King James Version · The Persian return
Daniel 9
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In the first year of the son of , of the of the , which was made king over the realm of the ; In the first year of his reign I understood by books the number of the years, whereof to the , that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of . And I set unto , to seek by and supplications, with , and , and : And I unto my , and made my , and said, O , the great and dreadful , keeping and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his ; We have , and have committed , and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants , which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. O , belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of , and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee. O , to us belongeth confusion of , to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have against thee. To our belong and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him; Neither have we our , to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants . Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not thy voice; therefore the is poured upon us, and the that is written in of the , because we have against him. And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole hath not been done as hath been done upon . As in of , all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our before our , that we might turn from our , and understand thy truth. Therefore hath watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for our is in all his works which he doeth: for we not his voice. And now, O our , that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have , we have done wickedly. O , according to all thy , I beseech thee, let thine and thy fury be turned away from thy city , thy mountain: because for our , and for the of our fathers, and thy people are become a to all that are about us. Now therefore, O our , hear the of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for ’s sake. O my , incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great . O , hear; O , forgive; O , and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my : for thy city and thy people are called by thy name. And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my and the of my people Israel, and presenting my before my for the mountain of my ; Yea, whiles I was speaking in , even the man , whom I had seen in the at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O , I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the . Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy city, to finish the , and to make an end of , and to make reconciliation for , and to bring in , and to seal up the and , and to anoint the most . Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the to restore and to build unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah , but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and ; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
Christians read this chapter differently
- What are Daniel's seventy weeks? · Daniel 9:24-27
Every view at its strongest, with who holds it and what it has to answer for.
The world at this moment · The Persian return, 539 BC to 332 BC ›
Persia takes Babylon and reverses its policy, sending exiled peoples home to rebuild their temples. Judah returns as a small province, rebuilding under imperial permission rather than independence.
- Persia
- The largest empire the world had yet seen, from the Indus to the Aegean, run through provinces, a royal road, and a postal system. Its policy on conquered peoples was to send them home and fund their temples, in exchange for loyalty and prayers for the king. The Cyrus Cylinder states the policy in Cyrus's own words, and Ezra opens with the same policy applied to Judah.
- Judah
- A small, poor province called Yehud, a fraction of the old kingdom, with a rebuilt temple that made the people who remembered the first one weep. No king, and no prospect of one. Leadership passes to priests and scribes, which shapes everything afterward.
- Greece
- Persia and Greece collide at Marathon and Salamis, Persia loses, and Athens spends the following decades on the Parthenon, tragedy, and Socrates. Herodotus writes the first history in order to explain that war. Then Plato and Aristotle, whose vocabulary the church will still be using at Nicaea eight centuries later.
- Further afield
- Rome throws out its kings and becomes a republic. In India and China this is the age of the Buddha's early followers and of Confucian teaching taking hold. More of what the world still thinks with was invented in this era than in almost any other.