Danielchapter 9
27 verses · KJVDaniel book hub →
Key verse
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
It stands in Seventy weeks, the Anointed cut off, the covenant confirmed, verses 24 to 27.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Reading Jeremiah, Daniel understands the seventy years decreed for the desolations of Jerusalem. And responds not by waiting but by praying, in fasting and ashes. The prayer is unbroken confession: 'we have sinned… to us belongeth confusion of face,' ending 'O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive… for thine own sake, O my God.' At the evening oblation Gabriel answers: 'Thou art greatly beloved.' Seventy weeks are decreed to finish transgression, bring in everlasting righteousness and anoint the most holy. After sixty-nine, 'shall the anointed one be cut off, and shall have nothing'; the prince to come destroys city and sanctuary; and a covenant for one week is broken in its midst by the abomination that makes desolate: that final week still future.
Context
Prophecy · Daniel · Daniel overview
Where the chapter sits
Daniel 9 falls in Apocalyptic visions (chapters 7–12). The four beasts and the Son of Man (7); the ram and the goat (8); the seventy weeks (9); the great vision of the final conflict and resurrection (10–12).
The seventy weeks. Daniel's prayer from Jer 25's seventy years; Gabriel's answer in seventy weeks.
Before it: Court narratives, chapters 1–6.
The whole shape of Daniel→The world behind this chapter
Daniel 9The history
This chapter starts with a man reading his Bible. Daniel says he "understood by books", he had Jeremiah's scroll, and in it the promise that Babylon's dominion would run seventy years and then the exile would end.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The timing is why he is on his knees. Babylon had just fallen. If the seventy years were counted from the first deportation in 605 BC, the clock was nearly out. Within a year or two Cyrus would issue the decree that sent the first group home.
What he does with a promise about to be fulfilled is the surprise. He does not celebrate. He fasts in sackcloth and ashes and confesses, and he does it in the first person plural. "We have sinned." Daniel, of all people, includes himself in the guilt that caused the exile.
The answer that comes is the passage called the seventy weeks: a span of seventy sevens decreed for Daniel's people and city, running from a decree to restore and build Jerusalem, in which transgression is finished and everlasting righteousness brought in, and in which an anointed one is cut off, and the city and sanctuary are destroyed again. Christians from the earliest centuries have read the cutting off as the crucifixion and the destruction as Rome's sack of Jerusalem in AD 70. How the weeks are counted has been debated for two thousand years and is still debated.
What it meant to them
To the first hearers this said that God keeps calendars. The seventy years were not a mood; they were a number, and the number was running out on schedule.
It also reset expectations. The exiles were about to go home, and Daniel is told that going home is not the end of the story, a much longer span still had to run before sin was finished and righteousness brought in. The return would be real, and it would not be the redemption itself.
Sources cited
- John Calvin, Commentaries on the Book of the Prophet Daniel
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (Whiston translation)
- Chuck Missler, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours
- Sir Robert Anderson, The Coming Prince (public domain)
The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Reading Jeremiah: the seventy years are nearly done
1. (vv. 1-2)
Daniel 9:1
“In the first year of Darius - See the notes at Dan 5:31, and Introuction to Dan. 6 Section II. The king here referred to under this name was Cyaxares II, who lived between Astyages and Cyrus, and in whom was the title of king. He was the immediate successor of Belshazzar, and was the predecessor of Cyrus, and was the first of the foreign princes that reigned over Babylon. On the reasons why he is called in Daniel Darius, and not Cyaxares, see the Introduction to Dan. 6, Section II.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Daniel 9:1
“Ahasuerus was a name common to many of the kings of Medo-Persia. made king--The phrase implies that Darius owed the kingdom not to his own prowess, but to that of another, namely, Cyrus.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Daniel 9:2
“I Daniel understood by books - The prophecy referred to here is found Jer 25:12; Jer 29:10. The people must have been satisfied of the Divine inspiration of Jeremiah, or his prophecies would not have been so speedily collected nor so carefully preserved. It appears that there was a copy of them then in Daniel’s hands.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
made king over the realm of the Chaldeans: Darius the Mede, son of Ahasuerus, is made king over the Chaldean kingdom, a figure the commentators cannot pin to a single monument, and the positions run from a separate ruler under Cyrus, commonly proposed as Gubaru or Cyaxares, to a title for Cyrus himself, named here with their holders rather than settled. In the first year of this reign Daniel understands by books the number of years the word of the Lord gave to Jeremiah, that the desolations of Jerusalem would run seventy years, the thread the Jeremiah brief already verifies at 25:11-12 and 29:10. Daniel reads Jeremiah's own scroll as Scripture even in his own generation, and the reading drives him straight to prayer rather than to calculation alone.
