32:11 But Moses sought the favor 1 of the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your anger burn against your people, whom you have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
63:16 For you are our father,
though Abraham does not know us
and Israel does not recognize us.
You, Lord, are our father;
you have been called our protector from ancient times. 4
63:17 Why, Lord, do you make us stray 5 from your ways, 6
and make our minds stubborn so that we do not obey you? 7
Return for the sake of your servants,
the tribes of your inheritance!
63:18 For a short time your special 8 nation possessed a land, 9
but then our adversaries knocked down 10 your holy sanctuary.
63:19 We existed from ancient times, 11
but you did not rule over them,
they were not your subjects. 12
64:9 Lord, do not be too angry!
Do not hold our sins against us continually! 13
Take a good look at your people, at all of us! 14
9:15 “Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with great power 15 and made a name for yourself that is remembered to this day – we have sinned and behaved wickedly. 9:16 O Lord, according to all your justice, 16 please turn your raging anger 17 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 18 the prayer and requests of your servant, and show favor to 19 your devastated sanctuary for your own sake. 20 9:18 Listen attentively, 21 my God, and hear! Open your eyes and look on our desolated ruins 22 and the city called by your name. 23 For it is not because of our own righteous deeds that we are praying to you, 24 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.” 25
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 26 – 9:21 yes, while I was still praying, 27 the man Gabriel, whom I had seen previously 28 in a vision, was approaching me in my state of extreme weariness, 29 around the time of the evening offering. 9:22 He spoke with me, instructing me as follows: 30 “Daniel, I have now come to impart understanding to you. 9:23 At the beginning of your requests a message went out, and I have come to convey it to you, for you are of great value in God’s sight. 31 Therefore consider the message and understand the vision: 32
9:24 “Seventy weeks 33 have been determined
concerning your people and your holy city
to put an end to 34 rebellion,
to bring sin 35 to completion, 36
to atone for iniquity,
to bring in perpetual 37 righteousness,
to seal up 38 the prophetic vision, 39
and to anoint a most holy place. 40
9:25 So know and understand:
From the issuing of the command 41 to restore and rebuild
Jerusalem 42 until an anointed one, a prince arrives, 43
there will be a period of seven weeks 44 and sixty-two weeks.
It will again be built, 45 with plaza and moat,
but in distressful times.
9:26 Now after the sixty-two weeks,
an anointed one will be cut off and have nothing. 46
As for the city and the sanctuary,
the people of the coming prince will destroy 47 them.
But his end will come speedily 48 like a flood. 49
Until the end of the war that has been decreed
there will be destruction.
9:27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one week. 50
But in the middle of that week
he will bring sacrifices and offerings to a halt.
On the wing 51 of abominations will come 52 one who destroys,
until the decreed end is poured out on the one who destroys.”
1 tn S. R. Driver (Exodus, 351) draws on Arabic to show that the meaning of this verb (חָלָה, khalah) was properly “make sweet the face” or “stroke the face”; so here “to entreat, seek to conciliate.” In this prayer, Driver adds, Moses urges four motives for mercy: 1) Israel is Yahweh’s people, 2) Israel’s deliverance has demanded great power, 3) the Egyptians would mock if the people now perished, and 4) the oath God made to the fathers.
2 tn Heb “your inheritance.” See note at v. 26.
3 tn Heb “an outstretched arm.”
4 tn Heb “our protector [or “redeemer”] from antiquity [is] your name.”
5 tn Some suggest a tolerative use of the Hiphil here, “[why do] you allow us to stray?” (cf. NLT). Though the Hiphil of תָעָה (ta’ah) appears to be tolerative in Jer 50:6, elsewhere it is preferable or necessary to take it as causative. See Isa 3:12; 9:15; and 30:28, as well as Gen 20:13; 2 Kgs 21:9; Job 12:24-25; Prov 12:26; Jer 23:13, 32; Hos 4:12; Amos 2:4; Mic 3:5.
6 tn This probably refers to God’s commands.
7 tn Heb “[Why do] you harden our heart[s] so as not to fear you.” The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).
8 tn Or “holy” (ASV, NASB, NRSV, TEV, NLT).
9 tn Heb “for a short time they had a possession, the people of your holiness.”
10 tn Heb “your adversaries trampled on.”
11 tn Heb “we were from antiquity” (see v. 16). The collocation עוֹלָם + מִן + הָיָה (hayah + min + ’olam) occurs only here.
