Dan 9:1. In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the
seed of the Medes, who ruled over the kingdom of the Chaldeans.
IN THE FIRST YEAR OF DARIUS — that is, in the first year in which, after the conquest of Babylon, Darius began to reign as sole monarch. This was the seventieth and final year of the Babylonian captivity, and it was the year of the world 3420, while before the birth of Christ it was the year 529. In this year, therefore, Daniel understood that these seventy weeks up to Christ the Leader — that is, up to the baptism of Christ — still remained.
This Darius was a Mede, the son of Ahasuerus. Note that Ahasuerus, or in Chaldean אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ (achashverosh), is compounded of chas, meaning great, and ros, meaning head — as if one were to say Great Captain or Great Prince. Thus the Turks call their Emperor the Great Lord, and the Tartars the Great Khan. And so Ahasuerus was not so much a proper name as a common title of honor applied to certain distinguished kings of the Medes and Persians. Hence: first, the husband of Esther is called Ahasuerus; second, Cambyses the son of Cyrus is called Ahasuerus in 1 Ezra 4:6; third, this Ahasuerus, the father of Darius the Mede, was Astyages, the grandfather of Cyrus, as I said at chapter 5:31.
Dan 9:2. In one year of his reign, I Daniel understood from the books
the number of the years, of which the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah
the prophet, that seventy years of desolation of Jerusalem should be
completed.
IN ONE YEAR — that is, in the first year; for following Hebrew usage, a cardinal number is placed in the position of an ordinal.
Note that Darius the Mede, in the seventieth and final year of the Babylonian captivity, conquered Babylon together with Cyrus — who was his nephew through his sister, or more precisely through Cyrus himself — and reigned in it for one year alone; for in that same passing year Cyrus succeeded him as sole ruler, and in that same year released the Jews from captivity, as is evident from 1 Ezra 1. In this very year, therefore, a little before Cyrus liberated the Jews, Daniel, seeing that the seventy years of captivity foretold by Jeremiah were already being fulfilled and perceiving that the end and dissolution of that captivity was at hand, prays that God may bring His promises to completion — and this is what I UNDERSTOOD FROM THE BOOKS means: I understood from reading Jeremiah chapters 25:11 and 29:10. For so great a Prophet did not disdain to read another. It is credible that the Jews, and especially Daniel, read Jeremiah studiously during the captivity, and that, longing for liberation, they were accustomed to count and reckon up the individual years, indeed the days and hours, right up to the seventieth year when the captivity was to be dissolved. When therefore Daniel saw that the seventieth year was now at hand and yet the Jews had not yet been liberated, he feared lest God might postpone the time of liberation on account of the fresh sins of the Jews; and for this reason he confesses his own sins and those of his people, and from the innermost depths of his heart beseeches and implores the mercy of God, that he might obtain pardon and liberty for his own.
God heard the prayers of the holy Prophet, the man of desires, and not only grants what he asked for but also bestows upon him in addition a new consolation and revelation far surpassing all hope — namely, concerning Christ the Leader and Liberator who was to come after seventy weeks. For in this way God, who is magnificent in mercy, surpasses the devout prayers of His own people, since His grace and beneficence exceeds the deserts of those who implore Him and transcends their very wishes.
SEVENTY YEARS — As to where these years are to begin and where they are to end, I said this at Jeremiah 29:10.
Dan 9:3. And I set my face toward the Lord my God, to pray and to make supplication with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
AND I SET MY FACE TOWARD THE LORD — I turned my face toward Jerusalem and toward the temple in which the Lord is accustomed to dwell.
TO PRAY AND TO MAKE SUPPLICATION — that I might pray and make supplication.
WITH FASTING, SACKCLOTH, AND ASHES — Daniel here, for a weighty cause, offers prayers to God armed with fasting and haircloth. This force is pleasing to God, says Tertullian.
Dan 9:4. And I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession and
said: I beseech Thee, O Lord, great and terrible God, keeping covenant
and mercy with those who love Thee and keep Thy commandments.
I MADE CONFESSION — both of my sins and those of the people, and of God's mercy, which I implored. Thus the poor confess their own misery and celebrate the mercy of the rich and implore it, so as to obtain alms; for this is the art of praying and of begging.
COVENANT AND MERCY — that is, the covenant mercifully entered into, or the mercy covenanted — that is, promised by covenant. This is a hendiadys.
Dan
9:5. We have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we have acted wickedly
and have turned away and declined from Thy commandments and Thy
judgments.
Dan
9:6. We have not obeyed Thy servants the prophets who spoke in Thy name
to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and to all the people of the
land.
