Daniel 9:3-13

3 And I turned my face unto the Lord God, seeking him in prayer and supplication, in fasting and sackcloth, and ashes:

4 and I prayed unto the LORD my God and made my confession and said, Now O Lord, thou great God who is worthy to be feared, who keeps the covenant and the mercy with those that love thee and keep thy commandments;

5 we have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly, and we have been rebels, and we have departed from thy commandments and from thy judgments.

6 We have not hearkened unto thy slaves the prophets, who spoke in thy name to our kings and to our princes, to our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

7 O Lord, the righteousness belongs unto thee, but unto us the confusion of face, as at this day; to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near and that are far off through all the lands where thou hast driven them because of their rebellion with which they have rebelled against thee.

8 O Lord, to us belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.

9 Of the Lord our God is the ability to have mercy and to forgive, even though we have rebelled against him

10 and have not listened to the voice of the LORD our God to walk by his laws, which he set before us by the hand of his slaves the prophets.

11 And all Israel transposed thy law, departing by not hearing thy voice; by which the curse has fallen upon us and the oath that is written in the law of Moses, the slave of God, because we have sinned against him.

12 And he has confirmed his words, which he spoke over us and over our judges that governed us, by bringing upon us such a great evil: that such has never been done under the whole heaven as has been done upon Jerusalem.

13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us, and we never sought the face of the LORD our God, that we might be converted from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.

Daniel 9:3-13 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.