Daniel’s Prayer for His People 3 UDB After I read that, I pleaded with the Lord my God by prayer and fasting to help us. I put on clothing made from old grain bags and sat in ashes. BSB BSB: So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
4 UDB I prayed to Yahweh my God, and I confessed the sins we had committed: "Lord, I beg you, for you are great and powerful. You have faithfully done what you said you would do for us. You faithfully love those who love you and who do what you have commanded them to 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 UDB But we have sinned and done things that are wrong. We have done wicked things, and we have rebelled against you. We have turned away and disobeyed 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 UDB Your prophets spoke for you—giving your messages to our kings, our other rulers, our other ancestors, and all the Israelite people—but we did not listen to them. 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 UDB Lord, you act justly. However, we are covered in shame. This is true for the people of Judah who live in Jerusalem and who live in other places in Judea. It is also true about your people the Jews that you scattered to other countries 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 UDB Yahweh, we and our kings and our other rulers and our other ancestors are ashamed because we 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 UDB 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 UDB When you gave your laws to your prophets who served you, and they told us to live our lives according to those laws, we did not listen to the voice of Yahweh our God. 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 UDB All Israel has disobeyed your law, and we have turned away from it and have refused to do what you told us to do. Because we have sinned against you, you have sent to us 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 UDB 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 UDB You punished us just as Moses wrote that you would do. But we still have not turned away from our bad deeds to the truth or begged you for mercy. 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 UDB So because we did not obey you, Yahweh, 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 UDB 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 UDB But now, because everything you do is righteous, we request you not to be angry with Jerusalem any longer, O 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 because of our sins and because of the evil things that our ancestors did. 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 UDB Our God, I, your servant, ask you to listen to my prayer and my requests. For your own sake, act kindly toward your sanctuary in Jerusalem, which has been 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 UDB My God, listen to my prayer. Look at us and do what you must. See, this city that belongs to you is 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 UDB Lord, listen to us! Lord, forgive us! This city and these people belong to you. So I plead with you, my God, to pay attention to what I am saying and act to help us right now, for your own sake!" 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.”
Gabriel’s Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks 20 UDB 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 UDB While I was praying, Gabriel, the angel whom I had seen in the first vision, 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 UDB He said to me, "Daniel, I have come to you to enable you to clearly understand 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 UDB When you began to plead with God to be merciful to Israel, 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 so 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 UDB You need to know and understand this: There will be forty-nine years and then 434 years between when a king commands that Jerusalem be rebuilt and when the leader comes, the one whom God chooses. Then Jerusalem will be rebuilt, and it will have streets and will have a moat around it to protect the city, in spite of the fact that it will be a time of great trouble. 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 UDB After those 434 years, the leader whom God has selected will be killed, and everything will be taken away from him. After that, the temple will be destroyed by the army of a powerful ruler. The city and the temple will be destroyed as a flood destroys everything. When this happens, these wars and destruction will cease. 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 UDB That ruler will make a covenant with many people. He will do what he promised for seven years. But when that time is half finished, he will prevent priests from giving any more offerings and sacrifices to God. After this ruler does these disgusting things, someone will pollute the temple by putting an idol in the very holy place. It will stay there until God completely destroys the one who put it there." 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.”
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