Even more impressive was Daniel’s intense and persistent prayer on behalf of his captive nation as he claimed God’s promise to restore his people to their ancestral land at the end of seventy years (9:2–19; cf. 10:12–14). The third and major deportation to Babylon had taken place in 586 B.C., only fifty-two years earlier, when Daniel urgently brought this matter before the Lord. But Daniel was not content to wait for an additional eighteen years or more. He wanted to personally witness the restoration