< Daniel 9 >
1 In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the offspring of the Medes, who ruled over the kingdom of the Chaldeans,
2 in year one of his reign, I, Daniel, understood in the books the number of the years, concerning the word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah, the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would be completed in seventy years.
3 And I set my face to the Lord, my God, to ask and make supplication with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.
4 And I prayed to the Lord, my God, and I confessed, and I said, “I beg you, O Lord God, great and terrible, preserving the covenant and mercy for those who love you and keep your commandments.
5 We have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we acted impiously and have withdrawn, and we have turned aside from your commandments as well as your judgments.
6 We have not obeyed your servants, the prophets, who have spoken in your name to our kings, our leaders, our fathers, and all the people of the land.
7 To you, O Lord, is justice, but to us is confusion of face, just as it is on this day for the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel, for those who are near and those who are far off, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of their iniquities by which they have sinned against you.
8 O Lord, to us belongs confusion of face: to our kings, our leaders, and our fathers, who have sinned.
9 But to you, the Lord our God, is mercy and atonement, for we have withdrawn from you,
10 and we have not listened to the voice of the Lord, our God, so as to walk in his law, which he established for us by his servants, the prophets.
11 And all Israel has transgressed your law and has turned away, not listening to your voice, and so the condemnation and the curse, which is written in the book of Moses, servant of God, has rained down upon us, because we have sinned against him.
12 And he has fulfilled his words, which he has spoken over us and over our leaders who judged us, that he would lead over us a great evil, such as has never before existed under all of heaven, according to what has been done in Jerusalem.
13 Just as it has been written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us, and we did not entreat your face, O Lord our God, so that we might turn back from our iniquities and consider your truth.
14 And the Lord kept watch over the evil and has led it over us; the Lord, our God, is just in all his works, which he has accomplished, for we have not listened to his voice.
15 And now, O Lord, our God, who has led your people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand and has made yourself a name in accordance with this day: we have sinned, we have done wrong.
16 O Lord, for all your righteousness, turn away, I beg you, your anger and your fury from your city, Jerusalem, and from your holy mountain. For, because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people are a reproach to all who surround us.
17 Now, therefore, heed, O God, the prayer of your servant and his requests, and reveal your face over your sanctuary, which is desolate, for your own sake.
18 Incline your ear, O my God, and hear, open your eyes and see our desolation and the city over which your name is invoked. For it is not through our justifications that we offer requests before your face, but through the fullness of your compassion.
19 Heed, O Lord. Be pleased, O Lord. Turn and act. Do not delay, for your own sake, O my God, because your name is invoked over your city and over your people.”
20 And while I was still speaking and praying and confessing my sins, and the sins of my people, Israel, and offering my prayers in the sight of my God, on behalf of the holy mountain of my God,
21 as I was still speaking in prayer, behold, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, flying swiftly, touched me at the time of the evening sacrifice.
22 And he instructed me, and he spoke to me and said, “Now, Daniel, I have come forth to teach you and to help you understand.
23 At the beginning of your prayers, the message came forth, yet I have come to explain it to you because you are a man who is seeking. Therefore, you must pay close attention to the message and understand the vision.
24 Seventy weeks of years are concentrated on your people and on your holy city, so that transgression shall be finished, and sin shall reach an end, and iniquity shall be wiped away, and so that everlasting justice shall be brought in, and vision and prophecy shall be fulfilled, and the Saint of saints shall be anointed.
25 Therefore, know and take heed: from the going forth of the word to build up Jerusalem again, until the Christ leader, there will be seven weeks of years, and sixty-two weeks of years; and the wide path will be built again, and the walls, in a time of anguish.
26 And after sixty-two weeks of years, the Christ leader will be slain. And the people who have denied him will not be his. And the people, when their leader arrives, will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will be devastation, and, after the end of the war, the desolation will be set up.
27 But he will confirm a covenant with many for one week of years; and for half of the week of years, victim and sacrifice will nearly cease; but there will be in the temple the abomination of desolation. And the desolation will continue even to the consummation and the end.”
