[1] In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the
Medes, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldaeans; [2] In the
first year of his rule, I, Daniel, saw clearly from the books the number of
years given by the word of the Lord to the prophet Jeremiah, in which the
making waste of Jerusalem was to be complete, that is, seventy years. [3]
And turning my face to the Lord God, I gave myself up to prayer, requesting
his grace, going without food, in haircloth and dust. [4] And I made prayer
to the Lord my God, putting our sins before him, and said, O Lord, the
great God, greatly to be feared. keeping your agreement and mercy with
those who have love for you and do your orders; [5] We are sinners, acting
wrongly and doing evil; we have gone against you, turning away from your
orders and from your laws: [6] We have not given ear to your servants the
prophets, who said words in your name to our kings and our rulers and our
fathers and all the people of the land. [7] O Lord, righteousness is yours,
but shame is on us, even to this day; and on the men of Judah and the
people of Jerusalem, and on all Israel, those who are near and those who
are far off, in all the countries where you have sent them because of the
sin which they have done against you. [8] O Lord, shame is on us, on our
kings and our rulers and our fathers, because of our sin against you. [9]
With the Lord our God are mercies and forgiveness, for we have gone against
him; [10] And have not given ear to the voice of the Lord our God to go in
the way of his laws which he put before us by the mouth of his servants the
prophets. [11] And all Israel have been sinners against your law, turning
away so as not to give ear to your voice: and the curse has been let loose
on us, and the oath recorded in the law of Moses, the servant of God, for
we have done evil against him. [12] And he has given effect to his words
which he said against us and against those who were our judges, by sending
a great evil on us: for under all heaven there has not been done what has
been done to Jerusalem. [13] As it was recorded in the law of Moses, all
this evil has come on us: but we have made no prayer for grace from the
Lord our God that we might be turned from our evil doings and come to true
wisdom. [14] So the Lord has been watching over this evil and has made it
come on us: for the Lord our God is upright in all his acts which he has
done, and we have not given ear to his voice. [15] And now, O Lord our God,
who took your people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand and made a
great name for yourself even to this day; we are sinners, we have done
evil. [16] O Lord, because of your righteousness, let your wrath and your
passion be turned away from your town Jerusalem, your holy mountain:
because, through our sins and the evil-doing of our fathers, Jerusalem and
your people have become a cause of shame to all who are round about us.
[17] And now, give ear, O our God, to the prayer of your servant and to his
request for grace, and let your face be shining on your holy place which is
made waste, because of your servants, O Lord. [18] O my God, let your ear
be turned and give hearing; let your eyes be open and see how we have been
made waste and the town which is named by your name: for we are not
offering our prayers before you because of our righteousness, but because
of your great mercies. [19] O Lord, give ear; O Lord, have forgiveness; O
Lord, take note and do; let there be no more waiting; for the honour of
your name, O my God, because your town and your people are named by your
name. [20] And while I was still saying these words in prayer, and putting
my sins and the sins of my people Israel before the Lord, and requesting
grace from the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; [21] Even while
I was still in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at
first when my weariness was great, put his hand on me about the time of the
evening offering. [22] And teaching me and talking to me he said, O Daniel,
I have come now to give you wisdom. [23] At the first word of your prayer a
word went out, and I have come to give you knowledge; for you are a man
dearly loved: so give thought to the word and let the vision be clear to
you. [24] Seventy weeks have been fixed for your people and your holy town,
to let wrongdoing be complete and sin come to its full limit, and for the
clearing away of evil-doing and the coming in of eternal righteousness: so
that the vision and the word of the prophet may be stamped as true, and to
put the holy oil on a most holy place. [25] Have then the certain knowledge
that from the going out of the word for the building again of Jerusalem
till the coming of a prince, on whom the holy oil has been put, will be
seven weeks: in sixty-two weeks its building will be complete, with square
and earthwork. [26] And at the end of the times, even after the sixty-two
weeks, one on whom the holy oil has been put will be cut off and have no
..; and the town and the holy place will be made waste together with a
prince; and the end will come with an overflowing of waters, and even to
the end there will be war; the making waste which has been fixed. [27] And
a strong order will be sent out against the great number for one week; and
so for half of the week the offering and the meal offering will come to an
end; and in its place will be an unclean thing causing fear; till the
destruction which has been fixed is let loose on him who has made waste.
