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
EasyEnglish Bible
Daniel prays for the people
9 This is what happened in the first year that Darius ruled Babylonia. He was the son of Xerxes, a descendant of the Medes.[a] He became the king of Babylonia. 2 In the first year that Darius was king, I, Daniel, was reading God's book. I read the message that the Lord had given to his prophet, Jeremiah. He told Jeremiah that Jerusalem would continue to be a heap of stones for 70 years.[b]
3 So I turned to my Lord God, to ask him for help. I prayed to him and I ate no food. I wore clothes of rough sackcloth. I put ashes on myself to show that I was upset. 4 I prayed to the Lord my God. I agreed that we were guilty and I prayed this prayer:
‘Our Lord, you are a great God and we give you honour. In your covenant, you have promised to love your people. You continue to be faithful to those people who love you and obey your commands. 5 We have done bad things that are wicked and evil. We have turned against you. We have not obeyed your laws and your teaching. 6 We did not listen to your servants, the prophets. They spoke your message to our kings, to our rulers and to our ancestors. They spoke to all the people of our nation.
7 Our Lord, you always do what is right. Today we are very ashamed. The people of Judah, Jerusalem and all Israel have not been faithful to you. You have sent our people away to many countries. Some are near and some are far away. We are all ashamed because we have turned away from you. 8 Our kings, our leaders and our ancestors have turned away from you, Lord. So we are very ashamed. 9 Our Lord God, we have turned against you. But you are kind and you forgive people. 10 We have not obeyed the Lord our God. You sent your servants, the prophets, to give us your laws. But we have not lived in the way that your laws taught us.
11 All the people of Israel have turned away from your laws. We have refused to obey you. Your servant Moses gave us your laws. He warned us about your punishments. Now you have punished us in the way that he said. We have turned away from you. 12 So you have done what you promised to do to us and to our rulers. You have caused us to have terrible trouble. You have punished Jerusalem with more trouble than has ever happened to any other city. 13 All this trouble has come to us in the way that Moses wrote in the book of your laws. But we have still not tried to please you, the Lord our God. We have not turned away from our sins. We have not learned your true teaching. 14 So you were ready to punish us with this trouble. You are always right in everything that you do. You are right to punish us because we have not obeyed you.
15 Our Lord God, you used your great power to bring your people safely out of Egypt. You are still famous today because of what you did then. We know that we have done things that are wrong and wicked. 16 Our Lord, please stop being angry with us. Stop punishing your own city, Jerusalem, your holy mountain. Because of our sins and the evil things that our ancestors did, other people insult us. All the people who live near us laugh at Jerusalem and your people. So please do what is right, as you always do.
17 Our God, please accept my prayer. Please do what I have asked for. Your temple is now a heap of stones. Please bless it again, so that people will know that you are great. 18 Listen to us, my God. Our towns have become heaps of stones. See what has happened to the city that belongs to you. We do not ask you to do this because we are righteous people. We ask you because you are very kind. 19 Lord, please listen! Lord, please forgive us. Lord, please do what we have asked you to do. My God, please do it quickly, so that people give you honour. Help your city and your people who belong to you.’
Gabriel speaks to Daniel
20 I continued to pray and tell God about our sins. I agreed that I had done wrong things, and that my people, the Israelites, had also done wrong things. I asked the Lord my God to help Jerusalem, his holy mountain. 21 While I was praying, Gabriel came towards me. He was the same man that I had seen in the first vision. He flew quickly to me at the time of the evening sacrifice. 22 He said to me, ‘Daniel, I have come to teach you, so that you can understand these things. 23 As soon as you started to pray, God sent his message. I have come to tell you the message, because you are very important to God. Listen carefully, so that you understand the meaning of your vision.
24 God has decided the time of punishment for your people and your holy city. It will continue for 70 weeks.[c] That will finish the punishment for their sins. The people will no longer turn against God. They will have paid the price for their sins. God will cause them to live for ever in a way that is right. God will show that the visions and messages of the prophets are true. The Most Holy Place will belong to God again.
25 I want you, Daniel, to understand this properly. There will be a command to build Jerusalem again. Then 7 weeks will pass, and 62 weeks will also pass. After that, a ruler that God has chosen will arrive.[d] People will build the city of Jerusalem again. It will have streets and a strong wall around it. But there will be a lot of trouble at that time. 26 After the 62 weeks have passed, people will kill the ruler that God had chosen. He will have nothing. Then a foreign ruler and his army will attack the city and the temple. He will destroy them quickly, like a flood of water. War and terrible trouble will continue until the end that God has decided.
27 The foreign ruler will make an agreement with many people. That agreement will continue for one week. In the middle of that week, he will stop the sacrifices and offerings in the temple. Instead, he will put a disgusting thing there that causes trouble. It will remain there until God finally destroys the ruler who destroys. His end will happen at the time that God has decided.’
Footnotes
- 9:1 Xerxes was also called Ahasuerus.
- 9:2 When we write Lord like this, it is a special name for God. Sometimes people write it as ‘Yahweh’, or as ‘Jehovah’. It is his own name that he told Moses. See Exodus 3:14. It means ‘I am who I am’. This shows that God has always been there and he always will be there.
- 9:24 Hebrew says ‘7 times 70’. This could mean 70 weeks (7 days times 70). Or it could mean 490 years (7 years times 70).
- 9:25 ‘7 times 7’ could mean 7 weeks or 49 years. ‘62 times 7’ could mean 62 weeks or 434 years.
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