Daniel 9

Daniel reads Jeremiah’s prophecy that Jerusalem’s desolation would last seventy years, and he responds with a humble prayer of confession for himself and his people. While he is still praying, Gabriel arrives with the answer and with a prophecy of ‘seventy weeks’. It reaches to the Messiah and to the end of sin. Christians read its details in different ways.

Daniel 9:1-2

Darius the Mede rules Babylon after its fall. Daniel, now an old man, studies the sacred writings and sees that Jeremiah foretold seventy years of desolation for Jerusalem. He does not simply wait for it to end. Scripture sends him to his knees.

BSA: understood (“gained insight, discerned”): Daniel did more than read Jeremiah; he grasped what God was doing through the words.

Hebrew: בִּינֹתִי (binoti, H995) — “I discerned, I perceived.” The Hebrew word means to see between the lines and grasp meaning. It is the same root as the ‘understanding’ Gabriel later brings.

See also: Jeremiah 25:11-12; Jeremiah 29:10.

Daniel 9:3

God had promised restoration, yet Daniel prays with great earnestness. He fasts and puts on sackcloth and ashes, the signs of grief and humility. A promise from God does not make prayer unnecessary. It gives prayer something solid to hold.

BSA: attention (“set my face, directed my thoughts”): Daniel deliberately turned his whole self toward God, with no half-hearted prayer.

See also: Jeremiah 29:12-13.

Daniel 9:4

Daniel begins by looking at God before looking at sin. God is great and awesome, and He keeps His covenant faithfully. That steady love is the ground on which a sinful people can dare to confess and ask.

BSA: loving devotion (“kindness, mercy”): God’s covenant faithfulness is warm and merciful, not merely a matter of contract.

Hebrew: חֶסֶד (chesed, H2617) — “loyal, covenant love.” This word describes love that stays committed even when the other party fails. It is the confidence Daniel relies on throughout the prayer.

See also: Deuteronomy 7:9.

Daniel 9:5-6

Daniel piles up four words for failure: sinned, done wrong, acted wickedly, rebelled. He says ‘we’, though he himself was known for faithfulness. The core charge is that they would not listen to the prophets God sent, from kings down to ordinary people.

BSA: rebelled (“resisted, defied authority”): Sin is shown here as defiance of a rightful king, not only as a mistake.

See also: 2 Kings 17:13-14.

Daniel 9:7-8

Righteousness belongs to God; shame belongs to His people. From Judah to the exiles scattered far away, everyone, from kings to fathers, stands guilty. Exile is not a puzzle about God’s fairness. It is the result of the people’s own unfaithfulness.

BSA: covered with shame (“confusion of face, guilt, embarrassment”): The shame is so deep it shows on the face; they cannot look up.

Hebrew: בֹּשֶׁת הַפָּנִים (bosheth happanim, H1322) — “shame of face.” The Hebrew speaks of the face itself being marked by shame. Daniel feels the disgrace physically as well as inwardly.

Daniel 9:9-10

In the middle of confession Daniel turns to God’s character. Compassion and forgiveness belong to Him, even toward rebels. Hope for the guilty rests on who God is, not on anything they have done. Their fault was refusing the voice God sent through His prophets.

BSA: compassion (“tender love, mercies”): God’s mercy is the tender love of a parent, deeper than mere duty.

Hebrew: רַחֲמִים (rachamim, H7356) — “compassion, deep mercies.” The word is related to the Hebrew for ‘womb’. It suggests the tender, protective feeling of a mother for her child.

See also: Psalm 130:3-4.

Daniel 9:11

All Israel broke the law. So the curses written in the Law of Moses fell on them as God had warned. Daniel does not blame God for the exile. He sees it as God keeping His word, painful as that word was.

BSA: poured out (“flowed forth, bestowed”): The judgment came like water released from a vessel, in full measure.

See also: Deuteronomy 28:15; Leviticus 26:14-17.

Daniel 9:12-14

God carried out His warnings, and the fall of Jerusalem was terrible. Even so, the people had not sought God’s favor or turned from their sins. Daniel concludes that the LORD is righteous in all He does. He does not defend his people. He declares God just.

BSA: turning (“repenting, changing direction”): Real repentance is a change of direction, not just sorrow over the consequences.

See also: Deuteronomy 28:58-63.

Daniel 9:15

Daniel now begins to ask, and he starts with the exodus. God once rescued His people with a mighty hand and made His name known. Daniel appeals to that earlier rescue, yet he does not claim innocence: ‘we have sinned.’.

BSA: name (“Your identity, honor, and character”): God’s ’name’ means His reputation and character, which the exodus displayed to the world.

See also: Exodus 14:30-31.

Daniel 9:16

Daniel asks God to turn His anger from Jerusalem, on the basis of His own righteous acts, meaning His faithfulness to His promises. The ruined city makes God’s people a mockery among the nations. Daniel is concerned for God’s honor as well as for his people’s relief.

