Daniel 9
1 In the first year of Darius the son of Achashverosh, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans,
[Now I am going to tell you about what happened] when Darius, who was from the Mede people-group and who was the son of Xerxes, ruled as the King of Babylonia.
2 In the first year of his reign, I Daniel searched in the books for understanding concerning the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord had come to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would let pass full seventy years over the ruins of Jerusalem.
During the first year that he was the king, I, Daniel, was studying/reading the [holy] books/Scriptures the message that Yahweh had given to the prophet Jeremiah. In that message Jeremiah had written that Jerusalem would [be destroyed and] remain ruined for seventy years.
3 And I directed my face unto the Lord God, to ask by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and in sackcloth, and ashes.
[After I read that], I pleaded to Yahweh my God [to help us], praying and (fasting/abstaining from eating food). [While doing that, I was wearing] rough cloth and [sitting in] ashes [to show that I was very sad about what was going to happen to us].
4 And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and terrible God, who keepeth the covenant and kindness to those that love him, and to those that keep his commandments:
I confessed [the sins that we had committed], and [this is what I] prayed: Lord, you are great and awesome! You have faithfully done what you said that you would do for us. You faithfully love those who love you and who do what you have commanded [that they should do].
5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, and have departed from thy commandments and from thy ordinances;
But we [Israelis] have sinned. We have done things that are wrong. We have done wicked things, and we have rebelled [against you]. We have turned away from [obeying] your commands [DOU].
6 Nor have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, who spoke in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
Your prophets spoke for you [MTY], [giving your messages to] kings, to our other rulers, to our [other] ancestors, and to all the Israeli people, but we have refused to (pay attention to/heed) those prophets.
7 Thine, O Lord, is the righteousness, but unto us belongeth the shame of face, as it is this day, —to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, those that are near, and those that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass which they have trespassed against thee.
Lord, you always do what is righteous/just/fair, but we have caused ourselves to be ashamed [IDM]. This is [still] true about all of the Israelis who live in Jerusalem and who live in other places in Judea. It is [also] true about all us Israelis whom you scattered, who [were taken to] other countries, some near [Israel] and some far away, because we were very unfaithful/disloyal to you.
8 O Lord, to us belongeth the shame of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers; because we have sinned against thee.
Lord, we and our kings and our other rulers and our [other] ancestors have done very shameful things and have sinned against you.
9 To the Lord our God belong mercies and pardonings; for we have rebelled against him;
Although we have rebelled against you, you act mercifully [toward us] and you [are willing/ready] to forgive us.
10 And we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us through means of his servants the prophets.
Yahweh our God, when you gave your laws to your prophets who served you, and they told us to conduct our lives according to those laws, we did not (listen to/heed) you.
11 Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, and have departed so as not to obey thy voice: therefore was poured out over us the curse, with the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God; because we had sinned against him.
All [of us] Israeli people have disobeyed your laws, and we have turned away from [obeying] what you said. We have sinned against you. As a result, [you] have caused us to experience the terrible things that your servant Moses said/wrote [would happen to us] if we sinned against you.
12 And he hath accomplished his words, which he had spoken concerning us, and concerning our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil, which was never done under the whole heaven as it hath been done in Jerusalem.
You warned us and our rulers that you would punish Jerusalem severely by causing a great disaster there, a disaster that would be worse than any disaster that any other city had ever experienced, and you have done what you said that you would do.
13 As it is written in the law of Moses; all this evil came over us: yet offered we not any entreaty before the Lord our God, to return from our iniquities, and to become intelligent in thy truth.
[You] punished us just like Moses wrote [that you would do]. But, Yahweh our God, we still have not tried, by turning away from our sinning and by heeding your truth, to persuade you to act mercifully toward us.
14 Therefore did the Lord watch over the evil, and he brought it upon us; for the Lord our God is righteous because of all his deeds which he hath done; but we have not obeyed his voice.
So, because we did not obey you, you prepared to punish us, and [then] you did punish us, because you always do what is righteous/just/fair.
15 And now, O Lord our God, who hast brought forth thy people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand, and hast made thyself a [great] name, as it is this day: we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
O Lord our God, you brought your people out of Egypt by your great power [MTY], and by doing that you have caused people from that time until the present time to know that you are great [IDM] [even though] we have sinned and done wicked things.
16 O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thy anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain; because through our sins, and through the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all who are round about us.
