1 In the first year under Darius the son of Xerxes, of the Median race, who reigned over the kingdom of the Chaldeans, 2 in the first year of his reign I Daniel considered in the books the number of the years, when there was a decree to the land through Jeremiah the prophet, to raise up seventy years for the fulfillment of the reproach of Jerusalem. 3 And I set my face toward the Lord God, to find prayer and mercy, with fastings and sackcloth and ashes. 4 And I prayed to the Lord God and made confession and said, Look, Lord, you are the God, the great and the strong and the fearful, keeping the covenant and the mercy to those who love you and to those who keep your ordinances. 5 We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted impiously, and we have departed, and have transgressed your commandments and your judgments. 6 And we did not listen to your servants the prophets, the things which they spoke in your name to our kings and our mighty men and our fathers and to every nation upon the earth. 7 To you, Lord, belongs righteousness, and to us shame of face as at this day, to the men of Judah and to those dwelling in Jerusalem and to all the people of Israel, the nearest and the farther off, in all the countries into which you scattered them there, for the trespass by which they trespassed before you. 8 Master, to us belongs shame of face, and to our kings and mighty men and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. 9 To the Lord belong righteousness and mercy, because we departed from you, 10 and we did not listen to the voice of the Lord our God, to follow your law which you gave before Moses and us through your servants the prophets. 11 And all Israel forsook your law, and they departed so as not to listen to your voice; and the curse came upon us, and the oath written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we sinned against him. 12 And he established for us his ordinances, as many as he spoke against us and against our judges, as many as you judged for us, to bring upon us great evils, such as have not happened under heaven, as happened in Jerusalem. 13 According to the things written in the covenant of Moses, all the evils came upon us; and we did not seek out the face of the Lord our God, to depart from our sins and to understand your righteousness, Lord. 14 And the Lord God kept watch over the evils and brought them upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all that he may do; and we did not listen to his voice. 15 And now, Master, Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with your high arm, and made yourself a name as at this day, we have sinned, we have been ignorant. 16 Master, according to your righteousness let your fury and your anger turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; for in our sins and in the ignorances of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people, Lord, have become a reproach among all who are around us. 17 And now hear, Master, the prayer of your servant and my petitions, and let your face look upon your holy mountain that is desolate, for the sake of your servants, Master. 18 Incline your ear, Lord, and hear me; open your eyes and see our desolation and that of your city, upon which your name has been called; for not on account of our righteous deeds do we make our petition in our prayers before you, but because of your mercy. 19 Lord, show mercy; Lord, hear and act, and do not delay, for your own sake, Master, because your name was called upon your city Zion and upon your people Israel. 20 And while I was speaking, praying and confessing my sins and the sins of my people Israel, and making petition in prayers before the Lord my God, and for the holy mountain of our God, 21 and while I was still speaking in my prayer, look, the man whom I saw in my sleep at the beginning, Gabriel, borne swiftly, drew near to me at the hour of the evening sacrifice. 22 And he came and spoke with me and said, Daniel, I have now come forth to show you understanding. 23 At the beginning of your petition a command went forth from the Lord, and I have come to show you, for you are one shown mercy; and understand the command. 24 Seventy weeks have been decided upon your people and upon the city Zion, for sin to be finished and for unrighteousness to become scarce, and to blot out the unrighteousness, and to understand the vision, and for everlasting righteousness to be given, and for the vision to be finished, and to gladden a holy of holies.⁠a 25 And you shall know and understand and rejoice, and you shall find commands to answer, and you shall build Jerusalem a city for the Lord. 26 And after seven and seventy and sixty-two, an anointing shall be removed⁠b and shall not be; and a kingdom of nations shall destroy the city and the sanctuary along with the anointed one; and its end shall come with fierce anger, and until the time of the end it shall be warred against with war. 27 And the covenant shall prevail for many, and again it shall return and be rebuilt in breadth and length; and at the completion of times, and after seven and seventy times and sixty-two years, until the time of the end of war, the desolation also shall be taken away when the covenant prevails for many weeks; and at the end of the week the sacrifice and the drink offering shall be taken away, and upon the temple there shall be an abomination of desolations until the end, and an end shall be put upon the desolation.