Daniel 1:1

Daniel Finds Favor in Babylon

1:1 In the third ¹  year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar ²  of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem ³  and laid it under siege. ⁴ 

Daniel 9:16

9:16 O Lord, according to all your justice, ⁵  please turn your raging anger ⁶  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.

Daniel 5:3

5:3 So they brought the gold and silver ⁷  vessels that had been confiscated from the temple, the house of God ⁸  in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, together with his wives and concubines, drank from them.

Daniel 9:2

9:2 in the first year of his reign ⁹  I, Daniel, came to understand from the sacred books ¹⁰  that, according to the word of the LORD ¹¹  disclosed to the prophet Jeremiah, the years for the fulfilling of the desolation of Jerusalem ¹²  were seventy in number.

Daniel 9:12

9:12 He has carried out his threats ¹³  against us and our rulers ¹⁴  who were over ¹⁵  us by bringing great calamity on us – what has happened to Jerusalem has never been equaled under all heaven!

Daniel 9:25

9:25 So know and understand:

From the issuing of the command ¹⁶  to restore and rebuild

Jerusalem ¹⁷  until an anointed one, a prince arrives, ¹⁸ 

there will be a period of seven weeks ¹⁹  and sixty-two weeks.

It will again be built, ²⁰  with plaza and moat,

but in distressful times.

Daniel 5:2

5:2 While under the influence ²¹  of the wine, Belshazzar issued an order to bring in the gold and silver vessels – the ones that Nebuchadnezzar his father ²²  had confiscated ²³  from the temple in Jerusalem ²⁴  – so that the king and his nobles, together with his wives and his concubines, could drink from them. ²⁵ 

Daniel 6:10

6:10 When Daniel realized ²⁶  that a written decree had been issued, he entered his home, where the windows ²⁷  in his upper room opened toward Jerusalem. ²⁸  Three ²⁹  times daily he was ³⁰  kneeling ³¹  and offering prayers and thanks to his God just as he had been accustomed to do previously.

Daniel 9:7

9:7 “You are righteous, ³²  O Lord, but we are humiliated this day ³³  – the people ³⁴  of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far away in all the countries in which you have scattered them, because they have behaved unfaithfully toward you.

Daniel 9:20

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 ³⁵  –

Daniel 9:24

9:24 “Seventy weeks ³⁶  have been determined

concerning your people and your holy city

to put an end to ³⁷  rebellion,

to bring sin ³⁸  to completion, ³⁹ 

to atone for iniquity,

to bring in perpetual ⁴⁰  righteousness,

to seal up ⁴¹  the prophetic vision, ⁴² 

and to anoint a most holy place. ⁴³ 

[1:1]  ¹ sn The third year of the reign of Jehoiakim would be ca. 605 B.C. At this time Daniel would have been a teenager. The reference to Jehoiakim’s third year poses a serious crux interpretum, since elsewhere these events are linked to his fourth year (Jer 25:1; cf. 2 Kgs 24:1; 2 Chr 36:5-8). Apparently Daniel is following an accession year chronology, whereby the first partial year of a king’s reign was reckoned as the accession year rather than as the first year of his reign. Jeremiah, on the other hand, is following a nonaccession year chronology, whereby the accession year is reckoned as the first year of the king’s reign. In that case, the conflict is only superficial. Most modern scholars, however, have concluded that Daniel is historically inaccurate here.

[1:1]  ² sn King Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon from ca. 605-562 B.C.

[1:1]  ³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:1]  ⁴ sn This attack culminated in the first of three major deportations of Jews to Babylon. The second one occurred in 597 B.C. and included among many other Jewish captives the prophet Ezekiel. The third deportation occurred in 586 B.C., at which time the temple and the city of Jerusalem were thoroughly destroyed.

[9:16]  ⁵ tn Or “righteousness.”

[9:16]  ⁶ 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”).

[5:3]  ⁹ tc The present translation reads וְכַסְפָּא (vÿkhaspa’, “and the silver”) with Theodotion and the Vulgate. Cf. v. 2. The form was probably accidentally dropped from the Aramaic text by homoioteleuton.

[5:3]  ¹⁰ tn Aram “the temple of the house of God.” The phrase seems rather awkward. The Vulgate lacks “of the house of God,” while Theodotion and the Syriac lack “the house.”

[9:2]  ¹³ tc This phrase, repeated from v. 1, is absent in Theodotion.

[9:2]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text has “books”; the word “sacred” has been added in the translation to clarify that it is Scriptures that are referred to.

[9:2]  ¹⁵ sn The tetragrammaton (the four Hebrew letters which constitute the divine Name, YHWH) appears eight times in this chapter, and nowhere else in the book of Daniel.

[9:2]  ¹⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[9:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he has fulfilled his word(s) which he spoke.”

[9:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “our judges.”

[9:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “who judged.”

[9:25]  ²¹ tn Or “decree” (NASB, NIV); or “word” (NAB, NRSV).

[9:25]  ²² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[9:25]  ²³ tn The word “arrives” is added in the translation for clarification.

[9:25]  ²⁴ tn Heb “sevens” (also later in this line and in v. 26).

[9:25]  ²⁵ tn Heb “it will return and be built.” The expression is a verbal hendiadys.

[5:2]  ²⁵ tn Or perhaps, “when he had tasted” (cf. NASB) in the sense of officially initiating the commencement of the banquet. The translation above seems preferable, however, given the clear evidence of inebriation in the context (cf. also CEV “he got drunk and ordered”).

[5:2]  ²⁶ tn Or “ancestor”; or “predecessor” (also in vv. 11, 13, 18). The Aramaic word translated “father” can on occasion denote these other relationships.

[5:2]  ²⁷ tn Or “taken.”

[5:2]  ²⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[5:2]  ²⁹ sn Making use of sacred temple vessels for an occasion of reveling and drunkenness such as this would have been a religious affront of shocking proportions to the Jewish captives.

[6:10]  ²⁹ tn Aram “knew.”

[6:10]  ³⁰ sn In later rabbinic thought this verse was sometimes cited as a proof text for the notion that one should pray only in a house with windows. See b. Berakhot 34b.

[6:10]  ³¹ map For the location of Jerusalem see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[6:10]  ³² sn This is apparently the only specific mention in the OT of prayer being regularly offered three times a day. The practice was probably not unique to Daniel, however.

[6:10]  ³³ tc Read with several medieval Hebrew MSS and printed editions הֲוָה (havah) rather than the MT הוּא (hu’).

[6:10]  ³⁴ tn Aram “kneeling on his knees” (so NASB).

[9:7]  ³³ tn Heb “to you (belongs) righteousness.”

[9:7]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and to us (belongs) shame of face like this day.”

[9:7]  ³⁵ tn Heb “men.”

[9:20]  ³⁷ tn Heb “the holy mountain of my God.”

[9:24]  ⁴¹ 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.

[9:24]  ⁴² 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.

[9:24]  ⁴³ tc The present translation reads the Qere (singular), rather than the Kethib (plural).

[9:24]  ⁴⁴ 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.

[9:24]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “everlasting.”

[9:24]  ⁴⁶ sn The act of sealing in the OT is a sign of authentication. Cf. 1 Kgs 21:8; Jer 32:10, 11, 44.

[9:24]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “vision and prophecy.” The expression is a hendiadys.

[9:24]  ⁴⁸ 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.