Daniel 9:4-16

9:4 I prayed to the LORD my God, confessing in this way:

“O Lord, ¹  great and awesome God who is faithful to his covenant ²  with those who love him and keep his commandments, 9:5 we have sinned! We have done what is wrong and wicked; we have rebelled by turning away from your commandments and standards. 9:6 We have not paid attention to your servants the prophets, who spoke by your authority ³  to our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, ⁴  and to all the inhabitants ⁵  of the land as well.

9:7 “You are righteous, ⁶  O Lord, but we are humiliated this day ⁷  – the people ⁸  of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far away in all the countries in which you have scattered them, because they have behaved unfaithfully toward you. 9:8 O LORD, we have been humiliated ⁹  – our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors – because we have sinned against you. 9:9 Yet the Lord our God is compassionate and forgiving, ¹⁰  even though we have rebelled against him. 9:10 We have not obeyed ¹¹  the LORD our God by living according to ¹²  his laws ¹³  that he set before us through his servants the prophets.

9:11 “All Israel has broken ¹⁴  your law and turned away by not obeying you. ¹⁵  Therefore you have poured out on us the judgment solemnly threatened ¹⁶  in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against you. ¹⁷  9:12 He has carried out his threats ¹⁸  against us and our rulers ¹⁹  who were over ²⁰  us by bringing great calamity on us – what has happened to Jerusalem has never been equaled under all heaven! 9:13 Just as it is written in the law of Moses, so all this calamity has come on us. Still we have not tried to pacify ²¹  the LORD our God by turning back from our sin and by seeking wisdom ²²  from your reliable moral standards. ²³  9:14 The LORD was mindful of the calamity, and he brought it on us. For the LORD our God is just ²⁴  in all he has done, ²⁵  and we have not obeyed him. ²⁶ 

9:15 “Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with great power ²⁷  and made a name for yourself that is remembered to this day – we have sinned and behaved wickedly. 9:16 O Lord, according to all your justice, ²⁸  please turn your raging anger ²⁹  away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain. For due to our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors, Jerusalem and your people are mocked by all our neighbors.

[9:4]  ¹ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here and in vv. 7, 9, 15, 16, and 19 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[9:4]  ² tn Heb “who keeps the covenant and the loyal love.” The expression is a hendiadys.

[9:6]  ³ tn Heb “in your name.” Another option is to translate, “as your representatives.”

[9:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “our fathers” (also in vv. 8, 16). The Hebrew term translated “father” can refer to more distant relationships such as grandfathers or ancestors.

[9:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “people.”

[9:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “to you (belongs) righteousness.”

[9:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “and to us (belongs) shame of face like this day.”

[9:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “men.”

[9:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “to us (belongs) shame of face.”

[9:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to the Lord our God (belong) compassion and forgiveness.”

[9:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “paid attention to the voice of,” which is an idiomatic expression for obedience (cf. NASB “nor have we obeyed the voice of”).

[9:10]  ¹² tn Heb “to walk in.”

[9:10]  ¹³ tc The LXX and Vulgate have the singular.

[9:11]  ¹⁴ tn Or “transgressed.” The Hebrew verb has the primary sense of crossing a boundary, in this case, God’s law.

[9:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “by not paying attention to your voice.”

[9:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the curse and the oath which is written.” The term “curse” refers here to the judgments threatened in the Mosaic law (see Deut 28) for rebellion. The expression “the curse and the oath” is probably a hendiadys (cf. Num 5:21; Neh 10:29) referring to the fact that the covenant with its threatened judgments was ratified by solemn oath and made legally binding upon the covenant community.

[9:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “him.”

[9:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he has fulfilled his word(s) which he spoke.”

[9:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “our judges.”

[9:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “who judged.”

[9:13]  ²¹ tn Heb “we have not pacified the face of.”

[9:13]  ²² tn Or “by gaining insight.”

[9:13]  ²³ tn Heb “by your truth.” The Hebrew term does not refer here to abstract truth, however, but to the reliable moral guidance found in the covenant law. See vv 10-11.

[9:14]  ²⁴ tn Or “righteous.”

[9:14]  ²⁵ tn Heb “in all his deeds which he has done.”

[9:14]  ²⁶ tn Heb “we have not listened to his voice.”

[9:15]  ²⁷ tn Heb “with a powerful hand.”

[9:16]  ²⁸ tn Or “righteousness.”

[9:16]  ²⁹ tn Heb “your anger and your rage.” The synonyms are joined here to emphasize the degree of God’s anger. This is best expressed in English by making one of the terms adjectival (cf. NLT “your furious anger”; CEV “terribly angry”).