Daniel 9:16-22

9:16 O Lord, according to all your justice, ¹  please turn your raging anger ²  away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain. For due to our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors, Jerusalem and your people are mocked by all our neighbors.

9:17 “So now, our God, accept ³  the prayer and requests of your servant, and show favor to ⁴  your devastated sanctuary for your own sake. ⁵  9:18 Listen attentively, ⁶  my God, and hear! Open your eyes and look on our desolated ruins ⁷  and the city called by your name. ⁸  For it is not because of our own righteous deeds that we are praying to you, ⁹  but because your compassion is abundant. 9:19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, pay attention, and act! Don’t delay, for your own sake, O my God! For your city and your people are called by your name.” ¹⁰ 

Gabriel Gives to Daniel a Prophecy of Seventy Weeks

9:20 While I was still speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and presenting my request before the LORD my God concerning his holy mountain ¹¹  – 9:21 yes, while I was still praying, ¹²  the man Gabriel, whom I had seen previously ¹³  in a vision, was approaching me in my state of extreme weariness, ¹⁴  around the time of the evening offering. 9:22 He spoke with me, instructing me as follows: ¹⁵  “Daniel, I have now come to impart understanding to you.

¹ tn Or “righteousness.”

² tn Heb “your anger and your rage.” The synonyms are joined here to emphasize the degree of God’s anger. This is best expressed in English by making one of the terms adjectival (cf. NLT “your furious anger”; CEV “terribly angry”).

³ tn Heb “hear.” Here the verb refers to hearing favorably, accepting the prayer and responding positively.

⁴ tn Heb “let your face shine.” This idiom pictures God smiling in favor. See Pss 31:16; 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19.

⁵ tn Heb “for the sake of my Lord.” Theodotion has “for your sake.” Cf. v. 19.

⁶ tn Heb “turn your ear.”

⁷ tn Heb “desolations.” The term refers here to the ruined condition of Judah’s towns.

⁸ tn Heb “over which your name is called.” Cf. v. 19. This expression implies that God is the owner of his city, Jerusalem. Note the use of the idiom in 2 Sam 12:28; Isa 4:1; Amos 9:12.

⁹ tn Heb “praying our supplications before you.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “for your name is called over your city and your people.” See the note on this expression in v 18.

¹¹ tn Heb “the holy mountain of my God.”

¹² tn Heb “speaking in prayer.”

¹³ tn Heb “in the beginning.”

¹⁴ tn The Hebrew expression בִּיעָף מֻעָף (mu’af bi’af) is very difficult. The issue is whether the verb derives from עוּף (’uf, “to fly”) or from יָעַף (ya’af, “to be weary”). Many ancient versions and modern commentators take the first of these possibilities and understand the reference to be to the swift flight of the angel Gabriel in his coming to Daniel. The words more likely refer to the extreme weariness, not of the angel, but of Daniel. Cf. 7:28; 8:27; 10:8-9, 16-17; also NASB.

¹⁵ tn Heb “he instructed and spoke with me.” The expression is a verbal hendiadys.