⁵ “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted^(A) and mourned in the fifth and seventh^(B) months for the past seventy years,^(C) was it really for me that you fasted?

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.

⁶ My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back^(A) to this land. I will build^(B) them up and not tear them down; I will plant^(C) them and not uproot them. ⁷ I will give them a heart to know^(D) me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people,^(E) and I will be their God, for they will return^(F) to me with all their heart.^(G)

⁴² “This is what the Lord says: As I have brought all this great calamity^(A) on this people, so I will give them all the prosperity I have promised^(B) them. ⁴³ Once more fields will be bought^(C) in this land of which you say, ‘It is a desolate^(D) waste, without people or animals, for it has been given into the hands of the Babylonians.’ ⁴⁴ Fields will be bought for silver, and deeds^(E) will be signed, sealed and witnessed^(F) in the territory of Benjamin, in the villages around Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah and in the towns of the hill country, of the western foothills and of the Negev,^(G) because I will restore^(H) their fortunes,^[a] declares the Lord.”

²² ‘They will be taken^(A) to Babylon and there they will remain until the day^(B) I come for them,’ declares the Lord. ‘Then I will bring^(C) them back and restore them to this place.’”

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

⁷ All nations will serve^(A) him and his son and his grandson until the time^(B) for his land comes; then many nations and great kings will subjugate^(C) him.