Daniel 9

Daniel’s Prayer for His People

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.

6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors and to all the people of the land.

7 "{Righteousness belongs to you, O Lord}, and on us [is] open shame, [just] as [it is] this day to the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to all Israel, {those who are near and those who are far off} in all the lands [to] which you have driven them, because of their infidelity which they displayed against you.

8 Yahweh, on us [is] open shame, on our kings, on our princes, and on our ancestors, because we have sinned against you.

9 {Compassion and forgiveness belong to the Lord, our God}, for we have rebelled against him,

10 and we have not listened to the voice of Yahweh our God, by following his law {which he placed before us} by [the] hand of his servants the prophets.

11 "And all Israel transgressed your law and turned aside [so as] not to listen to your voice, and [so] the curse and the oath which [was] written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, has been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him.

12 And [so] he [has] carried out his words which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, to bring upon us [a] great calamity which was not done under all [of] heaven as it was done in Jerusalem.

13 Just as [it is] written in the law of Moses, all of this calamity has come upon us, and {we have not implored} the face of Yahweh our God [so as] to turn from our iniquities and to attend closely to your faithfulness.

14 So Yahweh [has] kept watch over the calamity, and [now] he [has] brought it upon us. Indeed, Yahweh our God [is] righteous concerning all his works that he has done, but we have not listened to his voice.

15 "And now, Lord our God, who have brought your people out from [the] land of Egypt with a strong hand, and you [have] made for yourself a name [until] this day--we have sinned, we have acted wickedly.

16 Lord, according to all your righteousness, please let your anger and your rage turn away from your city Jerusalem, {your holy mountain}, because through our sins and through the iniquities of our ancestors Jerusalem and your people have become an object of mockery among all of our neighbors.

17 "And now, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy. Shine your face upon your desolate sanctuary {for your sake, O Lord}.

18 Incline your ear, my God, and listen; open your eyes and look at our desolation and the city that is called [by] your name, for we [are] not presenting our pleas for mercy {before you} because of our righteousness, but [rather] because of your great compassion.

19 Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, pay heed and act! You must not delay {for your sake}, my God; because {your city and your people are called by your name}."

Gabriel’s Announcement and Presentation of the Seventy Sets of Seven

20 Now I [was] still speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea {before} Yahweh my God, on behalf {of the holy mountain of my God}.

21 And I [was] still speaking in prayer, and the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision {previously}, {in my weariness touched me} at [the] time of [the] evening offering.

22 And he instructed [me] and he spoke with me and he said, "Daniel I have now come out to teach you understanding.

23 At the beginning of your pleas for mercy, a word went out, and [now] I have come to declare [it], for you [are] highly esteemed, and [so] consider the word and understand the vision.

The Seventy Sets of Seven Detailed

24 "Seventy weeks is decreed for your people and {for your holy city}, to put an end to the transgression and to seal [up] sin and to make atonement for guilt and to bring [in] everlasting righteousness and to seal vision and prophet and to anoint {the most holy place}.

25 And you must know and you must understand [that] from [the] time of the going out of [the] word to restore and build Jerusalem until [an] anointed [one]--[a] leader--[will be] {seven weeks and sixty-two weeks}; it will be restored and will be built [with] streets and [a] moat, but {in a time of oppression}.

26 "And after the sixty and two weeks an anointed one shall be cut off, and {he shall have nothing}, and [the] people of the coming leader will destroy the city and the sanctuary, and its end [will be] with the flood and [on] to [the] end [there shall be] war; [these] desolations are determined.

27 And he will make a strong covenant with the many [for] one week, but [in] half of the week he will let cease sacrifice and offering {and in its place} a desolating abomination [comes] even until {the determined complete destruction} is poured out on [the] desolator."

Daniel 9 Commentary

Chapter 9

Daniel considers the time of the captivity. (1-3) His confession of sin, and prayer. (4-19) The revelation concerning the coming of the Messiah. (20-27)

Verses 1-3 Daniel learned from the books of the prophets, especially from Jeremiah, that the desolation of Jerusalem would continue seventy years, which were drawing to a close. God's promises are to encourage our prayers, not to make them needless; and when we see the performance of them approaching, we should more earnestly plead them with God.

