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.

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?

²² ‘They shall be ^(A)carried to Babylon, and there they shall be until the day that I ^(B)visit them,’ says the Lord. ‘Then ^(C)I will bring them up and restore them to this place.’ ”

¹² ‘Then it will come to pass, ^(A)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; ^(B)‘and I will make it a perpetual desolation.

⁴² “For thus says the Lord: ^(A)‘Just as I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will bring on them all the good that I have promised them. ⁴³ And fields will be bought in this land ^(B)of which you say, “It is desolate, without man or beast; it has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans.” ⁴⁴ Men will buy fields for money, sign deeds and seal them, and take witnesses, in ^(C)the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the ^[a]lowland, and in the cities of the ^[b]South; for ^(D)I will cause their captives to return,’ says the Lord.”

⁶ For I will set My eyes on them for good, and ^(A)I will bring them back to this land; ^(B)I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. ⁷ Then I will give them ^(C)a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be ^(D)My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me ^(E)with their whole heart.

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.

The Proclamation of Cyrus^(D)

^22 (E)Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of ^(F)Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of ^(G)Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying,

End of the Babylonian Captivity^(I)

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