Daniel 9:3

3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

Daniel 9:3 in Other Translations

King James Version (KJV)
3 And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
English Standard Version (ESV)
3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
New Living Translation (NLT)
3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and fasting. I also wore rough burlap and sprinkled myself with ashes.
The Message Bible (MSG)
3 I turned to the Master God, asking for an answer - praying earnestly, fasting from meals, wearing rough penitential burlap, and kneeling in the ashes.
American Standard Version (ASV)
3 And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
GOD'S WORD Translation (GW)
3 So I turned to the Lord God and looked to him for help. I prayed, pleaded, and fasted in sackcloth and ashes.
Holman Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
3 So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petitions, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
New International Reader's Version (NIRV)
3 So I prayed to the Lord God. I begged him. I made many appeals to him. I didn't eat anything. I put on black clothes. And I sat down in ashes.

Daniel 9:3 Meaning and Commentary

Daniel 9:3

And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and
supplications
He set apart some time on purpose for this service, distinct from his usual stated times of prayer, as well as from his civil business and employment; and he not only set his face toward Jerusalem, as he used to do, ( Daniel 6:10 ) , the more to affect his mind with the desolations the city and temple lay in; but towards the Lord God, the sovereign Lord of all, who does according to his will in heaven and in earth, the Governor of the universe, the one true God, Father, Son, and Spirit: and this denotes the intenseness of his spirit in prayer; the fixedness of his heart; the ardour of his mind; the fervency of his soul; his holy confidence in God; the freedom and boldness he used in prayer, and his constancy and continuance in it; which is a principal means, and a proper manner of seeking God. The Septuagint version, agreeably to the Hebrew text F4, renders it, "to seek prayer and supplications"; such as were suitable and pertinent to the present case; most beneficial and interesting to him and his people, and most acceptable to the Lord: with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes;
as was usual on extraordinary occasions, in times of public mourning; and this he did, to show his sense of the divine Being, and of his own unworthiness to ask or receive anything of him; his great humiliation for the sins of the people; and to distinguish this prayer of his from ordinary ones, and to affect his own heart in it, with the sad condition his nation, city, and temple were in; and therefore abstained from food for a time, put sackcloth on his loins, and ashes on his head, or sat in them.


FOOTNOTES:

F4 (Mynwnxtw hlpt vqbl) (tou ekzhthsai proseuchn kai dehseiv) , Sept; "ad quaerendum orationem et deprecationes", Montanus; "ad quaerendam orationem et supplicationem", Cocceius.

Daniel 9:3 In-Context

1 In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom—
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 years.
3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.
4 I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed: “Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments,
5 we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws.

Cross References 2

  • 1. S 2 Chronicles 20:3
  • 2. S 2 Samuel 13:19; S Nehemiah 1:4; Jeremiah 29:12; Daniel 10:12; John 3:6
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