Daniel 9

Chapter 9

Daniel’s Prayer for His People

¹In the first year of ^aDarius the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans—

²in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the Lord to ^aJeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.

³So I ¹gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.

⁴I prayed to the Lord 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, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and ^brebelled, even ^cturning aside from Your commandments and ordinances.

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

⁷“^aRighteousness belongs to You, O Lord, 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 driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against You.

⁸“¹Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, 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 obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His ¹teachings which He ^aset before us through His servants the prophets.

¹¹“Indeed ^aall Israel has transgressed Your law and turned aside, not obeying Your voice; so the ^bcurse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against Him.

¹²“Thus He has ^aconfirmed His words which He had spoken against us and against our ^1brulers who ruled 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 ^alaw of Moses, all this calamity has come on us; yet we have ^bnot ¹sought the favor of the Lord our God by ^cturning from our iniquity and ²giving attention to Your truth.

¹⁴“Therefore the Lord has ^1akept the calamity in store and brought it on us; for the Lord our God is ^brighteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice.

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

¹⁶“O Lord, in accordance with all Your ¹righteous acts, 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 servant 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 hear! 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 ²any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion.

¹⁹“O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen 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 an Answer

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

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

²²He gave me instruction and talked 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 ¹command was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are ^2bhighly esteemed; so give heed to the message and gain ^cunderstanding of the vision.

Seventy Weeks and the Messiah

²⁴“Seventy ^1aweeks have been decreed for your people and 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 most holy place.

²⁵“So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a ^1adecree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until ^2bMessiah the ^cPrince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, 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 determined.

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