Daniel 9

Daniel's Prayer

1 In the first year of Darius,^[a] who was the son of Ahasuerus, was a Mede by birth, and was ruler over the kingdom of the Chaldeans-

2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the books according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet that the number of years for the desolation of Jerusalem would be 70.^[b]

3 So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petitions, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

4 I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed: Ah, Lord-the great and awe-inspiring God who keeps His gracious covenant with those who love Him and keep His commandments^[c]-

5 we have sinned, done wrong, acted wickedly, rebelled, and turned away from Your commandments and ordinances.

6 We have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, leaders, fathers, and all the people of the land.

7 Lord, righteousness belongs to You, 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 dispersed them because of the disloyalty they have shown toward You.

8 Lord, public shame belongs to us, our kings, our leaders, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You.

9 Compassion and forgiveness belong to the Lord our God, though we have rebelled against Him

10 and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by following His instructions that He set before us through His servants the prophets.

11 All Israel has broken Your law and turned away, refusing to obey You. The promised curse^[d][e]written in the law of Moses,^[f] the servant of God, has been poured out on us because we have sinned against Him.

12 He has carried out His words that He spoke against us and against our rulers^[g] by bringing on us so great a disaster that nothing like what has been done to Jerusalem has ever been done under all of heaven.

13 Just as it is written in the law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not appeased^[h] the Lord our God by turning from our injustice and paying attention to Your truth.

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 mighty hand and made Your name [renowned] 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 turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the injustices of our fathers, 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. Show Your favor^[i] to Your desolate sanctuary for the Lord's sake.

18 Listen,^[j] my God, and hear. Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city called by 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, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.

The 70 Weeks of Years

20 While I was speaking, praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my petition before Yahweh my God concerning the holy mountain of my God-

21 while I was praying, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the first vision,^[k] came to me in my extreme weariness, about the time of the evening offering.

22 He gave me this explanation: "Daniel, I've come now to give you understanding.

23 At the beginning of your petitions an answer went out, and I have come to give it, for you are treasured [by God]. So consider the message and understand the vision:

24 Seventy weeks^[l] are decreed about your people and your holy city- to bring the rebellion to an end, to put a stop to sin, to wipe away injustice, to bring in everlasting righteousness, 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 until Messiah the Prince^[m] will be seven weeks and 62 weeks.^[n] It will be rebuilt with a plaza and a moat, but in difficult times.

26 After those 62 weeks^[o] the Messiah will be cut off^[p] and will have nothing. The people of the coming prince will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The^[q] end will come with a flood, and until the end there will be^[r] war; desolations are decreed.

27 He will make a firm covenant^[s] with many for one week,^[t] but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and offering. And the abomination of desolation will be on a wing^[u] of the temple^[v][w] until the decreed destruction is poured out on the desolator."

Daniel 9 Commentary

Chapter 9

Daniel considers the time of the captivity. (1-3) His confession of sin, and prayer. (4-19) The revelation concerning the coming of the Messiah. (20-27)

Verses 1-3 Daniel learned from the books of the prophets, especially from Jeremiah, that the desolation of Jerusalem would continue seventy years, which were drawing to a close. God's promises are to encourage our prayers, not to make them needless; and when we see the performance of them approaching, we should more earnestly plead them with God.

Verses 4-19 In every prayer we must make confession, not only of the sins we have been guilty of, but of our faith in God, and dependence upon him, our sorrow for sin, and our resolutions against it. It must be our confession, the language of our convictions. Here is Daniel's humble, serious, devout address to God; in which he gives glory to him as a God to be feared, and as a God to be trusted. We should, in prayer, look both at God's greatness and his goodness, his majesty and mercy. Here is a penitent confession of sin, the cause of the troubles the people for so many years groaned under. All who would find mercy must thus confess their sins. Here is a self-abasing acknowledgment of the righteousness of God; and it is evermore the way of true penitents thus to justify God. Afflictions are sent to bring men to turn from their sins, and to understand God's truth. Here is a believing appeal to the mercy of God. It is a comfort that God has been always ready to pardon sin. It is encouraging to recollect that mercies belong to God, as it is convincing and humbling to recollect that righteousness belongs to him. There are abundant mercies in God, not only forgiveness, but forgivenesses. Here are pleaded the reproach God's people was under, and the ruins God's sanctuary was in. Sin is a reproach to any people, especially to God's people. The desolations of the sanctuary are grief to all the saints. Here is an earnest request to God to restore the poor captive Jews to their former enjoyments. O Lord, hearken and do. Not hearken and speak only, but hearken and do; do that for us which none else can do; and defer not. Here are several pleas and arguments to enforce the petitions. Do it for the Lord Christ's sake; Christ is the Lord of all. And for his sake God causes his face to shine upon sinners when they repent, and turn to him. In all our prayers this must be our plea, we must make mention of his righteousness, even of his only. The humble, fervent, believing earnestness of this prayer should ever be followed by us.

