Daniel 9 · The Lantern

Daniel’s Prayer for His People

In the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus, from the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans —

in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years about which the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, to fulfill for the ruins of Jerusalem seventy years.

And so since even the angel Gabriel, just as it is understood by us, described these things in this way to the prophet, these things also happened and all these things are plainly recorded in the Maccabees, let us also see what he says in the vision of the weeks.

Darius, the son of Astyages, who destroyed the Babylonian Empire with the help of his kinsmen Cyrus, was sixty-two years old when he attacked Babylon. He is called by another name by the Greeks. He took the prophet Daniel and led him into the middle of his court and feted him with every honor.

When the time fixed for the captivity is completed, Daniel begins to pray for the return; indeed, he had not dared to pray [to that purpose] before that moment, in order not to press God needlessly and in order not to hear the word that had been addressed to Jeremiah: "Do not pray for this people, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you." But after seeing that the…

And I set my face to the Lord God, to seek prayer and pleas, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

And I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession, and I said: Ah, Lord, the great and fearful God, keeping the covenant and the loyal love for those who love him and for those who keep his commandments —

we have sinned and committed iniquity and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and from your judgments.

Although Daniel has already received manifold grace due to his faith and innocence and although he has received quite a reputation before the Lord in regard to his virtues and praises, he strives with fasting to be worthy of God; he puts on sackcloth and ashes and makes confession with tears.

Verse 5. "'We have sinned, we have behaved wickedly and impiously, and we have departed...'" He reviews the sins of the people as if he were personally guilty, on the ground of his being one of the people, just as we read the Apostle does also in his Epistle to the Romans.

Then to bring out God's constant care for them and the people's great insensitivity, [Daniel] went on, "We have not hearkened to your servants the prophets, who kept speaking in your name to our kings, to our rulers, to our fathers and to the whole people of the land." Your grace did not cease watching over us and speaking through the prophets, at one time to kings and rulers,…

And we have not 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.

To you, Lord, is the righteousness, and to us the shame of face as at this day — to the man of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to all Israel, the near and the far, in all the lands where you have driven them, for their unfaithfulness by which they were unfaithful to you.

"Yours is the victory, O Lord, in this case," because you foresaw our many sins and threatened those about to sin with many curses, keeping your watch lest we might sin. Righteousness is on your side, O Lord, because no evil will besiege us that was not announced to us beforehand. So now confusion has overwhelmed us everywhere, and we are dispersed in every place.

Verse 7. "'Justice belongeth unto Thee, O Lord, but for us there is only confusion of face...'" It is of course just that we suffer what we deserve.

Lord, the things done by you proclaim your righteousness. But we are ashamed because of our great transgression and denounced for our own ingratitude. No harm comes to you because of our godlessness, but we have reaped the fruit of these seeds. He speaks in a pitiable fashion. Daniel both accuses his kin and associates himself with their trespasses.

LORD, to us is the shame of face — to our kings, to our princes and to our fathers — because we have sinned against you.

To the Lord our God belong the compassion and the forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him,

and have not listened to the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his instructions that he set before us by the hand of his servants the prophets.

And all Israel have transgressed your instruction and turned aside, not listening to your voice. And the curse and the oath that is written in the instruction of Moses the servant of God has been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him.

And he has raised up his word that he spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, to bring upon us a great evil — which has not been done under all the heavens as it has been done in Jerusalem.

As it is written in the instruction of Moses, all this evil has come upon us; and we have not entreated the face of the LORD our God, to turn back from our iniquity and to gain insight in your truth.

And the LORD has kept watch over the evil and brought it upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works that he has done; and we have not listened to his voice.

And now, Lord our God, who brought your people out from the land of Egypt with a strong hand and made for yourself a name as at this day — we have sinned, we have acted wickedly.

Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn back from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; for by our sins and by the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a reproach to all those around us.

And now, hear, our God, the prayer of your servant and his pleas, and make your face shine on your sanctuary that is desolate, for the sake of the Lord.

Incline your ear, my God, and hear; open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city over which your name is called. For not on our righteous acts do we cast down our pleas before you, but on your many compassions.

Lord, hear! Lord, forgive! Lord, give heed and act — do not delay, for your own sake, my God, for your name is called over your city and over your people.

Gabriel’s Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks

And while I was still speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and casting down my plea before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God —

while I was still speaking in the prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, in swift flight, touched me about the time of the evening grain offering.

