Texts in Conversation
In Daniel 9, Daniel confesses Israel's sins during the exile and begs God to show mercy because of his covenant. The Testament of Moses gives a leader of the exiles the same kind of prayer, and God answers by moving a king to send them home.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Daniel 9:4
Hebrew Bible
4 I prayed to the Lord my God, confessing in this way: “O Lord, great and awesome God who is faithful to his covenant with those who love him and keep his commandments, 5 we have sinned! We have done what is wrong and wicked; we have rebelled by turning away from your commandments and standards. 6 We have not paid attention to your servants the prophets, who spoke by your authority to our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, and to all the inhabitants of the land as well. 7 “You are righteous, O Lord, but we are humiliated this day—the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far away in all the countries in which you have scattered them because they have behaved unfaithfully toward you. 8 O Lord, we have been humiliated—our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors—because we have sinned against you.
Testament of Moses 4:2
Assumption of Moses
Pseudepigrapha, Testaments
Then there shall enter one who is over them, and he shall spread forth his hands, and kneel upon his knees and pray on their behalf saying: 'Lord of all, King on the lofty throne, who rules the world, and willed that this people should be Your elect people, then (indeed) You willed that You should be called their God, according to the covenant which You made with their fathers. And yet they have gone in captivity in another land with their wives and their children, and around the gates of strange peoples and where there is great vanity. Regard and have compassion on them, O Lord of heaven.' Then God will remember them on account of the covenant which He made with their fathers, and He will manifest His compassion in those times also. And He will put it into the mind of a king to have compassion on them, and he shall send them off to their land and country.
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Notes and References
“... In 3:4 it is described that the two tribes will call unto the ten tribes and go into the fields. The description of the events which follow is an extensive adaptation of the so-called confessional prayers, one of the most fixed forms of Jewish literature from the exile up to the present. [...] The prayers meeting this description include the following: National: Ps. 106(105); Isa. 63:7-64:12; Dan. 9:4-19; Ezra 9:6-15; Neh. 1:5-11; 9:6-37; Esth. 4:17 l-z; Bar. 1:15-3:8; Pr. Azar.; 4 Ezra 8:20-36; 3 Macc. 2:1-20; cf. 1QS I 24-II 1; CD XX 27-31; LAB 30:4. [...] As. Mos. 3:4-4:4 is clearly inspired by this form. It contains all the elements mentioned, although they are only partly cast in the form of a prayer. [...] After a short comment on the fulfilment of the punishment, the plea for mercy is presented as a new prayer, said by an intercessor, independent from the tribes' prayer (this accounts for some duplication of the tribes' prayer). The intercessor refers to the covenant in order to move God to mercy. ...”
Tromp, Johannes
The Assumption of Moses: A Critical Edition with Commentary
(pp. 164-165) Brill, 1993
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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