechless.

¹⁶And behold, ^aone ¹in the likeness of the sons of men was ^btouching my lips; then I opened my mouth and spoke and said to him who was standing before me, “O my lord, as a result of the vision that appeared, ^cpains have come upon me, and I have retained no might.

¹⁷“Now ^ahow can such a servant of my lord talk with such as my lord? As for me, right now ^bno might stands within me, nor does any breath remain within me.”

¹⁸Then this one with the appearance of a man touched me again and ^astrengthened me.

¹⁹And he said, “O man of ¹high esteem, ^ado not be afraid. Peace ²be with you; gather ^bstrength and be strong!” Now as soon as he spoke to me, I received strength and said, “May my lord speak, for you have ^cstrengthened me.”

²⁰Then he said, “Do you know why I came to you? But I shall now return to fight against the ¹prince of Persia; so I am going forth, and behold, the ^2aprince of ³Greece is about to come.

²¹“However, I will tell you what is ¹inscribed in the writing of ^atruth. Now there is no one who ²exerts strength with me against these forces except ^bMichael your prince.