Conundrum
Daniel's Confession (Daniel 9:1-27)
1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus of the seed of the Medes, who had been made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans;
2 in the first year of his reigning I myself, Daniel, discerned by the books the number of the years concerning which the word of Jehovah had occurred to Jeremiah the prophet, for fulfilling the devastations of Jerusalem, [namely,] seventy years.
3 And I proceeded to set my face to Jehovah the [true] God, in order to seek [him] with prayer and with entreaties, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
4 And I began to pray to Jehovah my God and to make confession and to say: “Ah Jehovah the [true] God, the great One and the fear-inspiring One, keeping the covenant and the loving-kindness to those loving him and to those keeping his commandments, 5 we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled; and there has been a turning aside from your commandments and from your judicial decisions. 6 And we have not listened to your servants the prophets, who have spoken in your name to our kings, our princes and our forefathers and to all the people of the land.7 To you, O Jehovah, there belongs the righteousness, but to us the shame of face as at this day, to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to all those of Israel, those nearby and those far away in all the lands to which you dispersed them because of their unfaithfulness with which they acted against you. 8 “O Jehovah, to us belongs the shame of face, to our kings, to our princes and to our forefathers, because we have sinned against you. 9 To Jehovah our God belong the mercies and the acts of forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him. 10 And we have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah our God by walking in his laws that he set before us by the hand of his servants the prophets. 11 And all those of Israel have overstepped your law, and there has been a turning aside by not obeying your voice, so that you poured out upon us the curse and the sworn oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of the [true] God, for we have sinned against Him.
12 And he proceeded to carry out his words that he had spoken against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us great calamity, such as was not done under the whole heavens as what has been done in Jerusalem. 13 Just as it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity—it has come upon us, and we have not softened the face of Jehovah our God by turning back from our error and by showing insight into your trueness. 14 “And Jehovah kept alert to the calamity and finally brought it upon us, for Jehovah our God is righteous in all his works that he has done; and we have not obeyed his voice. 15 “And now, O Jehovah our God, you who brought your people out from the land of Egypt by a strong hand and proceeded to make a name for yourself as at this day, we have sinned, we have acted wickedly. 16 O Jehovah, according to all your acts of righteousness, please, may your anger and your rage turn back from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; for, because of our sins and because of the errors of our forefathers, Jerusalem and your people are an object of reproach to all those round about us. 17 And now listen, O our God, to the prayer of your servant and to his entreaties, and cause your face to shine upon your sanctuary that is desolated, for the sake of Jehovah. 18 Incline your ear, O my God, and hear. Do open your eyes and see our desolated conditions and the city that has been called by your name; for not according to our righteous acts are we letting our entreaties fall before you, but according to your many mercies. 19 O Jehovah, do hear. O Jehovah, do forgive. O Jehovah, do pay attention and act. Do not delay, for your own sake, O my God, for your own name has been called upon your city and upon your people.”
20 While I was yet speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and letting my request for favor fall before Jehovah my God concerning the holy mountain of my God, 21 and [while] I was yet speaking in the prayer, why, the man Ga′bri‧el, whom I had seen in the vision at the start, having been made weary with tiredness, was arriving by me at the time of the evening gift offering. 22 And he proceeded to impart understanding and speak with me and say:
“O Daniel, now I have come forth to make you have insight with understanding. 23 At the start of your entreaties a word went forth, and I myself have come to make report, because you are someone very desirable. So give consideration to the matter, and have understanding in the thing seen. 24 “There are seventy weeks that have been determined upon your people and upon your holy city, in order to terminate the transgression, and to finish off sin, and to make atonement for error, and to bring in righteousness for times indefinite, and to imprint a seal upon vision and prophet, and to anoint the Holy of Holies. 25 And you should know and have the insight [that] from the going forth of [the] word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem until Mes‧si′ah [the] Leader, there will be seven weeks, also sixty-two weeks. She will return and be actually rebuilt, with a public square and moat, but in the straits of the times. 26 “And after the sixty-two weeks Mes‧si′ah will be cut off, with nothing for himself. “And the city and the holy place the people of a leader that is coming will bring to their ruin. And the end of it will be by the flood. And until [the] end there will be war; what is decided upon is desolations. 27 “And he must keep [the] covenant in force for the many for one week; and at the half of the week he will cause sacrifice and gift offering to cease. “And upon the wing of disgusting things there will be the one causing desolation; and until an extermination, the very thing decided upon will go pouring out also upon the one lying desolate.”