Daniel 9:1-11

1 In the first year of Darius, son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who hath been made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans,

2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, have understood by books the number of the years, (in that a word of Jehovah hath been unto Jeremiah the prophet,) concerning the fulfilling of the wastes of Jerusalem -- seventy years;

3 and I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek [by] prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.

4 And I pray to Jehovah my God, and confess, and say: `I beseech Thee, O Lord God, the great and the fearful, keeping the covenant and the kindness to those loving Him, and to those keeping His commands;

5 we have sinned, and done perversely, and done wickedly, and rebelled, to turn aside from Thy commands, and from Thy judgments:

6 and we have not hearkened unto Thy servants, the prophets, who have spoken in Thy name unto our kings, our heads, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

7 `To Thee, O Lord, [is] the righteousness, and to us the shame of face, as [at] this day, to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, who are near, and who are far off, in all the lands whither Thou hast driven them, in their trespass that they have trespassed against Thee.

8 `O Lord, to us [is] the shame of face, to our kings, to our heads, and to our fathers, in that we have sinned against Thee.

9 `To the Lord our God [are] the mercies and the forgivenesses, for we have rebelled against Him,

10 and have not hearkened to the voice of Jehovah our God, to walk in His laws, that He hath set before us by the hand of His servants the prophets;

11 and all Israel have transgressed Thy law, to turn aside so as not to hearken to Thy voice; and poured on us is the execration, and the oath, that is written in the law of Moses, servant of God, because we have sinned against Him.

Daniel 9:1-11 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.