Daniel 9 · WEB
Daniel's Prayer and the Seventy Weeks
Listen — WEB narration 0:00 / 0:00 Narration: World English Bible (David Williams), public domain — AudioTreasure.
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In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the offspring of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans,
2in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years about which Yahweh's word came to Jeremiah the prophet, for the accomplishing of the desolations of Jerusalem, even seventy years.
3I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and petitions, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
4I prayed to Yahweh my God, and made confession, and said, "Oh, Lord, the great and dreadful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with those who love him and keep his commandments,
5we have sinned, and have dealt perversely, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from your precepts and from your ordinances.
6We haven't listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
7"Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us confusion of face, as it is today; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, who are near, and who are far off, through all the countries where you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you.
8Lord, to us belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.
9To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness; for we have rebelled against him.
10We haven't obeyed Yahweh our God's voice, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
11"Yes, all Israel have transgressed your law, turning aside, that they should not obey your voice. Therefore the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us; for we have sinned against him.
12He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges who judged us, by bringing on us a great evil; for under the whole sky, such has not been done as has been done to Jerusalem.
13As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come on us. Yet we have not entreated the favor of Yahweh our God, that we should turn from our iniquities and have discernment in your truth.
14Therefore Yahweh has watched over the evil, and brought it on us; for Yahweh our God is righteous in all his works which he does, and we have not obeyed his voice.
15"Now, Lord our God, who has brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have gotten yourself renown, as it is today; we have sinned. We have done wickedly.
16Lord, according to all your righteousness, please let your anger and your wrath be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a reproach to all who are around us.
17Now therefore, our God, listen to the prayer of your servant, and to his petitions, and cause your face to shine on your sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.
18"My God, turn your ear, and hear. Open your eyes, and see our desolations, and the city which is called by your name; for we do not present our petitions before you for our righteousness, but for your great mercies' sake.
19Lord, hear. Lord, forgive. Lord, listen and do. Don't defer, for your own sake, my God, because your city and your people are called by your name."
20While I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before Yahweh my God for the holy mountain of my God;
21yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening offering.
22He instructed me and talked with me, and said, "Daniel, I have now come to give you wisdom and understanding.
23At the beginning of your petitions the commandment went out, and I have come to tell you; for you are greatly beloved. Therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision.
24"Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.
25"Know therefore and discern, that from the going out of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem to the Anointed One, the prince, shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks. It shall be built again, with street and moat, even in troubled times.
26After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One shall be cut off, and shall have nothing. The people of the prince who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall be with a flood, and war shall be even to the end. Desolations are determined.
27He shall make a firm covenant with many for one week. In the middle of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease. On the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate; and even to the full end, and that determined, wrath shall be poured out on the desolate."
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Summary
In the first year of Darius the Mede, Daniel realizes from reading Jeremiah that the seventy years of exile are nearly complete, and he pours out a prayer of deep confession on behalf of his people. He acknowledges Israel's sin, appeals to God's mercy rather than their righteousness, and pleads for the restoration of Jerusalem. The angel Gabriel comes with the answer: seventy "weeks" are decreed to finish transgression, atone for sin, and bring in everlasting righteousness, culminating in the Anointed One being cut off and the destruction of the city and sanctuary.
Themes
- Corporate confession and repentance
- God's mercy as the basis for prayer
- Scripture shaping prayer (Daniel reads Jeremiah)
- Messianic prophecy and the cutting off of the Anointed One
- God's sovereign timetable over history
Key verses
- Dan 9:19 — “Lord, hear. Lord, forgive. Lord, listen and do. Don't defer, for your own sake, my God.”
- Dan 9:24 — “Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness.”
- Dan 9:26 — “After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One shall be cut off, and shall have nothing.”
- Dan 9:9 — “To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness; for we have rebelled against him.”
Context & background
The chapter is set around 539-538 BC in Babylon (modern central Iraq), just as the Medo-Persian empire has overthrown the Babylonians and the seventy-year exile predicted by Jeremiah is drawing to a close. Daniel is now an elderly statesman, probably in his eighties. Jerusalem, located in modern Israel, had been destroyed in 586 BC and its temple burned. The seventy weeks prophecy (verses 24-27) is one of the most studied and debated passages in Scripture; many interpreters see it pointing to the ministry, death, and rejection of Jesus the Messiah (the "Anointed One cut off") and the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome in AD 70.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 53:8 — the Messiah "cut off" out of the land of the living
- Jeremiah 25:11-12 — the seventy-year exile that Daniel reads
- Leviticus 26:40-42 — confessing sin and God remembering his covenant
- Matthew 24:15 — Jesus references the "abomination of desolation" from Dan 9:27
- Nehemiah 1:5-11 — a similarly structured prayer of confession for Jerusalem