Daniel 9:1 Commentary and Bible Study

The previous chapter has recorded a vision in the 3^rd year of Belshazzar during the time of the Babylonian Empire, but we now move forward to the 1^st year of Darius the Mede, c 538 BC. Darius has been appointed king or viceroy over Chaldea by Cyrus. He is king, not over the whole of the Medo-Persian empire, but over the more limited area of the Chaldean territory, taken from Babylon. Ahasuerus is the Hebrew name for the one who the Greeks call Xerxes. So Babylon has fallen and it is in the first year after the fall of Babylon. The king of Babylon has perished; the judgment is over for the Jewish people; the seventy years of chastisement have come to an end, but the Jews have not yet seriously repented of their sins. Daniel is still in a position of authority. He realises that according to the prophet Jeremiah the captivity was at an end, and it was now time to return to Palestine. This fills him with happiness, but also with alarm. The Babylonian captivity is at an end, and yet the people are not ready to return. The edict of Cyrus has not yet been issued and it is not clear how Judah will return to its land and to Jerusalem. Daniel therefore comes in prayer to confess his own sin and the sin of his people, and to ask God for mercy on the nation again so that the desolate sanctuary in Jerusalem may be restored and the city repaired. Daniel says, ‘In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.’ That is specifically mentioned in Jeremiah 25:12. Daniel is seeing prophecy fulfilled before his eyes. But there is a problem, because while the Babylonian Empire is over, and things are much easier now – liberty has come – yet still there is no sign of a return to Jerusalem or the restoration of Jerusalem; no sanction for that. So certainly the seventy years would appear to be over with the fall of Babylon, but the positive aspect to that hasn't yet begun to materialise. He struggles to relate this to the visions he has received. Does all this mean that Messiah will now come? So there is the great prayer of Daniel.