² in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy^(A) years. ³ So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting,^(B) and in sackcloth and ashes.^(C)

¹¹ This whole country will become a desolate wasteland,^(A) and these nations will serve^(B) the king of Babylon seventy years.^(C)

¹² “But when the seventy years^(D) are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon^(E) and his nation, the land of the Babylonians,^[a] for their guilt,” declares the Lord, “and will make it desolate^(F) forever.