Verses 4-19 In every prayer we must make confession, not only of the sins we have been guilty of, but of our faith in God, and dependence upon him, our sorrow for sin, and our resolutions against it. It must be our confession, the language of our convictions. Here is Daniel's humble, serious, devout address to God; in which he gives glory to him as a God to be feared, and as a God to be trusted. We should, in prayer, look both at God's greatness and his goodness, his majesty and mercy. Here is a penitent confession of sin, the cause of the troubles the people for so many years groaned under. All who would find mercy must thus confess their sins. Here is a self-abasing acknowledgment of the righteousness of God; and it is evermore the way of true penitents thus to justify God. Afflictions are sent to bring men to turn from their sins, and to understand God's truth. Here is a believing appeal to the mercy of God. It is a comfort that God has been always ready to pardon sin. It is encouraging to recollect that mercies belong to God, as it is convincing and humbling to recollect that righteousness belongs to him. There are abundant mercies in God, not only forgiveness, but forgivenesses. Here are pleaded the reproach God's people was under, and the ruins God's sanctuary was in. Sin is a reproach to any people, especially to God's people. The desolations of the sanctuary are grief to all the saints. Here is an earnest request to God to restore the poor captive Jews to their former enjoyments. O Lord, hearken and do. Not hearken and speak only, but hearken and do; do that for us which none else can do; and defer not. Here are several pleas and arguments to enforce the petitions. Do it for the Lord Christ's sake; Christ is the Lord of all. And for his sake God causes his face to shine upon sinners when they repent, and turn to him. In all our prayers this must be our plea, we must make mention of his righteousness, even of his only. The humble, fervent, believing earnestness of this prayer should ever be followed by us.

Verses 20-27 An answer was immediately sent to Daniel's prayer, and it is a very memorable one. We cannot now expect that God should send answers to our prayers by angels, but if we pray with fervency for that which God has promised, we may by faith take the promise as an immediate answer to the prayer; for He is faithful that has promised. Daniel had a far greater and more glorious redemption discovered to him, which God would work out for his church in the latter days. Those who would be acquainted with Christ and his grace, must be much in prayer. The evening offering was a type of the great sacrifice Christ was to offer in the evening of the world: in virtue of that sacrifice Daniel's prayer was accepted; and for the sake of that, this glorious discovery of redeeming love was made to him. We have, in verses ( 24-27 ) , one of the most remarkable prophecies of Christ, of his coming and his salvation. It shows that the Jews are guilty of most obstinate unbelief, in expecting another Messiah, so long after the time expressly fixed for his coming. The seventy weeks mean a day for a year, or 490 years. About the end of this period a sacrifice would be offered, making full atonement for sin, and bringing in everlasting righteousness for the complete justification of every believer. Then the Jews, in the crucifixion of Jesus, would commit that crime by which the measure of their guilt would be filled up, and troubles would come upon their nation. All blessings bestowed on sinful man come through Christ's atoning sacrifice, who suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Here is our way of access to the throne of grace, and of our entrance to heaven. This seals the sum of prophecy, and confirms the covenant with many; and while we rejoice in the blessings of salvation, we should remember what they cost the Redeemer. How can those escape who neglect so great salvation!

Footnotes

• [a]. That is, Xerxes
• [b]. Or "supplications"
• [c]. Or "fathers"
• [d]. Literally "for you Lord the righteousness"
• [e]. Literally "those near and those far"
• [f]. Hebrew "[to] which you have driven them there"
• [g]. Or "fathers"
• [h]. Literally "to [the] Lord our God the compassion and the forgiveness"
• [i]. Literally "which he gave to the face of us"
• [j]. Literally "we not implored"
• [k]. Or "truth"
• [l]. Or "his"
• [m]. Or "acts"
• [n]. Literally "the mountain of your holiness"
• [o]. Or "fathers"
• [p]. Or "let shine" or "cause to shine"
• [q]. Literally "for the sake of the Lord"
• [r]. Literally "to the face of you"
• [s]. Literally "for the sake of you"
• [t]. Literally "your name is called over your city and over your people"
• [u]. Literally "to the face of"
• [v]. Literally "the mountain of the holiness of my God"
• [w]. Literally "in the beginning"
• [x]. Literally "[my] being wearied, touching me"
• [y]. Or "forth"
• [z]. Or "deliver"
• [aa]. Literally "for [the] city of your holiness"
• [ab]. Or "to make an end to sin"
• [ac]. Literally "the holy place of holy places"
• [ad]. Or "so you are to know and discern" (NASB), or "know then and understand" (e.g. NEB)
• [ae]. Or "messiah"
• [af]. Literally "weeks seven and weeks sixty and two"
• [ag]. Literally "in distress/oppression of the times/time"
• [ah]. Or "messiah"
• [ai]. Literally "there is not for him"
• [aj]. Or "holy place"
• [ak]. Literally "and on a wing of"
• [al]. Literally "a complete destruction and being determined"

Chapter Summary

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.