BSA: reproach (“shame, scorn”): The surrounding nations treated Jerusalem’s ruin as a joke, and that reflected on God’s name.

Daniel 9:17

Daniel prays ‘for Your sake’, not for Israel’s merit. He asks God to look kindly on the ruined temple. The prayer recalls the blessing in which the LORD makes His face shine on His people.

BSA: shine (“to give light, to radiate joy”): The shining face of God means His warm, smiling favor, as sunlight breaks into a dark place.

Hebrew: הָאֵר פָּנֶיךָ (haer paneka, H215) — “cause Your face to shine.” The Hebrew uses the phrase of the priestly blessing. To ask for God’s face to shine is to ask for His restored favor.

See also: Numbers 6:25.

Daniel 9:18

Daniel asks God to open His eyes and see the ruined city that bears His name. He is plain about the basis of his request: no righteous deeds of their own, only God’s great compassion. Every honest prayer ends up standing here.

BSA: compassion (“tender mercies, loving-kindness”): Daniel rests his whole plea on God’s tender mercy, not on any claim of his own.

See also: Titus 3:5.

Daniel 9:19

The prayer climbs in urgency with four quick cries: listen, forgive, hear, act. Daniel’s final appeal is again God’s own name, which is carried by His city and His people. The prayer ends in passion, not in neat phrases.

BSA: act (“intervene and do something”): Daniel asks God not only to hear but to step in and move.

Daniel 9:20-21

While Daniel is still praying, Gabriel, the angel he had seen in an earlier vision, arrives at the hour of the evening sacrifice. Though the temple lay in ruins, the hour of prayer still marked Daniel’s day. Heaven’s answer comes quickly.

See also: Daniel 8:15-16; Luke 1:19.

Daniel 9:22-23

Gabriel says the answer was issued as soon as Daniel began to pray. He has come to give insight, because Daniel is greatly loved. God hears from the very start of a prayer, and the answer is already moving. Daniel is invited to think carefully about what he is told.

BSA: precious (“beloved, desired”): Daniel is not just useful to God but deeply treasured.

Hebrew: חֲמוּדוֹת (chamudot, H2532) — “greatly desired, treasured.” The word describes something cherished and delightful. Gabriel is telling Daniel how heaven sees him.

Daniel 9:24

Seventy ‘weeks’ (literally ‘sevens’), probably sevens of years, are set for Daniel’s people and city. The aims listed are large: to end transgression and sin, to atone for iniquity, to bring lasting righteousness, to seal prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place. Christians read the timing differently, but many see the center of it in Christ’s atoning work.

BSA: atonement (“reconciliation, covering”): Sin is dealt with at its root, so that God and sinners are brought together. seal up (“close, confirm”): Prophecy is ‘sealed’ by being brought to fulfillment and confirmed as true.

Hebrew: שָׁבֻעִים (shavuim, H7657) — “sevens.” The Hebrew means ‘sevens’ and does not say what is being counted. Most readers take them as sevens of years, which fits the seventy years of Jeremiah.

See also: Hebrews 9:26; Romans 3:25.

Daniel 9:25

From a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the Prince, comes seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. Jerusalem would be rebuilt, though in troubled times. Believers differ on which decree is meant and how to count the years, but the passage points forward to a coming Anointed Leader.

BSA: Messiah (“anointed one”): The title means one set apart by anointing, as kings and priests were.

Hebrew: מָשִׁיחַ (mashiach, H4899) — “anointed one.” This is the Hebrew word behind ‘Messiah’ and the Greek ‘Christ’. It names the one God sets apart to rule and to save.

See also: Ezra 7:11-13; Nehemiah 2:5-8.

Daniel 9:26

After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One is ‘cut off’ and has nothing. Then the people of a coming prince destroy the city and sanctuary, and the end comes like a flood. Many Christians see here Christ’s death and Jerusalem’s destruction in AD 70. Others see added future events.

BSA: cut off (“slain, killed”): The phrase means a violent and untimely death, not a natural end.

Hebrew: יִכָּרֵת (yikkaret, H3772) — “will be cut off.” The verb is often used for being cut off from the living, or for cutting a covenant. Either sense fits a death that changes everything.

See also: Isaiah 53:8; Luke 19:43-44.

Daniel 9:27

A figure confirms a covenant with many for one week, then ends sacrifice and offering in the middle of it. An abomination that causes desolation follows, until the decreed end falls on the desolator. Christians differ on who ‘he’ is and when this happens, but all see a warning against opposing God, and a limit God places on evil.

BSA: abomination (“detestable thing, idol”): It is something so offensive to God that it defiles His holy place and leaves it ruined.

Hebrew: שִׁקּוּצִים מְשֹׁמֵם (shiqqutsim meshomem, H8251) — “abominations that cause desolation.” The first word is used for detestable idols, and the second means to make desolate or appalled. Together they describe a defilement that brings ruin.

See also: Matthew 24:15; Daniel 11:31.