Translated by Claude.
3. The Oracle of the Seventy Weeks. Chapter 9.
§6. — Daniel, understanding that the seventy years of desolation of Jerusalem foretold by Jeremiah were drawing to their end, fled to God in penitence and prayer (Dan 9:1–3). He pours forth a prayer in which, in the name of the whole people, he confesses that manifold iniquities have been committed by all against God, and that the punishments which God had threatened have been justly inflicted (Dan 9:5–18). He then implores the mercy of God, that God, mindful of the benefits once bestowed, mindful of His own glory, mindful of the people consecrated to Him, would still grant compassion and grace (Dan 9:15–19). Then Gabriel stands before him and instructs him concerning the messianic liberation, for which seventy weeks of years have been appointed (Dan 9:20–24): for from the going forth of the word that Jerusalem should be rebuilt again until the Messiah the Prince there shall be sixty-nine weeks; after these the Messiah will be put to death; and by this slaying it will come to pass that the city and the temple are laid waste with desolation (Dan 9:25–26). In the seventieth week salvation is confirmed for many; in the middle of the week the sacrifices will be brought to nothing, whose abrogation will also be demonstrated in the perpetual desolation and devastation of the temple (Dan 9:27).
This oracle is joined to what precedes it by a coherent connection. For in chapter 7 the vision of the four kingdoms, which had already been sketched in chapter 2, is further defined and completed by the addition of new elements; in chapter 8, however, what was said about the second and third kingdoms is more fully explained and completed. We therefore rightly expect that in chapter 9 something will be added concerning the time of the fourth kingdom. And so it comes to pass. But whereas in chapter 7 the transition is made directly from the fourth kingdom to the final age of the messianic kingdom and its everlasting glory which is to come when the Messiah arrives with the clouds of heaven, in our chapter, after the messianic blessings are described in general terms (v. 24), the beginning of that kingdom is sketched and the time determined when the Messiah will undertake His work and bring it to completion through His death. Just as in 2:44 the messianic kingdom is depicted in its entirety — growing from small beginnings to a supreme and eternal dominion — so in chapters 7 and 9 these two things are illuminated in prophetic fashion: His dominion and glory in chapter 7, and the beginning and cause of that dominion and glory in chapter 9. That this is truly so, and that it can and must be drawn rightly and fittingly from the words of the oracle, must be demonstrated in the subsequent explanation, in which both the sense of Daniel and the utterances of the preceding oracles already issued by other prophets must be carefully weighed.
a) The Prayer for Sins. Dan 9:1–14.
In the fourth year of King Jehoiakim (607–606 B.C.), Jeremiah prophesied that all nations would serve the king of Babylon for seventy years, and he designates that same year as the first year of King Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 25:1, 11). At the same time, after the battle of Carchemish, the king of Babylon besieged Jerusalem, took the city, and carried off part of the vessels of the temple and the noble Jews to Babylon (Dan. 1:2). That God would visit the iniquity of the king of Babylon when the seventy years were completed was likewise foretold by Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jer 25:12), and afterward he joined to those seventy years the promise that the exiles would be brought back to their homeland: When seventy years in Babylon are completed, I will visit you and raise up my good word over you and bring you back to this place (Jer 29:10). From all of this it had to be concluded that those years took their beginning from the year in which the oracle concerning the empire of Babylon was uttered, so that after seventy years from the fourth year of Jehoiakim the Babylonian kingdom would fall; and with its ruin, by another oracle, the promise of liberation is bound up. Therefore, from these two prophecies, after Babylon was conquered by Cyrus in the year 539 or 538, Daniel understood that the time of liberation was near. That he arrived at this reckoning he himself tells us in Daan 9:1-2: 1: "In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans — v. 2, in the first 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." — Concerning Darius, see what was said above at Dan 5:31, p. 170. Just as it is said there in the text that he received the kingdom, so here הֻמְלַךְ means he was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; in both places, therefore, he is described as one who was invested with that dignity and granted that title by another, which can be suitably referred to Cyaxares, the son of Astyages, of whom Xenophon speaks. His lineage appears to be traced not to his father Astyages but to his grandfather Cyaxares I, a powerful and celebrated king, as seems to follow from the name Ahasuerus; nor does it present an obstacle that he is called his son, since he is in fact his grandson — for this is not infrequently found in genealogies. See what I noted about Belshazzar and Nebuchadnezzar above, p. 158.
