^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.

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 (E)For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare^[a] and not for evil, ^(F)to give you a future and a hope. ^12 (G)Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, ^(H)and I will hear you. ^13 (I)You will seek me and find me, when you seek me ^(J)with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you, declares the Lord, ^(K)and I will restore your fortunes and ^(L)gather you from all the nations and all the places ^(M)where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

Daniel's Prayer for His People

9 ^(A)In the first year of ^(B)Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a ^(C)Mede, who was made king over the realm of the ^(D)Chaldeans— ² in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to ^(E)the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.