Daniel 9
Christian Standard Bible Anglicised
Daniel’s Prayer
9 In the first year of Darius,(A) the son of Ahasuerus, a Mede by birth, who was made king over the Chaldean kingdom – 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the books according to the word of the Lord to the prophet Jeremiah that the number of years for the desolation of Jerusalem would be seventy.(B) 3 So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek him by prayer and petitions, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.(C)
4 I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed:
Ah, Lord – the great and awe-inspiring God(D) who keeps his gracious covenant(E) with those who love him(F) and keep his commands(G) – 5 we have sinned,(H) done wrong, acted wickedly, rebelled,(I) and turned away from your commands and ordinances.(J) 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets,(K) who spoke in your name to our kings, leaders, ancestors, and all the people of the land.
7 Lord, righteousness belongs to you,(L) but this day public shame belongs to us: the men of Judah, the residents of Jerusalem, and all Israel – those who are near and those who are far, in all the countries where you have banished them because of the disloyalty they have shown towards you. 8 Lord, public shame(M) belongs to us, our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, because we have sinned against you.(N) 9 Compassion and forgiveness belong to the Lord our God, though we have rebelled against him 10 and have not obeyed the Lord our God by following his instructions that he set before us through his servants(O) the prophets.
11 All Israel has broken your law and turned away,(P) refusing to obey you. The promised curse[a] written in the law of Moses,(Q) the servant of God, has been poured out on us because we have sinned against him. 12 He has carried out his words(R) that he spoke against us and against our rulers[b](S) by bringing on us a disaster that is so great that nothing like what has been done to Jerusalem has ever been done(T) under all of heaven. 13 Just as it is written in the law of Moses,(U) all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not sought the favour of(V) the Lord our God by turning from our iniquities and paying attention to your truth.(W) 14 So the Lord kept the disaster in mind and brought it on us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all he has done. But we have not obeyed him.
15 Now, Lord our God – who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand(X) and made your name renowned(Y) as it is this day – we have sinned, we have acted wickedly. 16 Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, may your anger and wrath(Z) turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain;(AA) for because of our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors, Jerusalem and your people have become an object of ridicule to all those around us.
17 Therefore, our God, hear the prayer and the petitions of your servant. Make your face shine(AB) on your desolate sanctuary(AC) for the Lord’s sake. 18 Listen closely,[c] my God, and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations and the city that bears your name. For we are not presenting our petitions before you based on our righteous acts, but based on your abundant compassion. 19 Lord, hear! Lord, forgive! Lord, listen and act! My God, for your own sake, do not delay,(AD) because your city and your people bear your name.
The Seventy Weeks of Years
20 While I was speaking, praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel,(AE) and presenting my petition before the Lord my God concerning the holy mountain of my God – 21 while I was praying, Gabriel,(AF) the man I had seen in the first vision,(AG) reached me in my extreme weariness, about the time of the evening offering.(AH) 22 He gave me this explanation: ‘Daniel, I’ve come now to give you understanding.(AI) 23 At the beginning of your petitions an answer went out, and I have come to give it, for you are treasured by God.[d](AJ) So consider the message and understand the vision:(AK)
24 Seventy weeks are decreed(AL)
about your people and your holy city –
to bring the rebellion to an end,
to put a stop to sin,
to atone for iniquity,
to bring in everlasting righteousness,(AM)
to seal up vision and prophecy,
and to anoint the most holy place.
25 Know and understand this:
From the issuing of the decree
to restore and rebuild Jerusalem(AN)
until an Anointed One,(AO) the ruler,[e]
will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.
It will be rebuilt with a square and a moat,
but in difficult times.
26 After those sixty-two weeks
the Anointed One will be cut off(AP)
and will have nothing.
The people of the coming ruler
will destroy the city(AQ) and the sanctuary.[f]
The[g] end will come with a flood,(AR)
and until the end there will be[h] war;
desolations are decreed.
27 He will make a firm covenant[i]
with many for one week,
but in the middle of the week
he will put a stop to sacrifice and offering.
And the abomination of desolation(AS)
will be on a wing(AT) of the temple[j][k]
until the decreed destruction(AU)
is poured out on the desolator.’
Footnotes
- 9:11 Lit The curse and the oath
- 9:12 Lit against rulers who ruled us
- 9:18 Lit Stretch out your ear
- 9:23 by God added for clarity
- 9:25 Or until an anointed one, a prince
- 9:26 MT; Theod, some mss read The city and the sanctuary will be destroyed when the ruler comes.
