"... In 587 B.C. and in the 160s B.C. the sanctuary was despoiled and emptied of its thronging worshipers: “[Jerusalem’s] sanctuary was laid waste like a wilderness, her feasts were turned into mourning, her sabbaths into reproach, her honor into contempt”; sacrifices were suspended and the building defiled (1 Maccabees 1:39, 45–47; compare Lamentations 1:4, 10; 2:6, 7). The prayer’s cultic interest corresponds to that of other material in chapters 7–12. The response God looks for from his people is stated first in the initial description of his characteristics: he is faithful to those “who love him and keep his commands” (verse 4); the phrase recalls, behind Nehemiah 1:5, Deuteronomy 7:9 (also Deuteronomy 5:10 = Exodus 20:10); the theme of loving God is most common in Deuteronomistic contexts. There, as in Daniel 9:4, the context characteristically indicates that this love is not so much an emotion as a moral commitment (see Deuteronomy 6:5; 10:12; 11:1; 30:16, 20). This same emphasis features subsequently in Daniel 9 in repeated references to listening to / obeying God’s voice speaking through the prophets (verses 6, 10, 11, 14), which issues in living (“walk”) by his teaching(s) (verse 10). These expressions, too, are characteristically Deuteronomistic (e.g., Deuteronomy 11:22; 12:28; 13:4–5; 19:9; 28:1–2; 30:2, 8, 10, 16; Joshua 22:5). The significance of this is that the response God looks for from his people is the one required by that covenant expounded in Deuteronomy ..."