< Daniel 9 >
1 In the first year of Darius the son of Assuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who reigned over the kingdom of the Chaldeans,
2 I Daniel understood by books the number of the years which was the word of the Lord to the prophet Jeremias, [even] seventy years for the accomplishment of the desolation of Jerusalem.
3 And I set my face towards the Lord God, to seek [him] diligently by prayer and supplications, with fastings and sackcloth.
4 And I prayed to the Lord my God, and confessed, and said, O Lord, the great and wonderful God, keeping your covenant and your mercy to them that love you, and to them that keep your commandments; we have sinned,
5 we have done iniquity, we have transgressed, and we have departed and turned aside from your commandments and from your judgements:
6 and we have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, and our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
7 To you, O Lord, [belongs] righteousness, an to us confusion of face, as at this day; to the men of Juda, and to the dwellers in Jerusalem, and to all Israel, to them that are near, and to them that are far off in all the earth, wherever you has scattered them, for the sin which they committed.
8 In you, O Lord, is our righteousness, and to us [belongs] confusion of faced, and to our kings, and to our princes, and to our fathers, forasmuch as we have sinned.
9 To you, the Lord our God, [belong] compassions and forgivenesses, whereas we have departed [from you];
10 neither have we listened to the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by the hands of his servants the prophets.
11 Moreover all Israel have transgressed your law, and have refused to listen to your voice; so the curse has come upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
12 And he has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges who judged us, [by] bringing upon us great evils, such as have not happened under the whole heaven, according to what has happened in Jerusalem.
13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all these evils have come upon us: yet we have not implored the Lord our God, that we might turn away from our iniquities, and have understanding in all your truth.
14 The Lord also has watched, and brought the evils upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all his work which he has executed, but we have not listened to his voice.
15 And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made to yourself a name, as [at] this day; we have sinned, we have transgressed.
16 O Lord, your mercy is over all: let, I pray you, your wrath turn away, and your anger from your city Jerusalem, [even] your holy mountain: for we have sinned, and because of our iniquities, and those of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people are become a reproach amongst all that are round about us.
17 And now, O lord our God, listen to the prayer of your servant, and his supplications, and cause your face to shine on your desolate sanctuary, for your [own] sake, O Lord.
18 Incline your ear, O my God, and hear; open your eyes and behold our desolation, and that of your city on which your name is called: for we do not bring our pitiful case before you on [the ground of] our righteousness, but on [the ground of] your manifold compassions, O Lord.
19 Listen, O Lord; be propitious, O Lord; attend, O Lord; delay not, O my God, for your own sake: for your name is called upon your city and upon your people.
20 And while I was yet speaking, and praying, and confessing my sins and the sins of my people Israel, and bringing my pitiful case before the Lord my God concerning the holy mountain;
21 yes, while I was yet speaking in prayer, behold the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, [came] flying, and he touched me about the hour of the evening sacrifice.
22 And he instructed me, and spoke with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to impart to you understanding.
23 At the beginning of your supplication the word came forth, and I am come to tell you; for you are a man much beloved: therefore consider the matter, understand the vision.
24 Seventy weeks have been determined upon your people, and upon the holy city, for sin to be ended, and to seal up transgressions, and to blot out the iniquities, and to make atonement for iniquities, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal the vision and the prophet, and to anoint the Most Holy.
25 And you shall know and understand, that from the going forth of the command for the answer and for the building of Jerusalem until Christ the prince [there shall be] seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks; and then [the time] shall return, and the street shall be built, and the wall, and the times shall be exhausted.
26 And after the sixty-two weeks, the anointed one shall be destroyed, and there is no judgement in him: and he shall destroy the city and the sanctuary with the prince that is coming: they shall be cut off with a flood, and to the end of the war which is rapidly completed he shall appoint [the city] to desolations.
27 And one week shall establish the covenant with many: and in the midst of the week my sacrifice and drink-offering shall be taken away: and on the temple [shall be] the abomination of desolations; and at the end of time an end shall be put to the desolation.
