Moff DAN Chapter 9

◄ DAN 9 ► ║ ═ ©

9 In the first year of Darius the son of Xerxes, belonging to the Median race, who had been made king over the Chaldean realm, 2 in the first year of his reign, I Daniel noticed in the scriptures the number of the years which, the Eternal had predicted to the prophet Jeremiah, would pass before Jerusalem ceased to lie desolate; the number was seventy. 3 So I sought the Lord God, applying myself to prayer and entreaty with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. 4 I prayed to the Lord my God, I made confession thus: “Ah now, O Lord, the great and awful God, who keepest thy compact of kindness with those who love thee and keep thy commands, 5 we have sinned, we have done evil, swerving from thine injunctions and regulations, like wicked rebels, 6 and never listening to thy servants the prophets who spoke in thy name to our kings, our nobles, our fathers, and all the common people. 7 O Lord, goodness is thine but shame falls to us, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the citizens of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, near and far away, in all the countries where thou hast driven them, for their treachery to thyself. 8 Shame falls to us, O Lord, to our kings, our nobles, and our fathers, in that we have sinned against thee. 9 To the Lord our God it falls to have mercy and to forgive, for we have been rebels, 10 we have not obeyed the call of the Eternal our God to follow the directions which he set before us by his servants the prophets. 11 All Israel has indeed broken thy law, swerving from it and disobeying thy call; hence the curse has been vented on us which was solemnly threatened in the law of Moses the servant of God. For we have sinned against him, 12 and he has carried out his threats against us and our authorities by bringing a great disaster upon us (for never in all the world has there been punishment like that of Jerusalem). 13 All this disaster has befallen us, as it was written in the law of Moses, and yet never have we besought the Eternal our God, so as to turn from our iniquities and order our lives wisely by thy true religion. 14 Therefore the Eternal has been alert to bring this disaster upon us, for the Eternal our God is just in all his dealings, and we would not obey his call. 15 O Lord our God, who didst bring thy people out of the land of Egypt by main force, gaining a renown that still endures, we have sinned, we have done evilly. 16 O Lord, by all thy saving deeds, pray let thine anger and thy fury turn from Jerusalem thy city, from thy sacred hill, for our sins and the iniquities of our fathers have made Jerusalem and thy people a derision to all around us. 17 Ah listen, O our God, to the prayer and supplication of thy servant, and may thy favour smile again upon thy desolate sanctuary for thy servant’s sake, 18 O Lord! Bend thine ear and listen, O my God; open thine eyes to the sight of our desolation and of the city that belongs to thyself. For we do not offer our supplications before thee, relying on our own goodness but on thy great compassion. 19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, listen and take action, without delay, for thine own sake, O my God, because thy city and thy people belong to thyself.”

20 While I was saying my prayer, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Eternal my God for the sacred hill of my God, 21 while I was uttering my prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the former vision, sped swiftly to me about the hour of the evening sacrifice; 22 he came and talked to me, saying, “O Daniel, I now come to give you insight. 23 When you began your supplications, this divine oracle was granted, which I now come to impart to you, for you are a man greatly loved by God; so ponder the oracle and understand the vision. 24 ‘Seventy weeks of years are fixed for your people and for your sacred city, to end guilt, to complete sins, to expiate iniquity, to bring in everlasting purity, to ratify the prophetic vision, and to consecrate a most sacred Place. 25 Know then, understand, that between the issue of the prophetic command to re-people and rebuild Jerusalem and the consecrating of a supreme high priest, seven weeks of years shall elapse; in the course of sixty-two weeks of years it shall be rebuilt, with its squares and streets; 26 finally, after the sixty-two weeks of years, the consecrated priest shall be cut off, leaving no successor; the city and the sanctuary shall be destroyed along with the consecrated priest, and then ruin shall pour in with a flood of warfare to the very end. 27 For a week of years the main body of the people shall cease to practise their religion; for half of that time sacrifice and offering shall cease, and instead of this there shall be an appalling abomination, till finally the appointed doom falls upon the sacrilegious abomination.’ ”

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