Daniel 9:11

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

Daniel 9:11 Meaning and Commentary

Daniel 9:11

Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law
Even God's professing people, on whom he had bestowed distinguishing favours and blessings, and gave them such a law as no other people had, and yet they transgressed it; not a few, or the greatest part only, but the whole body of them: and indeed there is no man that lives without sin, or the transgression of the law, in thought, word, or deeds; no, not a just man; but these transgressed the law in a very heinous manner, both the first as well as the second table of it, committing idolatry, and all manner of impiety, in which they continued: even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice;
by departing from the law, and the precepts of it; from God and his worship; from the temple of God, and the service of it; and from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin: it seems to have some respect to the separation of the ten tribes under Jeroboam, who set up the calves at Dan and Bethel, that the people might not obey the voice of the Lord, in going to worship at the solemn feasts in Jerusalem: therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in
the law of Moses the servant of God:
that is, the just punishment of their sins was inflicted on them; or the curse the law threatened the transgressors of it with was come upon them in its large extent, and overflowed them like a flood; which God swore he would bring upon them, if they transgressed his law; or which they by an oath imprecated and pronounced upon themselves, should they not hearken to it, but transgress and disobey it: because we have sinned against him;
and therefore this curse was not a causeless one; sin, the transgression of the law, was the cause of it.

Daniel 9:11 In-Context

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 cursewritten in the law of Moses, 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 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 the Lord our God by turning from our injustice and paying attention to Your truth.

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit The curse and the oath
• [b]. Dt 29:19-20
• [c]. Dt 28:15-68; 29:16-30:20