WE HAVE SINNED — Note here the disposition of penitence and humility by which the holy Prophet joins himself, as it were as a sinner, to the sinful people, and confesses his own sins and those of his people from the deepest feeling of his soul. Hence the Council of Milevis, in canon 7, defines that even the Saints have and confess their own sins, and not only those of the people. The holy Daniel, it says, did not wish to say "our sins" referring only to his people, but said both his people's and his own, because he foresaw, as it were, those future Pelagians who so badly misunderstand this. Again, St. Augustine aptly says in his Sentences, no. 161: Equanimity of soul is better than health of body, and it is more fitting that a just man grieves in punishment than that he rejoiced in his sin.
Dan
9:7. To Thee, O Lord, belongs justice; but to us confusion of face, as
it is this day — to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem
and all Israel, those near and those far away in all the lands to which
Thou hast driven them because of their iniquities in which they sinned
against Thee.
Dan 9:8. O Lord, to us belongs confusion of face — to our kings, our princes, and our fathers who have sinned.
TO THEE, O LORD, BELONGS JUSTICE — that is, justice belongs to Thee; Thou art just and most justly dost Thou punish us.
BUT TO US BELONGS CONFUSION OF FACE — we are covered with shame. St. Cyprian teaches that this captivity arose as the cause of this very confusion of face: The Lord has darkened in His anger the daughter of Zion and cast her down; and so we blush with shame while we behold both our crimes and our scourges equally. The Septuagint renders it: In Thee is our justice, but in us confusion of face.
AS IT IS THIS DAY — just as the reality itself demonstrates this day that we are paying the penalty of our sins through this captivity. See canon 30.
Morally, learn here that the Church and the faithful frequently suffer persecutions from unbelievers on account of their own sins — because, that is, living in peace they slipped into luxury, ambition, and avarice, which God chastises and punishes through tyrants. Thus under the two emperors named Philip, the virtue and vigor of the faithful grew languid in peace; hence God sent Decius and Valerian to arouse and sharpen it by their persecutions. For St. Cyprian assigns this very cause in his sermon On the Lapsed: Because, he says, the long peace had corrupted the discipline divinely delivered to us, and the celestial censure raised up the faith lying prostrate and all but asleep. There was no devout religion in the priests, no sound faith in the ministers, no mercy in works, no discipline in conduct. Indeed he learned this very thing by divine revelation, as he himself narrates in Book 4, Letter 4: It was shown, he says, that the father of the household was seated, and at his right hand sat a young man who sat with a certain sorrowful indignation, resting his cheek upon his hand with a sad countenance. But another stood on the left side carrying a net, threatening to cast it so as to catch the surrounding people. And when he who saw this marveled at what it might be, it was said to him: The young man who sat thus at the right hand is grieved and sorrowful that His precepts are not being observed; but he on the left rejoices that an occasion has been given him to seize power from the father of the household to rage. And we see fulfilled what had been shown. Know, dearest brethren, that this has been reproached to us through the vision — that we slumber in our prayers and do not watch in prayer. And further on: Tell him to be secure, for peace is coming. But we are also admonished by divine favors regarding temperate food and sober drink, lest the enticements of the world enervate a breast already elevated by heavenly vigor, or lest the mind, weighed down by too generous feasting, be less wakeful for prayers.
In a similar manner Eusebius in Book 8 of his History, chapter 1, assigns the cause of the Diocletianic persecution to the corrupted morals of clergy and laity arising from long peace and liberty: while, he says, we envy one another, while princes stir up seditions and conflicts with princes and peoples with peoples, while pretense is displayed in countenance, guile in the heart, and deceit in words — God took away the glory of Israel.
Dan 9:9. But to Thee, O Lord our God, belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have departed from Thee;
BUT TO THEE, O LORD OUR GOD, BELONG MERCY AND FORGIVENESS — To Thee it belongs, it befits Thee to have mercy on us, for Thou art full of compassions and we are most miserable, lacking all compassion. Therefore the abyss of our misery calls upon the abyss of Thy mercy. Come, pour out the abyss of Thy mercy into the abyss of our misery, so that that abyss of Thine may be celebrated by all.
FOR WE HAVE DEPARTED FROM THEE — in Hebrew: for we have rebelled against Thee. He refers this back to the words above, giving the reason why confusion of face belongs to them. Truly St. Augustine says aptly in Sentence 187: He runs well to the remission of sins who is displeased with himself; for before a just and merciful judge, he who accuses himself is excused.
Dan 9:10. and we have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God,
to walk in His law which He set before us through His servants the
prophets.
WE HAVE NOT HEARKENED — we have not obeyed the Lord.
THEY TURNED ASIDE their ears SO AS NOT TO HEAR THY VOICE — as if to say: They were unwilling to hear Thy law or to give ear to it.
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