² in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to ^(A)the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.

¹⁰ “For thus says the Lord: ^(A)When seventy years are completed for Babylon, ^(B)I will visit you, ^(C)and I will fulfill to you my promise ^(D)and bring you back to this place.

^11 (A)This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and ^(B)these nations shall serve the king of Babylon ^(C)seventy years. ¹² Then after ^(D)seventy years are completed, ^(E)I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, ^(F)the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, ^(G)making the land an everlasting waste.

²¹ to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had ^(A)enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate ^(B)it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

⁵ “Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in ^(A)the fifth month and in ^(B)the seventh, for these ^(C)seventy years, ^(D)was it ^(E)for me that you fasted?

^3 (A)Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, ^(B)for the time is near.

The Proclamation of Cyrus

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

¹⁹ And ^(A)we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention ^(B)as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until ^(C)the day ^(D)dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, ²⁰ knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. ²¹ For ^(E)no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God ^(F)as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

¹⁵ and how ^(A)from childhood you have been acquainted with ^(B)the sacred writings, ^(C)which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ^16 (D)All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ that ^(E)the man of God^[a] may be complete, ^(F)equipped ^(G)for every good work.