Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Daniel · About this commentary
As It Is Written in the Law of Moses
Daniel 9:11-15
11 Yes, all Israel have transgressed your law, turning aside, that they should not obey your voice. “Therefore the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us, for we have sinned against him. · WEB
The exile is read as the covenant working exactly as written — and Daniel calls the disaster proof that God is righteous, not that he is absent.
Therefore the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us, for we have sinned against him Daniel 9:11.
Daniel does not treat the exile as an inexplicable tragedy or as evidence that God had lost a contest with Babylon's gods. He treats it as a document being honored. The law had set out both outcomes in advance — blessing for obedience, and for persistent rebellion the specific sentence of removal from the land among the nations Leviticus 26:33 Deuteronomy 28:36 Deuteronomy 30:1 — and the exile is that clause taking effect. As it is written Daniel 9:13 is how he reads his own century.
He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing on us a great evil Daniel 9:12.
And the verb is startling: God confirmed his words. The catastrophe is God keeping his word, not breaking it — the same faithfulness that keeps covenant with those who love him Daniel 9:4 is the faithfulness that executes the sentence when it is due. A God whose threats are empty is a God whose promises are worth nothing either. Daniel adds the historical measure without softening it: under the whole sky, such has not been done as has been done to Jerusalem, the judgment on the city that carried God's name being heavier than any pagan city's Amos 3:2 1 Peter 4:17.
Yet we have not entreated the favor of Yahweh our God, that we should turn from our iniquities and have discernment in your truth Daniel 9:13.
The deepest charge in the prayer, and it concerns the present rather than the past. The disaster came, and yet — after seventy years of it — the nation had still not turned. Suffering does not automatically produce repentance; it can produce mere endurance, and Daniel names the difference. What he asks for alongside turning is discernment in your truth: understanding is treated here as something to be prayed for, which is precisely what the chapter is about to grant him Daniel 9:22.
Therefore Yahweh has watched over the evil, and brought it on us; for Yahweh our God is righteous in all his works which he does, and we have not obeyed his voice Daniel 9:14.
The conclusion is a verdict in God's favor, delivered by one of the sufferers. Righteous in all his works — said of the God who allowed the temple to burn and the vessels to be carried off. This is the note the previous chapters had sounded from Gentile mouths Daniel 4:37 and it is now said from inside the wreckage by a man who lost his homeland to it.
Now, Lord our God, who has brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have gotten yourself renown, as it is today, we have sinned Daniel 9:15.
And the turn toward petition begins with the exodus, exactly as Moses' great intercessions did Exodus 32:11 Numbers 14:13–16. The argument is not Israel's worth but God's reputation: he had made a name for himself by rescuing this people once, and that name is now attached to their condition. Then, before asking for anything, one more admission — we have sinned. We have done wickedly. The confession is not a preface to be got through; it is the ground he stands on to ask.
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