How does Daniel’s confession lead into Gabriel’s announcement?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Daniel appeals to mercy for Jerusalem, and Gabriel announces seventy weeks whose details receive edition commentary.

Chapter breakdown

In the first year of Darius, son of Assuerus, a Mede ruling the Chaldean kingdom, Daniel understands from Jeremias's books that Jerusalem's desolation has seventy years. He turns to God with prayer, fasting, sackcloth and ashes. Addressing the great and terrible God who keeps covenant with those who love him and keep his commands, Daniel confesses the people's sins and refusal to heed the prophets who spoke to kings, princes, fathers and all the people. Justice belongs to God; confusion belongs to Juda and Israel, near and far. Mercy and forgiveness belong to God, though the people have rebelled.

Daniel says the curse written in Moses's law has followed their disobedience, and describes Jerusalem's suffering as without parallel. Even after that calamity they did not entreat God, turn from iniquity or consider his truth. God has watched over the evil because he is just and they have not listened. Recalling the deliverance from Egypt, Daniel asks that anger turn from Jerusalem and the holy mountain, now a reproach to their neighbors. He asks God to shine his face on the desolate sanctuary for his own sake, to open his eyes and hear. The appeal rests on God's many mercies rather than their justifications: forgive and do not delay, for city and people bear God's name.

While Daniel confesses his own and the people's sins and prays for the holy mountain, Gabriel, seen in the earlier vision, touches him at the evening sacrifice. He brings understanding: a word went forth at the beginning of the prayers, and Daniel is a man of desires. Seventy weeks are determined to finish transgression, end sin, abolish iniquity, bring everlasting justice, fulfill vision and prophecy and anoint the Saint of saints. From the word to rebuild Jerusalem to Christ the prince are seven and sixty-two weeks; street and wall are built in straitness. After sixty-two weeks Christ is slain, and the people that deny him will not be his. A leader's people destroy the city and sanctuary, with waste and appointed desolation after war. He confirms a covenant with many for one week; in half the week victim and sacrifice fail, and abomination and desolation remain until the end.

The edition interprets the seventy weeks as 490 years. Its preferred chronology starts with Artaxerxes's twentieth-year rebuilding order and carries sixty-nine weeks to Christ's baptism and ministry. Straitness may mean the builders' difficulties or the wall's fifty-two-day completion. The destroying people are identified as Romans under Titus; the half-week is related to Christ's three-and-a-half-year preaching and the cross. For abomination the notes give alternatives: Jewish crimes and the zealots' bloodshed, Roman standards, or three related periods under Antiochus, Rome and a supposed future Antichrist. These explanations and alternatives are distinguished from Daniel's prayer and Gabriel's words.

The story inside

Daniel confesses both sin and failure to turn after calamity. The appeal rests on God’s mercies rather than the people’s justifications. The edition distinguishes multiple readings of the abomination and desolation.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Daniel confesses both sin and failure to turn after calamity.
2
The appeal rests on God’s mercies rather than the people’s justifications.
3
The edition distinguishes multiple readings of the abomination and desolation.

Test your recall

What alternatives does the edition give for the abomination?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 98229–98232
9:2. The first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by books the number of the years, concerning which the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, the prophet, that seventy years should be accomplished of the desolation of Jerusalem.
Lines 98249–98253
9:7. To thee, O Lord, justice: but to us confusion of face, as at this day to the men of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, to them that are near, and to them that are far off, in all the countries whither thou hast driven them, for their iniquities, by which they have sinned against thee.
Lines 98296–98303
9:18. Incline, O my God, thy ear, and hear: open thy eyes, and see our desolation, and the city upon which thy name is called: for it is not for our justifications that we present our prayers before thy face, but for the multitude of thy tender mercies. 9:19. O Lord, hear: O Lord, be appeased: hearken, and do: delay not, for thy own sake, O my God: because thy name is invocated upon thy city, and upon thy people.
Lines 98309–98313
9:21. As I was yet speaking in prayer, behold the man, Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, flying swiftly, touched me at the time of the evening sacrifice. The man Gabriel.... The angel Gabriel in the shape of a man.
Lines 98325–98333
9:24. Seventy weeks are shortened upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, that transgression may be finished, and sin may have an end, and iniquity may be abolished; and everlasting justice may be brought; and vision and prophecy may be fulfilled; and the saint of saints may be anointed. Seventy weeks.... Viz., of years, (or seventy times seven, that is, 490 years,) are shortened; that is, fixed and determined, so that the time shall be no longer.
Lines 98350–98361
9:26. And after sixty-two weeks Christ shall be slain: and the people that shall deny him shall not be his. And a people, with their leader, that shall come, shall destroy the city, and the sanctuary: and the end thereof shall be waste, and after the end of the war the appointed desolation. A people with their leader.... The Romans under Titus. 9:27. And he shall confirm the covenant with many, in one week: and in the half of the week the victim and the sacrifice shall fail: and there shall be in the temple the abomination of desolation: and the desolation shall continue even to the consummation, and to the end.