Daniel 9

¹ It was the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus, who was of Median stock and ruled the kingdom of Chaldaea.

² In the first year of his reign I, Daniel, was perusing the scriptures, counting over the number of years – as revealed by Yahweh to the prophet Jeremiah – that were to pass before the successive devastations of Jerusalem would come to an end, namely seventy years.

³ I turned my face to the Lord God begging for time to pray and to plead with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.

⁴ I pleaded with Yahweh my God and made this confession: ‘O Lord, God great and to be feared, you keep the covenant and have kindness for those who love you and keep your commandments:

⁵ we have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly, we have betrayed your commandments and your ordinances and turned away from them.

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

⁷ Integrity, Lord, is yours; ours the look of shame we wear today, we, the people of Judah, the citizens of Jerusalem, the whole of Israel, near and far away, in every country to which you have dispersed us because of the treason we have committed against you.

⁸ To us, Yahweh, the look of shame belongs, to our kings, our princes, our ancestors, because we have sinned against you.

⁹ To the Lord our God mercy and pardon belong, because we have betrayed him,

¹⁰ and have not listened to the voice of Yahweh our God nor followed the laws he has given us through his servants the prophets.

¹¹ The whole of Israel has flouted your Law and turned away, unwilling to listen to your voice; and the curse and imprecation written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have come pouring down on us-because we have sinned against him.

¹² He has carried out the threats which he made against us and against the princes who governed us – that he would bring so great a disaster down on us that the fate of Jerusalem would find no parallel in the whole of the world.

¹³ And now all this disaster has happened to us, just as it is written in the Law of Moses; even so, we have not tried to appease Yahweh our God by renouncing our crimes and being guided by your truth.

¹⁴ Yahweh has watched for the right moment to bring disaster on us, since Yahweh our God is just in all his dealings with us, and we have not listened to his voice.

¹⁵ And now, Lord our God, who by your mighty hand brought us out of the land of Egypt – the renown you won then endures to this day – we have sinned, we have done wrong.

¹⁶ Lord, by all your acts of justice turn away your anger and your fury from Jerusalem, your own city, your holy mountain, for as a result of our sins and the crimes of our ancestors, Jerusalem and your own people have become a byword among all around us.

¹⁷ And now, our God, listen to the prayer and pleading of your servant. For your own sake, Lord, let your face smile again on your desolate sanctuary.

¹⁸ Listen my God, listen to us; open your eyes and look on our plight and on the city that hears your name. We are not relying on our own good works but on your great mercy, to commend our humble plea to you.

¹⁹ Listen, Lord! Lord, forgive! Hear, Lord, and act! For your own sake, my God, do not delay, because they hear your name, this is your city, this is your people.’

²⁰ I was still speaking, still at prayer, confessing my own sins and the sins of my people Israel and placing my plea before Yahweh my God for the holy mountain of my God,

²¹ still speaking, still at prayer, when Gabriel, the being I had seen originally in a vision, flew suddenly down to me at the hour of the evening sacrifice.

²² He said to me, ‘Daniel, you see me; I have come down to teach you how to understand.

²³ When your pleading began, a word was uttered, and I have come to tell you what it is. You are a man specially chosen. Grasp the meaning of the word, understand the vision:

²⁴ ‘Seventy weeks are decreed[*a] for your people and your holy city, for putting an end to transgression, for placing the seals on sin, for expiating crime, for introducing everlasting integrity, for setting the seal on vision and on prophecy, for anointing the Holy of Holies.

²⁵ ‘Know this, then, and understand: from the time this message went out: “Return and rebuild Jerusalem” to the coming of an anointed Prince, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, with squares and ramparts restored and rebuilt, but in a time of trouble.

²⁶ And after the sixty-two weeks an anointed one will be cut off-and… will not be for him-the city and the sanctuary will be destroyed by a prince who will come. His end will come in catastrophe and, until the end, there will be war and all the devastation decreed.

²⁷ He will make a firm covenant with many[*b] for the space of a week; and for the space of one half-week he will put a stop to sacrifice and oblation, and on the wing of the Temple will be the disastrous abomination[*c] until the end, until the doom assigned to the devastator.’