CHAPTER 9

¹In the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus from the seed of Media, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans, ²in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, came to understand in the books the number of years that according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet were to fulfill the devastation of Jerusalem—seventy years. ³And I turned to the Master God to petition in prayer and supplication, in fasting and sackcloth and ashes. ⁴And I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed and said, “O Master, great and fearsome God, Who keeps the covenant and faithfulness for those who love Him and keep His commands! ⁵We have offended and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled and swerved from Your commands and from Your statutes. ⁶And we have not heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our nobles, our fathers, and to all the people of the land. ⁷Yours, O Master, is righteousness and ours the disgrace, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, far and near in all the lands to which You have driven them for their betrayal that they committed against You. ⁸Ours is the shame, O LORD, our kings’, our nobles’, and our fathers’, for we have offended You. ⁹To the Master our God are compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him. ¹⁰And we have not heeded the voice of the LORD our God to walk in His teachings that He set before us through His servants the prophets. ¹¹And all Israel have violated Your teaching and swerved away, not heeding Your voice. And the curse and the imprecation written in the Teaching of Moses servant of God poured down on us, for we have offended Him. ¹²And he fulfilled His word that He had spoken concerning us and concerning our judges who judged us to bring upon us great evil, which has never been done under all the heavens as was done against Jerusalem. ¹³As it is written in the Teaching of Moses, all this evil came upon us, yet we did not entreat the LORD our God to turn from our wrongdoing and to find wisdom in Your truth. ¹⁴And the LORD was exacting about the evil and brought it upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in all His acts that He has done, but we did not heed His voice. ¹⁵And now, O Master our God, Who brought Your people out from the land of Egypt with a strong hand and made a name for Yourself as on this day, we have offended, we have acted wickedly. ¹⁶O Master, by all Your righteousness let Your wrath, pray, and Your fury turn back from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain, for through our offenses and through the wrongdoing of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a disgrace to all around us. ¹⁷And now, listen, God, to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications, and let Your face shine on Your desolate sanctuary for the sake of the Master. ¹⁸Bend Your ear, my God, and listen. Open Your eyes and see our desolation and the city on which Your name is called, for not because of our righteousness do we pour out our supplication before You but because of Your great compassion. ¹⁹O Master, listen. O Master forgive. O Master hearken, and do it, do not delay, for Your sake, my God, for Your name is called on Your city and on Your people.” ²⁰I was still speaking and praying and confessing my offense and the offense of my people Israel and pouring out my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God, ²¹and I was still speaking in prayer, when the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision before, glided down in flight, reaching me at the hour of the evening offering. ²²And he imparted understanding and spoke with me and said, “Daniel, now have I come out to convey wisdom to you. ²³At the beginning of your supplication the word was issued and I have come to tell that you are beloved. And discern the word and understand the vision. ²⁴Seven weeks of years are decreed for your people to work out the crime and to finish offenses and to atone for wrongdoing and to bring everlasting justice and to seal vision and prophecy and to anoint the holy of holies. ²⁵And you shall know and understand: seven weeks of years from the issuing of the word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the anointed prince, and in sixty-two weeks of years it will once more be built, square and moat, but in a time of distress. ²⁶And after the sixty-two weeks of years the anointed one shall be cut off with none to cut off with none to save him. ²⁷And the troops of a prince who comes shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, but his end shall come in a sudden rush, and till the end of the decreed war, desolation. ²⁸And he shall make a strong pact with the many for one week of years, and for half a week of years he shall put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering. And in its place there shall be a desolating abomination until the decreed destruction is poured down on the desolating thing.”