CHAPTER 9

1 In the first year of Darius, son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was appointed king over the kingdom of the Chaldees.

2 In the first year of this reign, I Daniel diligently considered in books the number of the years concerning which the word of Jehovah had come to Jeremiah the Prophet, to complete the seventy years appointed for the desolation of Jerusalem.

3 Then I raised my face towards the Lord God, to inquire by prayer and supplication, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

4 And I prayed to Jehovah my God, and confessed, and said, O Lord God, great and terrible, keeping the covenant and mercy towards those who love thee and keep thy commandments;

5 We have sinned and acted perversely: We have conducted ourselves wickedly, and have rebelled: We have transgressed thy precepts and thy judgments:

6 We have not listened to thy servants the prophets, who have spoken in thy name to our kings, our princes, cur fathers, and all the people of the land.

7 With thee, O Lord, is righteousness, but with us confusion of face, As at this day: to all Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, far and near, whither thou hast driven them, on account of their transgression by which they have transgressed against thee.

8 O Lord, to us belongs confusion of face, To our kings, our princes, our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.

9 To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, Although we have been rebellious against him.

10 We have not listened to the voice of Jehovah our God, that we should walk in his laws, which he has set before our face by the hands of his servants the prophets.

11 Even all Israel have transgressed thy law, and have declined to listen to thy voice, Therefore the curse is poured down upon us: And the oath which is written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, Because we have sinned against him.

12 And he has established his word which he had spoken against us, and against our rulers who governed us, by bringing upon us a great calamity: For under the whole heaven nothing has occurred like that which has happened to Jerusalem.

13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: Yet we have not deprecated the wrath of Jehovah our God, to turn away from our iniquities, and to become attentive to thy truth.

14 And Jehovah has watched over the evil, and sent it forth upon us: Because Jehovah our God is just in all the works which he performs, And yet we have not listened to his voice.

15 And now, O Lord our God, who didst lead thy people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand, and hast made thyself a name as the fact itself has proved, we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

16 O Lord, according to all thy righteous dealings, let thine anger be turned away, I pray thee: Let thine indignation cease from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain; For through our sins, and through the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people have become a reproach to all our neighbors.

17 Hearken now, O our God, to the prayers of thy servant, and to his supplications: Make thy face to shine on the desolated sanctuary, for the Lord's sake.

18 Incline, O my God, thine ear, and hear: open thine eyes and behold our distresses, and the desolation of the city called by thy name: Because we do not pour out our supplications before thy face on account of our own righteousness, but by reason of thy many mercies.

19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, be propitious; O Lord, attend and perform; Delay not for thine own sake, O my God, since thy name is invoked in behalf of thy city and thy people.

20 And while I was yet speaking, and praying, and confessing my sins, and those of my people Israel, and while I was speaking my petition before Jehovah my God, on behalf of the mountain of the sanctuary of my God;

21 Even, while I was yet uttering my prayer, The man Gabriel, whom I had before seen in a vision, flying swiftly, Touched me about the time of the evening sacrifice.

22 Then he taught me, and spoke to me, and said, O Daniel, I have now come forth, to afford thee needful information.

23 At the beginning of thy prayers the word went forth, which I am come to declare, because thou art greatly beloved: Attend therefore to the word, and understand the vision.

24 Seventy weeks have been determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to close up wickedness, and seal up sin, and expiate iniquity, and bring in eternal righteousness, and seal up the vision and the prophecy, and anoint the holy of holies.

25 Take notice therefore and understand, From the going forth of the word concerning the return of the people, And the rebuilding of Jerusalem to Messiah the Leader, Seventy weeks, and sixty-two weeks; then the people shall be brought back, And the street and the wall shall be rebuilt, and that too amidst the perplexities (or "in the narrow limit") of the times.

26 Then after the sixty--two weeks, Christ shall be cut off, and become nothing: The people of the coming leader shall destroy the city and the sanctuary: Its end shall be with an inundation: And at the close of the war a completion of desolation's.

27 And he shall make a firm covenant with many for one week; And for half a week he shall cause the sacrifice and offering to cease; And upon the spreading of abominations he shall be astonished, And at the close, he shall pour the full accomplishment upon the desolator.