Lord, Jerusalem is your city, and [your temple was built there] on your sacred hill. Now all the people who live in nearby [countries/nations] despise Jerusalem and [us] your people because of our sins and because of the evil things that our ancestors did. But [now], because you do what is righteous/just, [we ask you to] not be angry with Jerusalem any longer.
17 And now listen, O our God, to the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary which is desolate, for the sake of the Lord.
O Lord our God, listen to what I am praying and pleading [for you to do]. (For your own sake/In order that people will know that you are very great), act kindly [IDM] concerning your temple, which was destroyed [by the armies of Babylonia].
18 Incline, O my God, thy ear, and hear; open thy eyes, and look on our desolations, and the city whereupon thy name is called: for not [relying] on our acts of righteousness do we present humbly our supplications before thee, but [relying] on thy great mercies.
My God, listen [to my prayer]. Look [at us] and see our troubles, and see that this city that belongs to you [MTY] has been ruined/destroyed. We are praying to you because you are merciful, not because we have done what is right/good.
19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do it; delay it not; for thy own sake, O my God; for thy name is called upon thy city and upon thy people.
Lord, listen [to us]! Lord, forgive us! Lord, this city and these people belong to you, so [we plead with you to] heed what we are saying and act [to help us] right now, (for your own sake/in order that people will know that you are very great)!
20 And while I was yet speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication humbly before the Lord my God because of the holy mountain of my God:
I continued praying and confessing the sins that my people and I had committed, and pleading with Yahweh my God that he would restore [the temple on] the sacred hill [in Jerusalem].
21 Yea, while I was yet speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, came, flying swiftly, near me about the time of the evening oblation.
While I was praying, Gabriel, the angel/one whom I had seen in the vision previously, came flying rapidly to me, at the time in the evening when [the priests] offered sacrifices.
22 And he gave me understanding, and spoke with me, and said, O Daniel, now am I come forth to make thee intelligent with understanding.
He said to me, “Daniel, I have come to you to enable you to understand [DOU] clearly [the message that God gave to Jeremiah].
23 At the beginning of thy supplications the word went forth, and I am come to tell it; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and have understanding of the appearance.
When you began to plead [with God], he gave me a message [to pass on to you]. He loves you very much, so [he has sent me] to tell you what he said to me. So [now] (pay attention/listen carefully) in order that you may understand the meaning of what he revealed [to Jeremiah].
24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to close up the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to atone for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy thing.
[God] has determined/declared that there will be 490 years until he frees/saves your people from [the guilt of] their sins and to atone for the evil things that they have done. Then [God] will rule everyone justly, and he will do that forever. And [what you saw in] the vision and what [Jeremiah] prophesied will (come true/be fulfilled), and the sacred temple will be dedicated [to God again].
25 Know therefore and comprehend, that from the going forth of the word to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the anointed the prince will be seven weeks: and during sixty and two weeks will it be again built with streets and ditches [around it], even in the pressure of the times.
You need to know and understand this: There will be 49 years from the time that [the king] commands that Jerusalem should be rebuilt until the leader/king that God has chosen will come. Then 434 years later, Jerusalem will be rebuilt, and it will have streets and will have a (moat/deep ditch filled with water) around it [to protect the city]. But that will be a time when [God’s people] will have [a lot of] troubles/difficulties/suffering.
26 And after the sixty and two weeks will an anointed one be cut off without a successor to follow him: and the city and the sanctuary will the people of the prince that is coming destroy; but his end will come in a violent overthrow; but until the end of the war devastations are decreed [against it].
After those 434 years, the leader/king whom God has appointed will be killed [when it seems that] he will have accomplished nothing (unjustly/without having done anything wrong). After that, the temple will be destroyed by [the army of] a powerful ruler. The city and the temple will be destroyed like a flood [MET] [destroys everything]. That will be the beginning of the war and destruction that [God] has decreed [will happen].
27 And he will make a strong covenant with the many for one week; and in the half of the week will he cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and this because of the prevalence of the abominations which bringeth devastation, and until destruction and what is decreed shall be poured out upon the waster.
That ruler will make a strong agreement with many people. He will promise to do for seven years what he has said in that agreement. But when that time is half finished, he will prevent [priests from] giving any more offerings and sacrifices [to God]. A disgusting idol will be put on the highest part of the temple, and it will stay there until [God] gets rid of the one who put it there, which is what he said that he would do.”
