Daniel 9:3

3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God to seek [him] [by] prayer and pleas for mercy, in fasting and [in] sackcloth and 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.

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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, [the] son of Ahasuerus, from [the] offspring of [the] Medes, who became king over [the] kingdom of [the] Chaldeans--

2 in [the] first year [of] his kingship I, Daniel, observed in the scrolls the number of the years that it was [that were] to be fulfilled [according to] [the] word of Yahweh to Jeremiah the prophet for the devastation of Jerusalem--seventy years.

3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God to seek [him] [by] prayer and pleas for mercy, in fasting and [in] sackcloth and ashes.

4 And I prayed to Yahweh my God, and I made confession and I said, "O Lord, the great and awesome God, keeping the covenant and loyal love with [those who] love him and with [those who] keep his commandments,

5 we have sinned and we have done wrong and we acted wickedly and we rebelled and [have been] turning aside from your commandments and from your ordinances.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "supplications"