2. (v. 3)
Daniel 9:3
“Nor is it merely a change of nature, or aversion of perils or obliteration of sins but likewise the recognition of mysteries that fasts will merit from God. Look at Daniel's example.… In the first year of King Darius, when, after careful and repeated meditation on the times predicted by Jeremiah, he set his face to God in fasts and sackcloth and ashes. An angel was sent to him and immediately stated this had been the cause of the divine honor; he said, "I came to show you, wretched as you are," namely, because he had been fasting.”
Tertullian· written before 220· ON FASTING 7patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Daniel 9:3
“And I set my face unto the Lord God - Probably the meaning is, that he turned his face toward Jerusalem, the place where God had dwelt; the place of his holy abode on earth. See the notes at Dan 6:10. The language, however, would not be inappropriate to denote prayer without such a supposition. We turn to one whom we address, and so prayer may be described by “setting the face toward God.” The essential idea here is, that he engaged in a set and formal prayer; he engaged in earnest devotion.”
Daniel 9:3-6
with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: Daniel sets his face to seek the Lord by prayer, supplication, fasting, sackcloth and ashes, the full apparatus of national mourning, and the confession that follows runs in the same key as Ezra's in Ezra 9 and the Levites' in Nehemiah 9, we have sinned repeated until it becomes the prayer's own refrain. He counts himself inside the guilt he shares by nation rather than by deed, since the youth who refused the king's food in chapter one has nothing personal to confess, and the bench reads this identification as the same pattern Moses and Nehemiah both carry, a righteous man praying as one of the guilty people. The prayer names no merit of its own from the first word.
B. A confession made for the whole people
1. (vv. 4-6)
Daniel 9:4
“So weak and sinful is man that any covenant for good on God's part with him, to take effect, must depend solely on His grace. If He be a God to be feared for His justice, He is one to be trusted for His "mercy." love . . . keep his commandments--Keeping His commandments is the only sure test of love to God (Joh 14:15).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Daniel 9:5
“Erred in ignorance . . . sinned by infirmity . . . habitually and wilfully done wickedness . . . as open and obstinate rebels set ourselves against God.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Daniel 9:6
“Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets - Who called upon us to turn from our sins; who made known the will of God, and who proclaimed that these judgments would come upon us if we did not repent. Which spake in thy name to our kings ... - To all classes of the people, calling on kings and rulers to turn from their idolatry, and the people to forsake their sins, and to seek the Lord.”
2 more voices on this verse
Daniel 9:6
“Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets,....”
Daniel 9:6
“This confession of sin is repeated here, and much insisted on; penitents should again and again accuse and reproach themselves till they find their hearts thoroughly broken.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2. (vv. 7-14)
Daniel 9:7
“O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee - Margin, “or, thou hast.” The Hebrew is, “to thee is righteousness, to us shame, etc.” The state of mind in him who makes the prayer is that of ascribing righteousness or justice to God. Daniel feels and admits that God has been right in his dealings. He is not disposed to blame him, but to take all the shame and blame to the people.”
Daniel 9:8
“O Lord, to us belongeth confusion ... - To all of us; to the whole people, high and low, rich and poor, the rulers and the ruled. All had been partakers of the guilt; all were involved in the calamities consequent on the guilt. As all had sinned, the judgments had come upon all, and it was proper that the confession should be made in the name of all.”
2 more voices on this verse
Daniel 9:8
“O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face,....”
Daniel 9:8
“Daniel was despondent and in pain. It was not merely the present troubles alone that bothered him but also the troubles to come, since he had not yet been allowed to learn those things through his prophetic eyes. When he saw that the Jews had not yet been freed from their earlier servitude, he was compelled to see another captivity falling on them, and he saw the city that had not yet been rebuilt being captured again. He saw the temple defiled by sacrifices and made desolate and the Holy of Holies overturned.”
John Chrysostom· written before 407· TO STAGIRIUS 1-3patristic
Daniel 9:9
“As it is humbling to recollect "righteousness belongeth unto God," so it is comforting, that "mercies belong to the Lord OUR God." though we have rebelled--rather, "since," &c. [Vulgate], (Ps 25:11). Our punishment is not inconsistent with His "mercies," since we have rebelled against Him.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Daniel 9:10
“Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord - The commands of God as made known by the prophets, Dan 9:6.”
1 more voice on this verse
Daniel 9:10
“Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God,....”
Daniel 9:12
“And he hath confirmed his words which he spake against us,....”
3 more voices on this verse
Daniel 9:12
“And he hath confirmed his words ... - By bringing upon the people all that he had threatened in case of their disobedience. Daniel saw that there was a complete fulfillment of all that he had said would come upon them. As all this had been threatened, he could not complain; and as he had confirmed his words in regard to the threatening, he had the same reason to think that he would in regard to his promises.”
Daniel 9:12
“Judged us - Whose duty it was to govern the people, and to judge their causes; wherein if there was a failure, it was a sin, and judgment upon the people, and upon the rulers and Judges themselves also.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Daniel 9:12
“It is Jeremiah's lamentation in the name of the church, Was ever sorrow like unto my sorrow? which must suppose another similar question, Was ever sin like unto my sin?”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Daniel 9:13
“As it is written in the law of Moses - The word law was given to all the writings of Moses. See the notes at Luk 24:44. Yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God - Margin, “entreated we not the face of.” The Hebrew word used here (חלה châlâh) means, properly, “to be polished;” then to be worn down in strength, to be weak; then to be sick, or diseased; then in Piel (the form used here), to rub or stroke the face of anyone, to soothe or caress, and hence, to beseech, or supplicate.”
1 more voice on this verse
Daniel 9:13
“Diseased, we spurn the healing medicine. that we might turn, &c.--Prayer can only be accepted when joined with the desire to turn from sin to God (Ps 66:18; Pr 28:9). understand thy truth--"attentively regard Thy faithfulness" in fulfilling Thy promises, and also Thy threats [CALVIN].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
righteousness belongeth unto thee: The confession turns forensic: righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, and the curse poured upon Israel is named as the very curse written in the law of Moses, the covenant sanctions of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 come due. Daniel prays as a man who has read his own nation's indictment and signs it rather than disputing it, all this evil is come upon us, yet we made not our prayer before the Lord, admitting the neglect that let the judgment run its course. The Lord is righteous in all his works, the confession states, even the work of Jerusalem's own devastation.
C. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; do not delayvv. 15-19
brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt: The appeal turns to plea, grounded in the Exodus itself, the Lord who brought his people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and gotten himself renown, asked now to act again for his own name's sake rather than for any righteousness of theirs. It rises to the fourfold cry of verse nineteen, O Lord, hear, O Lord, forgive, O Lord, hearken and do, which the older writers set beside Moses' intercession at the golden calf as one of Scripture's great pleadings for a whole nation. Daniel asks nothing on the ground of merit, we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies, the confession's own last word before the answer comes.
Daniel 9:15
“And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt - In former days. The reference to this shows that it is proper to use “arguments” before God when we plead with him (compare the notes at Job 23:4); that is, to suggest considerations or reasons why the prayer should be granted.”
1 more voice on this verse
Daniel 9:15
“Egypt--a proof to all ages that the seed of Abraham is Thy covenant-people. That ancient benefit gives us hope that Thou wilt confer a like one on us now under similar circumstances (Ps 80:8-14; 23:7, 8). as at this day--is known.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Daniel 9:16
“O Lord, according to all thy righteousness - The word righteousness here seems to refer to all that was excellent and glorious in the character of God. The eye of Daniel is fixed upon what he had formerly done; upon his character of justice, and mercy, and goodness; upon the faithfulness of God to his people, and, in view of all that was excellent and lovely in his character, he pleaded that he would interpose and turn away his anger from his people now.”
