Daniel 9:17-27

17 "So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications, and for Your sake, O Lord, 1let Your face shine on Your 2desolate sanctuary.
18 "O my God, 3incline Your ear and hear! Open Your eyes and 4see our desolations and the city which is 5called by Your name; for we are not 6presenting our supplications before You on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion.
19 "O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, 7do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name."

Gabriel Brings an Answer

20 Now while I was 8speaking and praying, and 9confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God,
21 while I was still speaking in prayer, then the man 10Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously, came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the 11evening offering.
22 He gave me instruction and talked with me and said, "O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with 12understanding.
23 "At the 13beginning of your supplications the command was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are 14highly esteemed; so give heed to the message and gain 15understanding of the vision.

Seventy Weeks and the Messiah

24 "Seventy 16weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to 17make atonement for iniquity, to bring in 18everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.
25 "So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a 19decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until 20Messiah the 21Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two * weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.
26 "Then after the sixty-two * weeks the Messiah will be 22cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will 23destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a 24flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.
27 "And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of 25abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a 26complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate."

Daniel 9:17-27 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Cross References 26

  • 1. Numbers 6:24-26; Ps 80:3, 7, 19
  • 2. Lamentations 5:18
  • 3. Isaiah 37:17
  • 4. Psalms 80:14
  • 5. Jeremiah 7:10-12
  • 6. Jeremiah 36:7
  • 7. Psalms 44:23; Psalms 74:10, 11
  • 8. Psalms 145:18; Isaiah 58:9; Daniel 9:3; Daniel 10:12
  • 9. Isaiah 6:5
  • 10. Daniel 8:16; Luke 1:19, 26
  • 11. Exodus 29:39; 1 Kings 18:36; Ezra 9:4
  • 12. Daniel 8:16; Daniel 10:21; Zechariah 1:9
  • 13. Daniel 10:12
  • 14. Daniel 10:11, 19
  • 15. Matthew 24:15
  • 16. Leviticus 25:8; Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:5, 6
  • 17. 2 Chronicles 29:24; Isaiah 53:10; Romans 5:10
  • 18. Isaiah 51:6, 8; Isaiah 56:1; Jeremiah 23:5, 6; Romans 3:21, 22
  • 19. Ezra 4:24; Ezra 6:1-15; Nehemiah 2:1-8; Nehemiah 3:1
  • 20. John 1:41; John 4:25
  • 21. Isaiah 9:6; Daniel 8:11, 25
  • 22. Isaiah 53:8; Mark 9:12; Luke 24:26
  • 23. Matthew 24:2; Mark 13:2; Luke 19:43, 44
  • 24. Nahum 1:8
  • 25. Daniel 11:31; Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14; Luke 21:20
  • 26. Isaiah 10:23; Isaiah 28:22

Footnotes 23

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