Daniel 9:1-2
Summary for Dan 9:1-19: 9:1-19 a Daniel prayed for his people, realizing that Jerusalem’s seventy years of desolation were due to end. His prayer is comparable to prayers of Solomon (1 Kgs 8:14-61 b), Ezra (Ezra 9 c), and Nehemiah (Neh 9 d). God answered Daniel’s prayer very quickly (see study note on Dan 9:19; see also 9:20-27 e). 9:1 f Darius the Mede: See study note on 5:31.• Ahasuerus is the Hebrew rendering of a Persian word taken into Greek as “Xerxes.” The father of Darius the Mede must have been a different Xerxes from the later Xerxes I, who reigned from 486 to 465 BC (see Esth 1:1 g); the time of this vision was 539 BC. It has been argued that the name Xerxes/Ahasuerus is an ancient throne name for Persian kings.
9:2 h reading ... Jeremiah: Daniel apparently had a copy of Jeremiah’s prophecies.
• Jerusalem must lie desolate for seventy years: Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 BC (see 2 Kgs 25:8 i), and the first return occurred in 538 BC—about 48 years later. The rebuilding of the city began almost at once (see Ezra 3:1-13 j; Isa 44:28 k), and the rebuilt Temple was completed in 515 BC—about seventy-one years after it was destroyed (Ezra 6:15 l). Daniel might have thought of Jerusalem’s “destruction” as having begun with his own exile in 605 BC (see Jer 25:11-12 m), with sixty-seven years between 605 and 538 BC.
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