3 ARST After I read that, I pleaded to Yahweh my God to help us, praying and fasting. While doing that, I was wearing rough cloth and sitting in ashes to show that I was very sad about what had happened to us. BSB BSB: So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
4 ARST I confessed the sins that we had committed, and this is what I prayed: Lord, you are great and awesome! You have faithfully done what you said that you would do for us. You faithfully love those who love you and who do what you have commanded that they should do. BSB BSB: And I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed, “O, Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of loving devotion to those who love Him and keep His commandments,
5 ARST But we Israelis have sinned. We have done things that are wrong. We have done wicked things, and we have rebelled against you. We have turned away from obeying your commands. BSB BSB: we have sinned and done wrong. We have acted wickedly and rebelled. We have turned away from Your commandments and ordinances.
6 ARST Your prophets spoke for you, giving your messages to our kings, to our other rulers, to our other ancestors, and to all the Israeli people, but we have refused to pay attention to those prophets. BSB BSB: We have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, leaders, fathers, and all the people of the land.
7 ARST Lord, you always do what is righteous, but we have caused ourselves to be ashamed. This is still true about all of the Israelis who live in Jerusalem and who live in other places in Judea. It is also true about all us Israelis whom you scattered, who were taken to other countries, some near Israel and some far away, because we were very unfaithful to you. BSB BSB: To You, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but this day we are covered with shame—the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, and all Israel near and far, in all the countries to which You have driven us because of our unfaithfulness to You.
8 ARST Yahweh, we and our kings and our other rulers and our other ancestors have done very shameful things and have sinned against you. BSB BSB: O LORD, we are covered with shame—our kings, our leaders, and our fathers—because we have sinned against You.
9 ARST Although we have rebelled against you, you act mercifully toward us and you are willing to forgive us. BSB BSB: To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, even though we have rebelled against Him
10 ARST Yahweh our God, when you gave your laws to your prophets who served you, and they told us to conduct our lives according to those laws, we did not listen to you. BSB BSB: and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God to walk in His laws, which He set before us through His servants the prophets.
11 ARST All of us Israeli people have disobeyed your laws, and we have turned away from obeying what you said. We have sinned against you. As a result, you have caused us to experience the terrible things that your servant Moses said would happen to us if we sinned against you. BSB BSB: All Israel has transgressed Your law and turned away, refusing to obey Your voice; so the oath and the curse written in the Law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us, because we have sinned against You.
12 ARST You warned us and our rulers that you would punish Jerusalem severely by causing a great disaster there, a disaster that would be worse than any disaster that any other city had ever experienced, and you have done what you said that you would do. BSB BSB: You have carried out the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us a great disaster. For under all of heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.
13 ARST You punished us just like Moses wrote that you would do. But, Yahweh our God, we still have not tried, by turning away from our sinning and by heeding your truth, to persuade you to act mercifully toward us. BSB BSB: Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our iniquities and giving attention to Your truth.
14 ARST So, because we did not obey you, you prepared to punish us, and then you did punish us, because you always do what is righteous. BSB BSB: Therefore the LORD has kept the calamity in store and brought it upon us. For the LORD our God is righteous in all He does; yet we have not obeyed His voice.
15 ARST Lord our God, you brought your people out of Egypt by your great power, and by doing that you have caused people from that time until the present time to know that you are great even though we have sinned and done wicked things. BSB BSB: Now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and who made for Yourself a name renowned to this day, we have sinned; we have acted wickedly.
16 ARST Lord, Jerusalem is your city, and your temple was built there on your sacred hill. Now all the people who live in nearby countries despise Jerusalem and us your people because of our sins and because of the evil things that our ancestors did. But now, because you do what is righteous, we request you to not be angry with Jerusalem any longer. BSB BSB: O Lord, in keeping with all Your righteous acts, I pray that Your anger and wrath may turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all around us.
17 ARST Lord our God, listen to what I am praying and pleading for you to do. For your own sake that people will know that you are very great, act kindly concerning your temple, which was destroyed by the armies of Babylonia. BSB BSB: So now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of Your servant. For Your sake, O Lord, cause Your face to shine upon Your desolate sanctuary.
18 ARST My God, listen to my prayer. Look at us and see our troubles, and see that this city that belongs to you has been ruined. We are praying to you because you are merciful, not because we have done what is right. BSB BSB: Incline Your ear, O my God, and hear; open Your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears Your name. For we are not presenting our petitions before You because of our righteous acts, but because of Your great compassion.
19 ARST Lord, listen to us! Lord, forgive us! Lord, this city and these people belong to you, so we plead with you to heed what we are saying and act to help us right now, for your own sake that people will know that you are very great! BSB BSB: O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For Your sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people bear Your name.”
20 ARST I continued praying and confessing the sins that I and my people Israel had committed, and pleading with Yahweh my God that he would restore the temple on the sacred hill in Jerusalem. BSB BSB: While I was speaking, praying, confessing my sin and that of my people Israel, and presenting my petition before the LORD my God concerning His holy mountain—
21 ARST While I was praying, Gabriel, the angel whom I had seen in the vision previously, came flying rapidly to me, at the time in the evening when the priests offered sacrifices. BSB BSB: while I was still praying, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice.
22 ARST He said to me,“Daniel, I have come to you to enable you to understand clearly the message that God gave to Jeremiah. BSB BSB: He instructed me and spoke with me, saying: “O Daniel, I have come now to give you insight and understanding.
23 ARST When you began to plead with God, he gave me a message to give to you. He loves you very much, so he has sent me to tell you what he said to me. So now pay attention in order that you may understand the meaning of what he revealed to Jeremiah. BSB BSB: At the beginning of your petitions, an answer went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly precious. So consider the message and understand the vision:
25 ARST You need to know and understand this: There will be 49 years from the time that the king commands that Jerusalem should be rebuilt until the leader that God has chosen will come. Then 434 years later, Jerusalem will be rebuilt, and it will have streets and will have a moat around it to protect the city. But that will be a time when God’ s people have a lot of troubles. BSB BSB: Know and understand this: From the issuance of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Messiah, the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of distress.
26 ARST After those 434 years, the leader whom God has appointed will be killed when it seems that he will have acomplished nothing unjustly. After that, the temple will be destroyed by the army of a powerful ruler. The city and the temple will be destroyed like a flood destroys everything. That will be the beginning of the war and destruction that God has decreed will happen. BSB BSB: Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing. Then the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood, and until the end there will be war; desolations have been decreed.
27 ARST That ruler will make a strong agreement with many people. He will promise to do for seven years what he has said in that agreement. But when that time is half finished, he will prevent priests from giving any more offerings and sacrifices to God. A disgusting idol will be put on the highest part of the temple, and it will stay there until God gets rid of the one who put it there, which is what he said that he would do.” BSB BSB: And he will confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of the temple will come the abomination that causes desolation, until the decreed destruction is poured out upon him.”
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.