A striking example confirms that Daniel had read the prophecies of the earlier prophets. That the oracles of Jeremiah had already been collected and joined with other sacred books follows from the expression בַּסְּפָרִים, ἐν ταῖς βίβλοις (LXX, Theodotion); but which and how many books these were is not determined. Since Daniel makes mention of the desolation of the city, it is certain that he had Jer. 25:9 before his eyes, where the devastation of the land is spoken of; in place of the region itself Daniel substitutes Jerusalem, its capital. But because he notes the first year in which a foreign prince lords it over the Chaldean kingdom and at that time, by virtue of the oracle, awaits liberation, it must also be assumed that he looked back to 29:10 and drew his hope from that passage. In a different manner the seventieth year is reckoned in Zach. 1:12; see my notes on that passage. What is said in the Vulgate in v. 2 in year one is to be explained by the well-known Hebraism for in the first year, just as in v. 1 St. Jerome rendered the same Hebrew word אַחַת.
In this situation Daniel fled to prayer and works of penitence, Dan 9:3: "and I set my face toward the Lord my God, to seek by prayer and supplication with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes." — How seriously and persistently he applied himself to prayer and with what determined purpose is declared by the expression to set one's face; in Hebrew: to seek prayer and supplication with fasting, etc. By adding the signs of penitence and humility he seeks both to increase the fervor of his prayer and to bend the Lord toward mercy. He presents himself before the Lord in the garb of one who mourns and grieves and afflicts himself, as one is wont to do who earnestly desires to obtain something from God with great effort; cf. 2 Kgs. 12:16. By this example we are taught that God must be implored even for those things which He has promised He will give. Daniel knows the promise of God; which fact, as St. Jerome says, does not make him negligent but rather urges him the more to pray: "in ashes and sackcloth he begs that what God had promised might be fulfilled — not because he disbelieved in future events, but lest security should breed negligence, and negligence give birth to offense." He feared, then, lest perhaps on account of the people's sins the good word of God might be delayed; moreover he knew that oracles are sometimes bound to conditions, so that their fulfillment depends on whether those in whose favor the oracle speaks remain steadfast in faith (Calmet). Theodotion also notes this: "Even if God promises good things a thousand times over, if we render ourselves unworthy of such a gift, we become an obstacle to divine munificence; and God says this also through Ezekiel (33:13; Jer. 18:9–10). Taught by these things, blessed Daniel offered his prayers to God equipped as it were with wings of fasting, sackcloth, and ashes." Lest, therefore, the sins of the people should place obstacles before God's promises, he rightly implores Him; and it is further certain: much depends on men's cooperation, effort, and piety, both as to the breadth and abundance with which the goods promised by God come to men. Therefore there was a manifold reason why the prophet employed the aid of prayer and penitence. For the saints did not know, as Sanctius notes, whether the promise was absolute or conditional and thus whether it could be hindered or retarded by men's sins; similarly Pe[lletier]...
In the prayer itself, Daniel in many respects makes use of the form of prayer that from the time of the prophet Baruch had become widely known (see on Bar. 2:15 ff.), just as in other respects he imitates the manner of praying found in the psalms or inserts into his prayer sentences drawn from the Pentateuch and Jeremiah. This arises naturally from the matter itself. For he does not wish to bring forward things new and hitherto unheard of, but according to the circumstances of things humbly confesses sins, implores the mercy of God, and appeals entirely to the faithfulness which God has shown to the people. He therefore sets forth those very things of which the other sacred books are full. Hence that they are brought forward in nearly the same manner arises from the very nature of the matter. He at once invokes the majesty and faithfulness of God; for the sake of the former He can, and for the sake of the latter He ought to be judged willing to grant mercy. 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" — He begins his address to God with the words found in Deut. 7:21, 9 and Ex. 20:6; 34:7, and Solomon prayed in a similar manner in 3 Kgs. 8:23. The exiles themselves experienced God as great and terrible; therefore they must acknowledge and confess that they have sinned. But those conscious of their guilt are strengthened and raised to hope by God's faithfulness and mercy. This mercy, however, must be implored by the most humble confession of sins. Dan 9:5: "We have sinned and committed iniquity, we have acted wickedly and have turned away and departed from Thy commandments and Thy judgments; v. 6 we have not obeyed Thy servants the prophets who spoke in Thy name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and all the people of the land" — cf. Lam. 3:42; Bar. 1:17; 3 Kgs. 8:47; Ps. 106:6. The Hebrew words may be explained as follows: חָטָא means to go astray from the right, עָוָה means to act perversely, הִרְשִׁיעַ means to show oneself wicked and criminal, מָרַד means to rebel; and finally סוּר means to fall away from the standard of justice and truth prescribed in God's precepts and statutes. The guilt is further increased by the fact that all classes were continually admonished and instructed by prophets sent by God, to whom they turned deaf ears and hardened hearts. He therefore confesses that the accusation brought by Jeremiah was true; cf. Jer. 7:25; 25:4, etc. He thus demonstrates both the care with which God continually honored them and the immense torpor (ἀναλγησία, Theodotion) of the people.
Hence in the affliction of the people the justice and holiness of God are commended, while the people themselves, covered with shame, cannot but accuse themselves of their own ingratitude. Therefore he rightly continues (Theodotion), 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" — in Hebrew: because we have sinned against Thee; that is, he confesses a national guilt, of which they themselves are also partakers. See further on Bar. 1:15, 16; 2:6; Lam. 1:18. In a similar manner Ezra prayed afterward (Ezra 9:6) and Nehemiah (Neh 9:33), and Moses had already exhorted that such prayer be made in Lev. 26:40. But amid this multitude of sins the prophet teaches that despair is not in order, by bringing forward the mercy and goodness of God, which must the more be implored the more we are overwhelmed by many faults. Theodotion notes pertinently: "For it befits Thee, gentle and clement, to be moved toward us with mercy and compassion; and dwelling in the accusation of sins (for he had heard God saying through another prophet: 'Tell your iniquities first, that you may be justified,' Is. 43:26 LXX) he accuses them while proclaiming the divine mercy." Dan 9:9: "But to Thee, O Lord our God, belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have departed from Thee; 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 by His servants the prophets; Dan 9:11 and all Israel has transgressed Thy law and turned aside, not hearkening to Thy voice, and the curse and the imprecation written in the book of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against Him" — to depart in Hebrew means to rebel; likewise in His laws; the curse and the oath have been poured out upon us; cf. Bar. 1:20. The curse (הָאָלָה) of Deut. 29:18 refers to the threats set out in 28:15 ff.; sometimes God's threat is confirmed by an oath; cf. Num. 32:10; Deut. 1:34. The oath is also added to heighten the force of the curse in Num. 5:21. Theodotion appositely refers the curse to that pronounced by the six tribes on Mount Gebal, and the oath to Deut. 32:40–42; see also Lev. 26:16; Deut. 27:15 (Maldonado, Maras, Lapide, Tirin, Calmet). For the expression תִּתַּךְ cf. Jer. 42:18; 44:6; Nah. 1:6; 2 Chr. 12:7; 34:21, 25.
Also what God had threatened through the prophets He has fulfilled in deed. Dan 9:12: "And He has confirmed His words which He spoke against us and against our princes who judged us, to bring upon us a great evil such as has never been done under all heaven, according to what has been done in Jerusalem" — see Bar. 2:1, 2; Lam. 2:17; Ez. 5:9. Dan 13: "As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us, and we have not entreated Thy face, O Lord our God, that we might return from our iniquities and understand Thy truth" — the guilt is heightened because they were not chastened even by their punishments nor did they return to better ways: "Great hardness of heart, that while in the midst of plagues they did not pray to God; and even though they did pray, they did not pray aright, because they did not turn from their iniquities" (St. Jerome). In Hebrew: that we might be wise in Thy truth — that, coming to our senses and instructed by Thy truth, we might attain true wisdom, which consists in the fear of God and the observance of His commandments. The same in Bar. 2:8; see Jer. 2:30: "In vain have I struck your children; they have not received correction"; cf. 3:8; 5:3, etc. Therefore Dan 9:14: "And the Lord has watched over the evil and brought it upon us; for the Lord our God is just in all His works which He has done; but we have not hearkened to His voice" — the same in Bar. 2:9. That God watches over His word to perform it, Jeremiah frequently noted (1:12; 31:28; 44:27). "As if shaking off the sleep of His long-endured gentleness, He inflicted upon us punishment worthy of our deeds" (Theodotion). The prophet prays in the manner taught by Micah 7:9 and Jeremiah 3:25 — that punishments are justly inflicted by the just God, and therefore that they must be endured with all humility of soul and with confession and detestation of sins. Just as Baruch, so also Daniel teaches what is the prayer of a contrite heart.
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