Daniel 9:17
“Now, therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant - In behalf of the people. He pleaded for his people and country, and earnestly entreated the Lord to be merciful. His argument is based on the confession of sin; on the character of God; on the condition of the city and temple; on the former Divine interpositions in behalf of the people; and by all these considerations, he pleads with God to have mercy upon his people and land. And cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary - Upon the temple.”
Daniel 9:18
“We cannot now expect that God should send us answers to our prayer by angels, but, if we pray with fervency for that which God has promised, we may by faith take the promise as an immediate answer to the prayer; for he is faithful that has promised. [2.] He had a discovery made to him of a far greater and more glorious redemption which God would work out for his church in the latter days.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Daniel 9:19
“The short broken ejaculations and repetitions show the intense fervor of his supplications. defer not--He implies that the seventy years are now all but complete. thine own sake--often repeated, as being the strongest plea (Jer 14:21).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
D. Gabriel comes swiftly to the greatly belovedvv. 20-23
confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel: While Daniel is yet speaking, confessing his own sin and his people's, the man Gabriel returns, the same messenger of chapter eight, touching him about the time of the evening sacrifice, an offering that had not been made in the ruined temple for decades yet still marks the hour. Gabriel tells him the commandment came forth at the very beginning of his supplications, before the prayer was finished, the answer already sent the moment the praying began. Daniel is called a man greatly beloved, a title given him three times across the book, here and twice more at 10:11 and 10:19, each occasion opening a fresh unveiling of what is to come.
Daniel 9:21
“The evening oblation was a type of the great sacrifice which Christ was to offer in the evening of the world, and it was in the virtue of that sacrifice that Daniel's prayer was accepted when he prayed for the Lord's sake; and for the sake of that this glorious discovery of redeeming love was made to him.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Daniel 9:21
“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.”
Irenaeus· written before 202· AGAINST HERESIES 5:25.5patristic
Daniel 9:22
“And he informed me - Hebrew, Gave me intelligence or understanding. That is, about the design of his visit, and about what would be hereafter. And talked with me - Spake unto me. O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill - Margin, “make thee skillful of.” The Hebrew is, literally, “to make thee skillful, or wise, in understanding.” The design was to give him information as to what was to occur.”
Daniel 9:23
“As the apocalyptic prophet of the New Testament was "the disciple whom Jesus loved," so the apocalyptic prophet of the Old Testament was "greatly beloved" of God. the vision--the further revelation as to Messiah in connection with Jeremiah's prophecy of seventy years of the captivity.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Daniel 9:23
“In the first seven weeks, or forty-nine years, the temple and city were built; and in the last single week Christ preached his gospel, by which the Jewish economy was taken down, and the foundations were laid of the gospel city and temple, which were to be built upon the ruins of the former.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
E. Seventy weeks, the Anointed cut off, the covenant confirmed
1. (v. 24)
Daniel 9:24
“Seventy weeks are determined - This is a most important prophecy, and has given rise to a variety of opinions relative to the proper mode of explanation; but the chief difficulty, if not the only one, is to find out the time from which these seventy weeks should be dated. What is here said by the angel is not a direct answer to Daniel’s prayer. He prays to know when the seventy weeks of the captivity are to end.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Daniel 9:24
“To make reconciliation: all which words are very expressive in the original, and signify to pardon, to blot out, to destroy. To bring in everlasting righteousness - To bring in justification by the free grace of God in Christ, and sanctification by his spirit: called everlasting, because Christ is eternal, and so are the acceptance and holiness purchased for us.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Daniel 9:24
“The propitiatory in the temple (the same Greek word expresses the mercy seat and propitiation, Ro 3:25), which the Jews looked for at the restoration from Babylon, shall have its true realization only in Messiah. For it is only when sin is "made an end of" that God's presence can be perfectly manifested.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people: Seventy weeks are determined upon Daniel's people and holy city, and six purposes are named for them in one breath: to finish the transgression, make an end of sins, make reconciliation for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up vision and prophecy, and anoint the most Holy. The traditional and dispensational reading, the site's own tradition, hears in these six purposes the finished work of the cross and the kingdom yet to be established in full; an older and a critical line confines the whole span to the Maccabean crisis and the rededication that followed it. Both are named with their holders, since the six purposes state the scope and the fulfillment itself is precisely what the positions divide over.