- 9:26 Lit Its, or His
- 9:26 Or end of a
- 9:27 Or will enforce a covenant
- 9:27 LXX; MT reads of abominations
- 9:27 Or And the desolator will be on the wing of abominations, or And the desolator will come on the wings of monsters (or of horror); Hb obscure
Daniel 9
Living Bible
9 It was now the first year of the reign of King Darius, the son of Ahasuerus. (Darius was a Mede but became king of the Chaldeans.) 2 In that first year of his reign, I, Daniel, learned from the book of Jeremiah the prophet that Jerusalem must lie desolate for seventy years.[a] 3 So I earnestly pleaded with the Lord God to end our captivity and send us back to our own land.[b]
As I prayed, I fasted and wore rough sackcloth, and I sprinkled myself with ashes 4 and confessed my sins and those of my people.
“O Lord,” I prayed, “you are a great and awesome God; you always fulfill your promises of mercy to those who love you and keep your laws. 5 But we have sinned so much; we have rebelled against you and scorned your commands. 6 We have refused to listen to your servants the prophets, whom you sent again and again down through the years, with your messages to our kings and princes and to all the people.
7 “O Lord, you are righteous; but as for us, we are always shamefaced with sin, just as you see us now; yes, all of us—the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, and all Israel, scattered near and far wherever you have driven us because of our disloyalty to you. 8 O Lord, we and our kings and princes and fathers are weighted down with shame because of all our sins.
9 “But the Lord our God is merciful and pardons even those who have rebelled against him.
10 “O Lord our God, we have disobeyed you; we have flouted all the laws you gave us through your servants, the prophets. 11 All Israel has disobeyed; we have turned away from you and haven’t listened to your voice. And so the awesome curse of God has crushed us—the curse written in the law of Moses your servant. 12 And you have done exactly as you warned us you would do, for never in all history has there been a disaster like what happened at Jerusalem to us and our rulers. 13 Every curse against us written in the law of Moses has come true; all the evils he predicted—all have come. But even so we still refuse to satisfy the Lord our God by turning from our sins and doing right.
14 “And so the Lord deliberately crushed us with the calamity he prepared; he is fair in everything he does, but we would not obey. 15 O Lord our God, you brought lasting honor to your name by removing your people from Egypt in a great display of power. Lord, do it again! Though we have sinned so much and are full of wickedness, 16 yet because of all your faithful mercies, Lord, please turn away your furious anger from Jerusalem, your own city, your holy mountain. For the heathen mock at you because your city lies in ruins for our sins.
17 “O our God, hear your servant’s prayer! Listen as I plead! Let your face shine again with peace and joy upon your desolate sanctuary—for your own glory, Lord.
18 “O my God, bend down your ear and listen to my plea. Open your eyes and see our wretchedness, how your city lies in ruins—for everyone knows that it is yours. We don’t ask because we merit help, but because you are so merciful despite our grievous sins.
19 “O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, listen to me and act! Don’t delay—for your own sake, O my God, because your people and your city bear your name.”
20 Even while I was praying and confessing my sin and the sins of my people, desperately pleading with the Lord my God for Jerusalem, his holy mountain, 21 Gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier vision, flew swiftly to me at the time of the evening sacrifice 22 and said to me, “Daniel, I am here to help you understand God’s plans. 23 The moment you began praying a command was given. I am here to tell you what it was, for God loves you very much. Listen and try to understand the meaning of the vision that you saw!
24 “The Lord has commanded 490 years[c] of further punishment upon Jerusalem and your people. Then at last they will learn to stay away from sin, and their guilt will be cleansed; then the kingdom of everlasting righteousness will begin, and the Most Holy Place in the Temple will be rededicated, as the prophets have declared. 25 Now listen! It will be 49 years plus 434 years[d] from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One comes! Jerusalem’s streets and walls will be rebuilt despite the perilous times.
26 “After this period of 434 years, the Anointed One will be killed, his kingdom still unrealized . . . and a king will arise whose armies will destroy the city and the Temple. They will be overwhelmed as with a flood, and war and its miseries are decreed from that time to the very end. 27 This king will make a seven-year treaty with the people, but after half that time, he will break his pledge and stop the Jews from all their sacrifices and their offerings; then, as a climax to all his terrible deeds, the Enemy shall utterly defile the sanctuary of God. But in God’s time and plan, his judgment will be poured out upon this Evil One.”
Footnotes
- Daniel 9:2 Jerusalem must lie desolate for seventy years, see Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10. This interval had now almost expired.
- Daniel 9:3 to end our captivity and send us back to our own land, implied.
- Daniel 9:24 490 years, literally, “seventy weeks” or “seventy sevens” (of years). These were not in uninterrupted sequence. See vv. 25-27.
- Daniel 9:25 It will be 49 years plus 434 years. This totals 483 years, instead of the 490 years mentioned in v. 24, leaving 7 years unaccounted for at the time of Messiah’s death. For their future fulfillment, see v. 27 and the Revelation. Or, consider the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 by Titus and the subsequent slaughter of one million Jews during the following three and a half years as at least a partial fulfillment of this prophecy.
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