From all these passages are revealed to us, not merely the particulars of the apostasy, and [the doings] of him who concentrates in himself every satanic error, but also, that there is one and the same God the Father, who was declared by the prophets, but made manifest by Christ.

Verse 21. "While I was still speaking in my prayer, behold the man Gabriel, whom I had seen at the beginning of the vision." He calls the previous vision preceding this one the beginning. The effect of his prayer was considerable, and the promise of God was fulfilled which says, "While thou art yet speaking, lo, I am at hand" (Isaiah 58:9).

As is clear to all, Daniel himself gave the name of the very angel in the book of his prophecy, when he learned from the angel those mysteries of the weeks that would take place concerning the birth of Christ.… According to the Gospel, the wonderful name of the very angel was found to have been given again in these times, for the same angel told Zechariah, "I am Gabriel and I s…

And he gave understanding and spoke with me and said: Daniel, now I have come out to give you insight and understanding.

At the beginning of your pleas a word went out, and I have come to tell it, for you are desired. So understand the word and understand the appearance.

Seventy weeks are determined upon your people and upon your holy city: to finish the transgression, and to complete sin, and to make atonement for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal vision and prophet, and to anoint a holy of holies.

The learned scholar Clement, presbyter of the church at Alexandria, regards the number of years as a matter of slight consequence, asserting that the seventy weeks of years were completed by the span of time from the reign of Cyrus, King of the Persians, to the reign of the Roman emperors, Vespasian and Titus; that is to say, the interval of four hundred and ninety years, with…

This means that there will be quietness for your people, so that the transgressions may be finished and the sins expiated through the seventy years of the bondage in Babylon may end, as well as all the crimes of the children of Israel.

The words "seventy weeks will linger," that is, until the destruction caused by the Romans. In fact, even though, in the meantime, they are sometimes afflicted, they will not be abandoned completely.

And you are to know and to gain insight: from the going out of a word to restore and to build Jerusalem until an anointed one, a leader, is seven weeks. And for sixty-two weeks it will be restored and built, street and moat, and in the distress of the times.

Indeed it says, "and to return and a street and wall shall be built." [Daniel 9:25] And it really happened. For the people returned and built this city and temple and its wall in a circle.

Since there is much testimony from the writings of the Law and the Prophets concerning the coming of the Savior, so that the Jews cannot deny it, the more thoughtful among them admit that he will come but say that he has not yet come.

This is Daniel who prophesied in Babylon and who was also privileged to utter predictions concerning the Lord Christ, and he speaks thus: And thou shalt know and discern that from the going forth of the commandment to the response and the building of Jerusalem, until the anointed one a prince, shall be seven weeks and three score and two weeks.

And after the sixty-two weeks an anointed one will be cut off and have nothing. And the city and the holy place the people of a leader who is coming will destroy; and its end will be in the flood, and to the end of the war desolations are decreed.

Now you hesitate to believe what we have stated, although you see that these things have happened. Therefore we ought to seek again the times that were foretold, both as pertaining to the birth and suffering of Christ and the removal of the city Jerusalem, that is, its destruction.

Theodoret interprets ("the king who will come") as the foreign kingship and the unlawful doctrine. Others say, "With the king who will come," meaning with the Christ who will come.

The full accord of the witnesses is found in the words of Scriptures. Isaiah says: The virgin shall be with child; and Luke: Thou shalt conceive. One says: Christ shall be slain; and the Evangelist: Put Him to death. Whatever, then, had been foretold by the prophets was fulfilled through Christ.

And he will make a covenant strong for the many for one week; and half of the week he will make sacrifice and grain offering cease. And on a wing, detestable things of one desolating — and until a finish, and what is decreed, is poured out on the desolator.

Then he says, "after sixty-two weeks, times shall be spun out and he shall set forth a covenant with many for one week. And in half of the week sacrifice and the drink offering shall be taken away and upon the Temple shall be an abomination of desolation." [Daniel 9:27] For after sixty-two weeks was fulfilled and after Christ has come and the Gospel has been preached in every p…

But what else did Daniel proclaim? He was prophesying not that which had already been done but that which would take place. What is the abomination of desolation that he proclaimed would take place when the Romans came, unless it is those things that now threaten?

Christ was killed not immediately after the sixty-two weeks but at the end of the seventieth week. As far as we can figure out, [Daniel] separates this last week from the others, for he was going to say more about this week.

Daniel9

Daniel’s Prayer for His People

Gabriel’s Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks