Daniel 9:4

And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; I ... MADE MY CONFESSION - according to God's promises in , that if Israel in exile for sin should repent and confess, God would remember for them His covenant with Abraham (cf. Deuteronomy 30:1; Jeremiah 29:12; ). God's promise was absolute; but prayer also was ordained as about to precede its fulfillment, this, too, being the work of God in His people, as much as the external restoration which was to follo...

Here Daniel relates the substance of his prayer. He says, _He prayed and confessed before God _The greatest part of this prayer is an entreaty that God would pardon his people. Whenever we ask for pardon, the testimony of repentance ought to precede our request. For God announces that he will be propitious and easily entreated when men seriously and heartily repent. (Isaiah 58:9.) Thus confession of guilt is one method of obtaining pardon; and for this reason Daniel fills up the greater part of his prayer with the confession of his sinfulness. He reminds us of this, not for the sake of boasting, but to instruct us by his own example to pray as we ought. He says, therefore, _he prayed and made confession _The addition of “my God” to the word Jehovah is by no means superfluous. _I prayed, _he says, _to my God. _He here shews that he did not utter prayers with trembling, as men too often do...

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...

Verse Daniel 9:4. _KEEPING THE COVENANT_] Fidelity and truth are characteristics of God. He had never yet broken his engagements to his followers, and was ever showing _mercy_ to men....

AND I PRAYED UNTO THE LORD MY GOD - Evidently a set and formal prayer. It would seem probable that; he offered this prayer, and then re corded the substance of it afterward. We have no reason to suppose that we have the whole of it, but we have doubtless its principal topics. AND MADE MY CONFESSION - Not as an individual, or not of his own sins only, but a confession in behalf of the people, and in their name. There is no reason to suppose that what he here says did “not” express their feelings. They had been long in captivity - far away from their desolate city and temple. They could not but be sensible that these calamities had come upon them on account of their sins; and they could not but feel that the calamities could not be expected to be removed but by confession of their sins, and by acknowledging the justice of the Divine dealings toward them. When we have been afflicted - when...

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

AND I PRAYED UNTO THE LORD MY GOD,.... Not to idols, nor to angels or saints departed; but to the Lord God of heaven and earth, who is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, c.: a God hearing and answering prayer and to whom he directed his prayer, not only as the God of nature and providence, but as his own covenant God and Father; thereby encouraging his faith in him, and using his interest with him: and made my confession; of his own sins, and of the sins of his people; of the favours bestowed on him and them; of his justice in afflicting them, and his mercy in appointing a time for their deliverance; of his own faith in him, love to him, and submission to his will: AND SAID, O LORD, THE GREAT AND DREADFUL GOD; great in his being and perfections, and in all his works of nature, providence, and grace; "and dreadful" in his threatenings and judgments, in his wrath and vengeance: or, to b...

Daniel 9:1. _In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem._ Daniel was himself a prophet, but he studied the inspired prophecies of Jeremiah. If such a man need read Scripture, how much more ought we! Whatever light we may suppose to dwell within us, we shall do well to walk by the mere sure word of prophecy. Daniel 9:3. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and

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._...