Daniel 9
1 “In the first year of Darius, son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who has been 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, have understood by scrolls the number of the years (in that a word of YHWH has been to Jeremiah the prophet), concerning the fulfilling of the desolations of Jerusalem—seventy years;
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 set my face toward the Lord God, to seek [by] prayer and supplications, with fasting, and 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 pray to my God YHWH, and confess, and say: Ah, now, O Lord God, the great and the fearful, keeping the covenant and the kindness to those loving Him and to those keeping His commands;
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 done perversely, and done wickedly, and rebelled, to turn aside from Your commands, and from Your judgments:
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 and we have not listened to Your servants, the prophets, who have spoken in Your Name to our kings, our heads, 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 To You, O Lord, [is] the righteousness, and to us the shame of face, as [at] this day, to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, who are near, and who are far off, in all the lands to where You have driven them, in their trespass that they have trespassed against You.
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 [is] the shame of face, to our kings, to our heads, and to our fathers, in that we have sinned against You.
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 [are] the mercies and the forgivenesses, 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 have not listened to the voice of our God YHWH, to walk in His laws, that He has set before us by the hand 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 and all Israel has transgressed Your law, to turn aside so as not to listen to Your voice; and poured on us is the execration, and the oath, that is written in the Law of Moses, servant of God, because we have 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 confirms His words that He has spoken against us, and against our judges who have judged us, to bring great calamity on us, in that it has not been done under the whole heavens as it has 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 has come on us, and we have not appeased the face of our God YHWH to turn back from our iniquities, and to act wisely in Your 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 And YHWH watches for the evil, and brings it on us, for our God YHWH is righteous concerning all His works that He has done, and we have not listened to 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 has brought forth Your people from the land of Egypt by a strong hand, and makes for Yourself a name as at 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 Your righteous acts, please let Your anger and Your fury turn back from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain, for by our sins, and by the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people [are] for a reproach to all our neighbors;
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 Your servant, and to his supplication, and cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary that [is] desolate, for the Lord’s sake.
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, Your ear, and hear, open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city on which Your Name is called; for not for our righteous acts are we causing our supplications to fall before You, but for Your mercies that [are] many.
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, attend and do; do not delay, for Your own sake, O my God, for Your Name is called on Your city, and on Your 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 am speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin, and the sin of my people Israel, and causing my supplication to fall before my God YHWH, for 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 indeed, while I am speaking in prayer, then that one Gabriel, whom I had seen in vision at the commencement, being caused to fly swiftly, is coming to me at the time of the evening present.
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 gives understanding, and speaks with me, and says, O Daniel, now I have come forth to cause you to consider understanding wisely;
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 commencement of your supplications the word has come forth, and I have come to declare [it], for you [are] greatly desired, and understand concerning the matter, and consider concerning 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 periods of seven are determined for your people and for your holy city, to shut up the transgression, and to seal up sins, and to cover iniquity, and to bring in continuous righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the Holy of Holies.
[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 And you know, and consider wisely, from the going forth of the word to restore and to build Jerusalem until Messiah the Leader [is] seven periods of seven, and sixty-two periods of seven: the broad place has been built again, and the rampart, even in the distress 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-two periods of seven, Messiah is cut off, but not for Himself, and the people of the leader who is coming destroy the city and the holy place; and its end [is] with a flood, and until the end [is] war, [and] desolations [are] determined.
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 has strengthened a covenant with many [for] one period of seven, and [in] the midst of the period of seven he causes sacrifice and present to cease, and by the wing of abominations he is making desolate, even until the consummation, and that which is determined is poured on the desolate one.”
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.”
