Daniel 9:18

O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. WE DO NOT PRESENT OUR SUPPLICATIONS - literally, cause to fall, etc. (cf. note, ). The expression alludes to the attitude of suppliants, who fall before him whose favour they entreat....

This short clause breathes a wonderful fervor and vehemence of prayer; for Daniel pours forth his words as if he were carried out of himself. God’s children are often in an ecstasy in prayer; they moan and plead with God, use various modes of speech and much tautology, and cannot satisfy themselves. In forms of speech, indeed, hypocrites are sometimes superior; they not only rival God’s sincere worshippers, but are altogether carried along by outward pomps, and by a vast heap of words in their prayers, they arrive at much elegance and splendor, and even become great rhetoricians. But Daniel here only displays some portion of his feelings; there is no doubt of his wishing to bear witness to the whole Church how vehemently and fervently he prayed with the view of inflaming others with similar ardor. In this verse, he says, _O my God, incline thine ear and hear. _It would have been sufficie...

4-19 In every prayer we must make confession, not only of the sins we have been guilty of, but of our faith in God, and dependence upon him, our sorrow for sin, and our resolutions against it. It must be our confession, the language of our convictions. Here is Daniel's humble, serious, devout address to God; in which he gives glory to him as a God to be feared, and as a God to be trusted. We should, in prayer, look both at God's greatness and his goodness, his majesty and mercy. Here is a penitent confession of sin, the cause of the troubles the people for so many years groaned under. All who would find mercy must thus confess their sins. Here is a self-abasing acknowledgment of the righteousness of God; and it is evermore the way of true penitents thus to justify God. Afflictions are sent to bring men to turn from their sins, and to understand God's truth. Here is a believing appeal to...

O MY GOD, INCLINE THINE EAR, AND HEAR - Pleading earnestly for his attention and his favor, as one does to a man. OPEN THINE EYES - As if his eyes had been closed upon the condition of the city, and he did not see it. Of course, all this is figurative, and is the language of strong and earnest pleading when the heart is greatly interested. AND THE CITY WHICH IS CALLED BY THY NAME - Margin, “whereupon thy name is called.” The margin expresses the sense more literally; but the meaning is, that the city had been consecrated to God, and was called his - the city of Jehovah. It was known as the place of his sanctuary - the city where his worship was celebrated, and which was regarded as his peculiar dwelling place on the earth. Compare Psalms 48:1;...

EXPOSITION DANIEL 9:1 THE SEVENTY WEEKS. This is the chapter of Daniel which has occasioned most controversy. It was appealed to by Tertullian and the early Fathers as a demonstration of the correctness of our Lord's claims to Messiahship. It is now received by critical commentators that to our Lord this prophecy cannot refer. Many treatises have been written on the "seventy weeks" of Daniel, and none of them have entirely cleared up the difficulties; indeed, it may be doubted whether all together they have illuminated the subject very much. DANIEL 9:1, DANIEL 9:2 In the first ye

O MY GOD, INCLINE THINE EAR, AND HEAR,.... The petitions now put up, for Christ's sake: OPEN THINE EYES, AND BEHOLD OUR DESOLATIONS; the city and temple a heap of rubbish, and the whole land forsaken of its inhabitants, and lying waste and uncultivated, or, however, at most possessed by enemies; and things being thus, it seemed as if the Lord shut his eyes to them, and therefore is desired to open them, and look with pity and compassion on the case of his people, and deliver them out of all their troubles: AND THE CITY WHICH IS CALLED BY THY NAME; or, "on which thy name is called" k; as Jerusalem was, being called the city of our God, the city of the great King, Psalms 48:1 and in which also his name was called upon, both by the inhabitants of it in their private houses, and by the priests and Levites, and others, in the temple, which stood in it:...

Daniel 9:14. Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth; for we obeyed not his voice. And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly. O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations,...

CHAPTER 9 THE PROPHECY OF THE SEVENTY WEEKS _ 1. The time and occasion of Daniel's prayer (Daniel 9:1)_ 2. The prayer (Daniel 9:3) 3. The answer and the prophecy of the seventy weeks (Daniel 9:20) Daniel 9:1. It was in the first year of Darius, of the seed of the Medes, that Daniel understood by the sacred writings of his people, especially by the prophecy of Jeremiah, that the end of the years of the captivity was at hand. The promises in the Word of God led him at once to seek the face of the Lord and he poured out a wonderful prayer in His presence....

According to Charles, a later interpolation containing the confession of Daniel. This prayer was evidently written by a Palestinian Jew (see Daniel 9:7 and Daniel 9:16), and does not, therefore, maintain the point of view assumed in the rest of the book, where the writer is supposed to be living at the court of Babylon. There is little originality in the prayer, and many of its phrases are borrowed from other parts of the OT. Daniel 9:11. written in the law of Moses: _ cf._ Deuteronomy 29:20. Daniel 9:13. as it is written: _ cf._...

THINE EYES. Figure of speech _Anthropopatheia._ App-6. WHICH IS CALLED BY THY NAME: or, upon which Thy name has been called. WE. Others were praying with Daniel....