2. (v. 25)
Daniel 9:25
“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.”
Hippolytus of Rome· written before 235· Commentary on Daniel 4.35.1patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Daniel 9:25
“Know, therefore, and understand - Hengstenberg renders this, “and thou wilt know and understand;” and supposes that the design of Gabriel is to awaken the attention and interest of Daniel by the assurance that, if he would give attention, he would understand the subject by the explanation which he was about to give. So also Theodotion renders it in the future tense. The Hebrew is in the future tense, and would probably convey the idea that he might, or would know and understand the matter.”
unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks: From the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem to Messiah the Prince runs seven weeks and threescore and two weeks, sixty-nine sevens in all, and the street and wall are rebuilt in troublous times exactly as Nehemiah's own record describes the work. The traditional line dates the commandment to Artaxerxes' decree of Nehemiah 2, and Missler's Daniel's Seventy Weeks works the sixty-nine sevens of prophetic years forward to Messiah's public presentation, while other readings date the terminus to an earlier decree or take the whole span typologically rather than as a chronometer. The positions are named with their holders and no date is set on this page beyond the ancient decrees the text and Nehemiah both already record.
3. (v. 26)
Daniel 9:26
“And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary - By the “prince” Titus, the son of Vespasian, is plainly intended; and “the people of that prince” are no other than the Romans, who, according to the prophecy, destroyed the sanctuary, הקדש hakkodesh, the holy place or temple, and, as a flood, swept away all, till the total destruction of that obstinate people finished the war.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Daniel 9:26
“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. Daniel says that the holy city and its sanctuary will be removed when the prince comes and that its pinnacle would be utterly destroyed. The times for the coming of the Christ must be sought again, as we found out in Daniel.”
Tertullian· written before 220· AN ANSWER TO THE JEWS 8patristic
Daniel 9:26
“And after - After the seven and the sixty two that followed them. Not for himself - But for our sakes, and for our salvation. And the people - The Roman under the conduct of Titus.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: After the sixty-two weeks Messiah is cut off, but not for himself, a phrase the bench reads as substitutionary, dying not for his own sin but another's, and the timing places the cutting off after the sixty-nine weeks rather than within the seventieth. The people of the prince that shall come then destroy the city and the sanctuary, the near-universal reading applying this to Rome's legions under Titus in AD 70, decades after Messiah's own death, the prince himself distinct from his people. The end comes with a flood and desolations determined unto the end of the war, language the older writers read as the whole span of trouble running from the cross to the temple's fall.
4. (v. 27)
Daniel 9:27
“And he shall confirm the covenant - literally, “he shall make strong” - והגביר vehı̂gebı̂yr. The idea is that of giving strength, or stability; of making firm and sure.”
1 more voice on this verse
Daniel 9:27
“He shall confirm - Christ confirmed the new covenant, 1. By the testimony of angels, of John baptist, of the wise men, of the saints then living, of Moses and Elias. By his resurrection and ascension.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Daniel 9:27
- Quoted inMatthew 24:15“So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination of desolation,’ described by the prophet Daniel (let the reader understand),”
'the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet'
he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: The final week opens with a covenant confirmed with many, then broken in its midst, sacrifice and oblation made to cease, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, the same phrase the book itself carries forward to 11:31 and 12:11 and the Lord cites at Matt 24:15 as still future in his own mouth, per the book's own thread. The traditional dispensational reading sets a gap between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks, the final week reserved for a still-future fulfillment; other readings read the sixty-two-and-one-week sequence as continuous, closing near the Jewish war. Both are named with their holders, and the parking order keeps any date or modern application off this page.
This page carries no textual note on Daniel 9. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Daniel; Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Daniel; John Calvin, Commentary on the Prophet Daniel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
Keep studying
On this page
Studies12
On this verse
Words12
Trails1