Daniel 9:1-13

Daniel Prays for His People

9:1 In the first year of Darius ¹  son of Ahasuerus, ²  who was of Median descent and who had been ³  appointed king over the Babylonian ⁴  empire – 9:2 in the first year of his reign ⁵  I, Daniel, came to understand from the sacred books ⁶  that, according to the word of the LORD ⁷  disclosed to the prophet Jeremiah, the years for the fulfilling of the desolation of Jerusalem ⁸  were seventy in number. 9:3 So I turned my attention ⁹  to the Lord God ¹⁰  to implore him by prayer and requests, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. ¹¹  9:4 I prayed to the LORD my God, confessing in this way:

“O Lord, ¹²  great and awesome God who is faithful to his covenant ¹³  with those who love him and keep his commandments, 9:5 we have sinned! We have done what is wrong and wicked; we have rebelled by turning away from your commandments and standards. 9:6 We have not paid attention to your servants the prophets, who spoke by your authority ¹⁴  to our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, ¹⁵  and to all the inhabitants ¹⁶  of the land as well.

9:7 “You are righteous, ¹⁷  O Lord, but we are humiliated this day ¹⁸  – the people ¹⁹  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. 9:8 O LORD, we have been humiliated ²⁰  – our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors – because we have sinned against you. 9:9 Yet the Lord our God is compassionate and forgiving, ²¹  even though we have rebelled against him. 9:10 We have not obeyed ²²  the LORD our God by living according to ²³  his laws ²⁴  that he set before us through his servants the prophets.

9:11 “All Israel has broken ²⁵  your law and turned away by not obeying you. ²⁶  Therefore you have poured out on us the judgment solemnly threatened ²⁷  in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against you. ²⁸  9:12 He has carried out his threats ²⁹  against us and our rulers ³⁰  who were over ³¹  us by bringing great calamity on us – what has happened to Jerusalem has never been equaled under all heaven! 9:13 Just as it is written in the law of Moses, so all this calamity has come on us. Still we have not tried to pacify ³²  the LORD our God by turning back from our sin and by seeking wisdom ³³  from your reliable moral standards. ³⁴ 

[9:1]  ¹ sn The identity of this Darius is a major problem in correlating the biblical material with the extra-biblical records of this period. Most modern scholars treat the reference as a mistaken allusion to Darius Hystaspes (ca. 522-486 B.C.). Others have maintained instead that this name is a reference to the Persian governor Gubaru. Still others understand the reference to be to the Persian king Cyrus (cf. 6:28, where the vav (ו) may be understood as vav explicativum, meaning “even”). Under either of these latter two interpretations, the first year of Darius would have been ca. 538 B.C. Daniel would have been approximately eighty-two years old at this time.

[9:1]  ² tc The LXX reads “Xerxes.” This is the reading used by some English versions (e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV). Most other English versions retain the Hebrew name “Ahasuerus.”

[9:1]  ³ tc The present translation follows the MT in reading a Hophal (i.e., passive). Theodotion, the Syriac, and the Vulgate all presuppose the Hiphil (i.e., active). Even though this is the only occurrence of the Hophal of this verb in the Bible, there is no need to emend the vocalization to the Hiphil.

[9:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans.”

[9:2]  ⁵ tc This phrase, repeated from v. 1, is absent in Theodotion.

[9:2]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[9:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “face.”

[9:3]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew phrase translated “Lord God” here is אֲדֹנָי הָאֱלֹהִים (’adonay ha’elohim).

[9:3]  ¹¹ sn When lamenting, ancient Israelites would fast, wear sackcloth, and put ashes on their heads to show their sorrow and contrition.

[9:4]  ¹² tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here and in vv. 7, 9, 15, 16, and 19 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[9:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “who keeps the covenant and the loyal love.” The expression is a hendiadys.

[9:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in your name.” Another option is to translate, “as your representatives.”

[9:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “our fathers” (also in vv. 8, 16). The Hebrew term translated “father” can refer to more distant relationships such as grandfathers or ancestors.

[9:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “people.”

[9:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to you (belongs) righteousness.”

[9:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and to us (belongs) shame of face like this day.”

[9:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “men.”

[9:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “to us (belongs) shame of face.”

[9:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “to the Lord our God (belong) compassion and forgiveness.”

[9:10]  ²² tn Heb “paid attention to the voice of,” which is an idiomatic expression for obedience (cf. NASB “nor have we obeyed the voice of”).

[9:10]  ²³ tn Heb “to walk in.”

[9:10]  ²⁴ tc The LXX and Vulgate have the singular.

[9:11]  ²⁵ tn Or “transgressed.” The Hebrew verb has the primary sense of crossing a boundary, in this case, God’s law.

[9:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “by not paying attention to your voice.”

[9:11]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the curse and the oath which is written.” The term “curse” refers here to the judgments threatened in the Mosaic law (see Deut 28) for rebellion. The expression “the curse and the oath” is probably a hendiadys (cf. Num 5:21; Neh 10:29) referring to the fact that the covenant with its threatened judgments was ratified by solemn oath and made legally binding upon the covenant community.

[9:11]  ²⁸ tn Heb “him.”

[9:12]  ²⁹ tn Heb “he has fulfilled his word(s) which he spoke.”

[9:12]  ³⁰ tn Heb “our judges.”

[9:12]  ³¹ tn Heb “who judged.”

[9:13]  ³² tn Heb “we have not pacified the face of.”

[9:13]  ³³ tn Or “by gaining insight.”

[9:13]  ³⁴ tn Heb “by your truth.” The Hebrew term does not refer here to abstract truth, however, but to the reliable moral guidance found in the covenant law. See vv 10-11.