CHAPTER 9 Oct. 31 
Daniel’s Prayer 
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed 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 word of Yahweh had come 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 Yahweh 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; 6neither have we 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. 7Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as at this day; 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 shame 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; 10neither have we obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. 11Yes, all Israel have transgressed Your law, turning aside, that they should not obey 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 Heaven 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 have we not entreated the favour of Yahweh our God, that we should turn from our iniquities, and accept Your truth. 14Therefore has Yahweh watched over the evil, and brought it on us; for Yahweh our God is righteous in all His works which He does, and we have not obeyed His voice. 15Now, Lord our God, You who brought Your people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and has gotten Yourself renown, as at this day; 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. 17Now 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. 
The Seventy Weeks 
20While I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before Yahweh 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 am now come forth to give you wisdom and understanding. 23At the beginning of your petitions the commandment went forth, and I have come to tell you; for you are greatly beloved: therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision. 24Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. 25Know therefore and discern, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem to the Anointed One, the prince, shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks: it shall be built again, with street and moat, even in troubled times. 26After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One shall be cut off, and shall have nothing: and the people of the prince who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and its end shall be with a flood, and even to the end shall be war; desolations are determined. 27He shall make a firm covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease; and on the wing of abominations shall come desolation even to the full end, and the wrath that is determined shall be poured out on the one who makes desolate.  

Commentary

9:12 God brought the “evil” or disaster (:14); there is no personal Satan who does this, God creates both good and evil in a judicial sense (Is. 45:5-7).
9:15 We have sinned- So often in this prayer, Daniel associates himself with his sinful people. No matter how weak we perceive our fellow believers to be, we are part of the body of Christ as they are, and we cannot in this sense disassociate ourselves from them. When we see their sins, we should feel shame for the fact that the body of God’s people behave like this, and ask God to forgive us.
9:23- see on 10:2.
9:26 69 weeks is 483 days. On the basis of a day for a year, this would make 483 years. However, Jewish time is often reckoned in Lunar cycles rather than Solar, as Europeans are accustomed to. The decree of Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem was given, according to profane history, BC457. On the basis of Lunar time, 69 weeks of years comes out at 486.5 Lunar years. Allowing for a BC/AD calendar inaccuracy of 4 years, this brings us to AD33.5 for the time of Messiah being cut off; which is exactly when Jesus was crucified, 33.5 years after his birth. The 69 weeks being split into 7 weeks and 62 weeks is understandable once it is appreciated that most Bible prophecy has some immediate reference to the period around which it was given. 7 weeks of years would come to around 50 years. According to the records of the rebuilding of Jerusalem in Ezra, Nehemiah and Haggai it would appear that the bulk of the work was done in the 50 years after the issuing of the decree for rebuilding. This mini time period would doubtless have been of great encouragement to the Jews of the time as they laboured in the rebuilding work amidst so much opposition. The final week of tribulation is hard to interpret, perhaps because if Israel had accepted Christ as Messiah as intended, it could have been fulfilled without the delay which was necessitated. One possibility is that the 3.5 year tribulation of Jerusalem at the hands of the Romans between AD67 and AD70 was the half week in which the sacrifices ceased to be offered in the Jerusalem temple (:27). The remaining half week would be fulfilled in the final 3.5 year tribulation before Christ’s return (see 7:25). The jump in fulfilment from AD33 to AD70 and then to the last days is the same kind of jump in hiatus found in the gap between the legs and the feet of the image in Dan. 2, and between the succession of beasts and then the terrible beast and the little horn in Dan. 7. These are but suggestions for the interpretation of some of the hardest words in the Bible.