² in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through ^(A)Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

²¹ to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of ^(A)Jeremiah, until the land ^(B)had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate ^(C)she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

⁵ “Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: ‘When you ^(A)fasted and mourned in the fifth ^(B)and seventh months ^(C)during those seventy years, did you really fast ^(D)for Me—for Me?

¹¹ And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy ^(A)years.

¹² ‘Then it will come to pass, ^(B)when ^[a]seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,’ says the Lord; ^(C)‘and I will make it a perpetual desolation.

End of the Babylonian Captivity^(A)

1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord ^(B)by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, ^(C)so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying,

^3 (A)Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for ^(B)the time is near.

^19 [a]And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a ^(A)light that shines in a dark place, ^(B)until ^(C)the day dawns and the morning star rises in your ^(D)hearts; ²⁰ knowing this first, that ^(E)no prophecy of Scripture is of any private ^[b]interpretation, ²¹ for ^(F)prophecy never came by the will of man, ^(G)but ^[c]holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.