Verses 20-27 An answer was immediately sent to Daniel's prayer, and it is a very memorable one. We cannot now expect that God should send answers to our prayers by angels, but if we pray with fervency for that which God has promised, we may by faith take the promise as an immediate answer to the prayer; for He is faithful that has promised. Daniel had a far greater and more glorious redemption discovered to him, which God would work out for his church in the latter days. Those who would be acquainted with Christ and his grace, must be much in prayer. The evening offering was a type of the great sacrifice Christ was to offer in the evening of the world: in virtue of that sacrifice Daniel's prayer was accepted; and for the sake of that, this glorious discovery of redeeming love was made to him. We have, in verses ( 24-27 ) , one of the most remarkable prophecies of Christ, of his coming and his salvation. It shows that the Jews are guilty of most obstinate unbelief, in expecting another Messiah, so long after the time expressly fixed for his coming. The seventy weeks mean a day for a year, or 490 years. About the end of this period a sacrifice would be offered, making full atonement for sin, and bringing in everlasting righteousness for the complete justification of every believer. Then the Jews, in the crucifixion of Jesus, would commit that crime by which the measure of their guilt would be filled up, and troubles would come upon their nation. All blessings bestowed on sinful man come through Christ's atoning sacrifice, who suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Here is our way of access to the throne of grace, and of our entrance to heaven. This seals the sum of prophecy, and confirms the covenant with many; and while we rejoice in the blessings of salvation, we should remember what they cost the Redeemer. How can those escape who neglect so great salvation!

Footnotes

• [a]. Dn 5:31; 6:1; 11:1
• [b]. 2 Ch 36:21; Jr 25:11-12; 29:10
• [c]. Dt 7:9; Neh 1:5
• [d]. Lit The curse and the oath
• [e]. Dt 29:19-20
• [f]. Dt 28:15-68; 29:16-30:20
• [g]. Lit against rulers who ruled us
• [h]. Mal 1:9
• [i]. Nm 6:25; Ps 31:17; 67:2
• [j]. Lit Stretch out Your ear
• [k]. Dn 8:1,15
• [l]. 490 years; 2 Ch 36:21; Jr 25:11-12; 29:10
• [m]. Or until an anointed one, a prince
• [n]. 49 years and 434 years
• [o]. 434 years
• [p]. Isa 53:8
• [q]. Lit Its, or His
• [r]. Or end of a
• [s]. Or will enforce a covenant
• [t]. 7 years
• [u]. Isa 7:7-8; Mt 4:5
• [v]. LXX; MT reads of abominations
• [w]. 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

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO DANIEL 9

This chapter contains a prayer of Daniel, and the answer to it. The time, occasion, and manner of his prayer, or circumstances of it, are observed, Da 9:1-3, the parts of it, an address unto God, under various suitable epithets and characters, Da 9:4 confession of sin, of his own, of the inhabitants of the land, kings, princes, and people, which are largely dwelt upon and exaggerated, Da 9:5-15 and petitions for mercy, Da 9:16-19, then the answer follows; the time when it was ordered and given, and the person by whom it was sent, are expressed, Da 9:20-23 who delivered to him the vision of the seventy weeks to be considered by him; in which both the work of the Messiah, and the time of his coming, are clearly pointed out, Da 9:24-27.