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Daniel’s prayer
1 Now I am going to tell you about what happened when Darius, who was from the Mede people-group and who was the son of Xerxes, ruled as the King of Babylonia.
2 During the first year that he was the king, I, Daniel, was studying/reading the holy books/Scriptures the message that Yahweh had given to the prophet Jeremiah. In that message Jeremiah had written that Jerusalem would be destroyed and remain ruined for seventy years.
3 After I read that, I pleaded to Yahweh my God to help us, praying and ◄fasting/abstaining from eating food►. While doing that, I was wearing rough cloth and sitting in ashes to show that I was very sad about what was going to happen to us.
4 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.
5 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 [DOU].
6 Your prophets spoke for you [MTY], 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/heed► those prophets.
7 Lord, you always do what is righteous/just/fair, but we have caused ourselves to be ashamed [IDM]. 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/disloyal to you.
8 Lord, we and our kings and our other rulers and our other ancestors have done very shameful things and have sinned against you.
9 Although we have rebelled against you, you act mercifully toward us and you are willing/ready to forgive us.
10 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/heed► you.
11 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/wrote would happen to us if we sinned against you.
12 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.
13 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.
14 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/just/fair.
15 O Lord our God, you brought your people out of Egypt by your great power [MTY], and by doing that you have caused people from that time until the present time to know that you are great [IDM] even though we have sinned and done wicked things.
16 Lord, Jerusalem is your city, and your temple was built there on your sacred hill. Now all the people who live in nearby countries/nations 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/just, we ask you to not be angry with Jerusalem any longer.
17 O Lord our God, listen to what I am praying and pleading for you to do. ◄For your own sake/In order that people will know that you are very great►, act kindly [IDM] concerning your temple, which was destroyed by the armies of Babylonia.
18 My God, listen to my prayer. Look at us and see our troubles, and see that this city that belongs to you [MTY] has been ruined/destroyed. We are praying to you because you are merciful, not because we have done what is right/good.
19 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/in order that people will know that you are very great►!
Gabriel told what would happen in the future
20 I continued praying and confessing the sins that my people and I had committed, and pleading with Yahweh my God that he would restore the temple on the sacred hill in Jerusalem.
21 While I was praying, Gabriel, the angel/one whom I had seen in the vision previously, came flying rapidly to me, at the time in the evening when the priests offered sacrifices.
22 He said to me, “Daniel, I have come to you to enable you to understand [DOU] clearly the message that God gave to Jeremiah.
23 When you began to plead with God, he gave me a message to pass on to you. He loves you very much, so he has sent me to tell you what he said to me. So now ◄pay attention/listen carefully► in order that you may understand the meaning of what he revealed to Jeremiah.
24 God has determined/declared that there will be 490 years until he frees/saves your people from the guilt of their sins and to atone for the evil things that they have done. Then God will rule everyone justly, and he will do that forever. And what you saw in the vision and what Jeremiah prophesied will ◄come true/be fulfilled►, and the sacred temple will be dedicated to God again.
25 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/king that God has chosen will come. Then 434 years later, Jerusalem will be rebuilt, and it will have streets and will have a ◄moat/deep ditch filled with water► around it to protect the city. But that will be a time when God’s people will have a lot of troubles/difficulties/suffering.
26 After those 434 years, the leader/king whom God has appointed will be killed when it seems that he will have accomplished nothing ◄unjustly/without having done anything wrong►. 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 [MET] destroys everything. That will be the beginning of the war and destruction that God has decreed will happen.
27 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.”