1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus (Xerxes), of the lineage of the Medes. He was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans.
2 It was the first year of his reign. I, Daniel, understood from The Books (Holy Scriptures) the number of the years in the word of Jehovah to Jeremiah the prophet. It was seventy years since the destruction of Jerusalem.
3 I looked to Jehovah God to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
4 And I prayed to Jehovah my God, and made confession, and said, Oh, Jehovah, the great and fear-inspiring (awesome) God, who keeps his covenant and loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments.
5 We have sinned. We have dealt perversely. We have acted wickedly and have rebelled, even turning aside from your precepts and from your ordinances.
6 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.
7 O Jehovah, righteousness belongs to you! Shame belongs to us this day! To the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you.
8 O Jehovah, to us belongs shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.
9 To Jehovah our God belong mercies and forgiveness. We have rebelled against him.
10 We have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
11 Yes, all Israel have transgressed your law and turned aside, that they should not obey your voice. Therefore the curse has been poured out upon us. It is the oath that is written in the Law of Moses the servant of God. We have sinned against you.
12 He confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges who ruled us. He brought a great evil on us. Nothing under heaven has been done like what was done to Jerusalem.
13 As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us. Yet we have not earnestly requested the favor of Jehovah our God. We should turn from our iniquities, and have discernment in your truth.
14 Therefore Jehovah watched over the evil and brought it upon us. Jehovah our God is righteous in all his works. We have not obeyed his voice.
15 And now, O Jehovah our God, you brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made a name for yourself that day. We have sinned! We have done wickedly.
16 O Jehovah, according to all your righteousness, let your anger, I pray you, be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain. Because of our sins, and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a reproach to all those who are round about us.
17 Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant, and to his supplications, and cause your face to shine upon your sanctuary that is desolate, for Jehovah's sake.
18 O my God, incline your ear, and hear! Open your eyes, and behold our desolations and the city that is called by your name. We do not present our supplications before you because of our righteous merits, but according to your many mercies.
19 O Jehovah, hear; O Jehovah, forgive; O Jehovah, pay attention and act! Do not delay for your own sake, O my God! Because your city and your people are called by your name.
20 While I was speaking, in prayer, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before Jehovah my God for the holy mountain of my God;
21 While I was speaking in prayer, the spirit person [who looked like a man] Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, was inspired to come quickly and touch me. It was about the time of the evening offering.
22 He instructed me: O Daniel, he said, I have now come to give you wisdom (insight) and understanding.
23 At the beginning of your supplications the commandment went forth. I came to report to you for you are greatly loved. Consider the matter, and understand the vision.
24 Seventy weeks (seventy sets of seven time periods) are decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish transgression and to make an end of sin, 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.
25 Know and discern, that from the utterance of the commandment to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One (Messiah), the Leader: there shall be seven weeks, also sixty-two weeks. It shall be built again with a public square and moat, even in terrible times.
26 And after the sixty-two weeks the anointed one will be cut off (destroyed) (killed) and shall have nothing. The people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be by the flood of war and desolations.
27 He will make a firm covenant with many for one week (time period of seven). In the middle of the week he will cause the sacrifice and the offerings to cease. The one that makes desolate will come upon the wing of abominations. At the end that which is decreed will be poured out upon the one lying desolate.