12 tn Heb “you did not rule them, your name was not called over them.” The expression “the name is called over” indicates ownership; see the note at 4:1. As these two lines stand they are very difficult to interpret. They appear to be stating that the adversaries just mentioned in v. 18 have not been subject to the Lord’s rule in the past, perhaps explaining why they could commit the atrocity described in v. 18b.
13 tn Heb “do not remember sin continually.”
14 tn Heb “Look, gaze at your people, all of us.” Another option is to translate, “Take a good look! We are all your people.”
15 tn Heb “with a powerful hand.”
16 tn Or “righteousness.”
17 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”).
18 tn Heb “hear.” Here the verb refers to hearing favorably, accepting the prayer and responding positively.
19 tn Heb “let your face shine.” This idiom pictures God smiling in favor. See Pss 31:16; 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19.
20 tn Heb “for the sake of my Lord.” Theodotion has “for your sake.” Cf. v. 19.
21 tn Heb “turn your ear.”
22 tn Heb “desolations.” The term refers here to the ruined condition of Judah’s towns.
23 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.
24 tn Heb “praying our supplications before you.”
25 tn Heb “for your name is called over your city and your people.” See the note on this expression in v 18.
26 tn Heb “the holy mountain of my God.”
27 tn Heb “speaking in prayer.”
28 tn Heb “in the beginning.”
29 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.
30 tn Heb “he instructed and spoke with me.” The expression is a verbal hendiadys.
31 tn Or “a precious treasure”; KJV “greatly beloved”; NASB, NIV “highly esteemed.”
32 tn This sentence is perhaps a compound hendiadys (“give serious consideration to the revelatory vision”).
33 tn Heb “sevens.” Elsewhere the term is used of a literal week (a period of seven days), cf. Gen 29:27-28; Exod 34:22; Lev 12:5; Num 28:26; Deut 16:9-10; 2 Chr 8:13; Jer 5:24; Dan 10:2-3. Gabriel unfolds the future as if it were a calendar of successive weeks. Most understand the reference here as periods of seventy “sevens” of years, or a total of 490 years.
34 tc Or “to finish.” The present translation reads the Qere (from the root תָּמַם, tamam) with many witnesses. The Kethib has “to seal up” (from the root הָתַם, hatam), a confusion with a reference later in the verse to sealing up the vision.
35 tc The present translation reads the Qere (singular), rather than the Kethib (plural).
36 tn The Hebrew phrase לְכַלֵּא (lÿkhalle’) is apparently an alternative (metaplastic) spelling of the root כָּלָה (kalah, “to complete, finish”), rather than a form of כָּלָא (kala’, “to shut up, restrain”), as has sometimes been supposed.
37 tn Or “everlasting.”
38 sn The act of sealing in the OT is a sign of authentication. Cf. 1 Kgs 21:8; Jer 32:10, 11, 44.
39 tn Heb “vision and prophecy.” The expression is a hendiadys.
40 tn Or “the most holy place” (NASB, NLT); or “a most holy one”; or “the most holy one,” though the expression is used of places or objects elsewhere, not people.
41 tn Or “decree” (NASB, NIV); or “word” (NAB, NRSV).
42 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
43 tn The word “arrives” is added in the translation for clarification.
44 tn Heb “sevens” (also later in this line and in v. 26).
45 tn Heb “it will return and be built.” The expression is a verbal hendiadys.
46 sn The expression have nothing is difficult. Presumably it refers to an absence of support or assistance for the anointed one at the time of his “cutting off.” The KJV rendering “but not for himself,” apparently suggesting a vicarious death, cannot be defended.
47 tc Some witnesses (e.g., the Syriac) understand a passive verb and the preposition עִם (’im, “with) rather than the noun עַם (’am, “people”), thus reading “the city and the sanctuary will be destroyed with the coming prince.”
48 tn The words “will come speedily” are not in the Hebrew text but have been added in the translation for clarity.
49 sn Flood here is a metaphor for sudden destruction.
50 tn Heb “one seven” (also later in this line).
51 tn The referent of the Hebrew word כְּנַף (kÿnaf, “wing”) is unclear here. The LXX and Theodotion have “the temple.” Some English versions (e.g., NAB, NIV) take this to mean “a wing of the temple,” but this is not clear.
52 tn The Hebrew text does not have this verb, but it has been supplied in the translation for clarity.