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Daniel 9

Daniel’s confession and plea for Jerusalem receive an answer that extends beyond restoration to sin’s end, everlasting righteousness, and coming judgment.

Daniel reads Jeremiah’s prophecy about Jerusalem’s seventy years of desolation during the first year of Darius’s reign over the Chaldeans. He turns to God with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes, confessing his own sin and Israel’s rebellion. His prayer appeals to God’s mercy and asks for Jerusalem and its sanctuary to be restored for God’s name’s sake. While Daniel is still praying, Gabriel arrives with an explanation concerning seventy weeks, an anointed ruler, and further desolation.

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1In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the offspring of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans—
2in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years about which the LORD’s word came to Jeremiah the prophet for the accomplishing of the desolations of Jerusalem, even seventy years.
3I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and petitions, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
4I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, “Oh, Lord, the great and dreadful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with those who love him and keep his commandments,
5we have sinned, and have dealt perversely, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from your precepts and from your ordinances.
6We haven’t listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
7“Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us confusion of face, as it is today; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, who are near and who are far off, through all the countries where you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you.
8Lord, to us belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.
9To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him.
10We haven’t obeyed the LORD our God’s voice, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
11Yes, all Israel have transgressed your law, turning aside, and not obeying your voice. “Therefore the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us, for we have sinned against him.
12He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing on us a great evil; for under the whole sky, such has not been done as has been done to Jerusalem.
13As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come on us. Yet we have not entreated the favor of the LORD our God, that we should turn from our iniquities and have discernment in your truth.
14Therefore the LORD has watched over the evil, and brought it on us; for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he does, and we have not obeyed his voice.
15“Now, Lord our God, who has brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have gotten yourself renown, as it is today, we have sinned. We have done wickedly.
16Lord, according to all your righteousness, please let your anger and your wrath be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; because for our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a reproach to all who are around us.
17“Now therefore, our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his petitions, and cause your face to shine on your sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.
18My God, turn your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by your name; for we do not present our petitions before you for our righteousness, but for your great mercies’ sake.
19Lord, hear. Lord, forgive. Lord, listen and do. Don’t defer, for your own sake, my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.”
20While I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God—
21yes, while I was speaking in prayer—the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening offering.
22He instructed me and talked with me, and said, “Daniel, I have now come to give you wisdom and understanding.
23At the beginning of your petitions the commandment went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved. Therefore consider the matter and understand the vision.
24“Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.
25“Know therefore and discern that from the going out of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem to the Anointed One, the prince, will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be built again, with street and moat, even in troubled times.
26After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One will be cut off, and will have nothing. The people of the prince who come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end will be with a flood, and war will be even to the end. Desolations are determined.
27He will make a firm covenant with many for one week. In the middle of the week he will cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease. On the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate; and even to the decreed full end, wrath will be poured out on the desolate.”
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Key verses
Daniel 9:3Daniel responds to Jeremiah’s promised timetable by seeking God in prayer, with fasting and outward signs of mourning.
Daniel 9:20Daniel includes his own sin in Israel’s confession, and Gabriel’s arrival interrupts his plea for God’s holy mountain.
Daniel 9:24Gabriel’s seventy weeks place Jerusalem’s future within God’s decree to end sin and bring everlasting righteousness.
Where this chapter reaches

Jeremiah supplies the seventy-year prophecy Daniel reads, while Deuteronomy provides the covenant warnings behind his confession of Israel’s disobedience and exile. Nehemiah shares the pattern of confession and appeal to God’s covenant mercy; Matthew takes up Daniel’s language of abomination and desolation.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What stands out in Daniel’s reasons for asking God to hear and restore Jerusalem?

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How does Gabriel’s answer widen or complicate the hope for restoration expressed in Daniel’s prayer?

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Questions people ask about Daniel 9

What are the seventy weeks in Daniel 9?

Gabriel announces seventy weeks decreed for Daniel’s people and holy city. These are often understood as seventy groups of seven years, totaling 490 years. The passage divides them into seven, sixty-two, and one. Interpreters disagree about the starting decree, how the periods fit history, and whether a gap separates them.

Who is the Anointed One in Daniel 9?

The prophecy describes an anointed ruler who appears after Jerusalem’s rebuilding is decreed and is later cut off. Christians have long understood this as pointing to Jesus Christ and his death. Other readings identify figures within Israel’s earlier history. The passage names no person, and its chronology remains disputed.

Why does Daniel confess the sins of Israel?

Daniel belongs to the people whose rebellion he confesses, and verse 20 includes his own sin. He acknowledges that Jerusalem’s devastation accords with the warnings in Moses’ law. His plea rests on God’s mercy and the honor of God’s name, with no claim that the people have earned restoration.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).