Study Desk

I have issued an edict that throughout all the dominion of my kingdom people are to revere and fear the God of Daniel. "For he is the living God; he endures forever. His kingdom will not be destroyed; his authority is forever.

So I turned my attention to the Lord God to implore him by prayer and requests, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

I prayed to the Lord my God, confessing in this way: "O Lord, great and awesome God who is faithful to his covenant with those who love him and keep his commandments,

Yet the Lord our God is compassionate and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him.

We have not obeyed the Lord our God by living according to his laws that he set before us through his servants the prophets.

"All Israel has broken your law and turned away by not obeying you. Therefore you have poured out on us the judgment solemnly threatened in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against you.

Just as it is written in the law of Moses, so all this calamity has come on us. Still we have not tried to pacify the Lord our God by turning back from our sin and by seeking wisdom from your reliable moral standards.

The Lord was mindful of the calamity, and he brought it on us. For the Lord our God is just in all he has done, and we have not obeyed him.

"Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with great power and made a name for yourself that is remembered to this day—we have sinned and behaved wickedly.

"So now, our God, accept the prayer and requests of your servant, and show favor to your devastated sanctuary for your own sake.

Listen attentively, my God, and hear! Open your eyes and look on our desolated ruins and the city called by your name. For it is not because of our own righteous deeds that we are praying to you, but because your compassion is abundant.

O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, pay attention, and act! Don't delay, for your own sake, O my God! For your city and your people are called by your name."

While I was still speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and presenting my request before the Lord my God concerning his holy mountain—

Then he said to me, "Don't be afraid, Daniel, for from the very first day you applied your mind to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard. I have come in response to your words.

Then with smooth words he will defile those who have rejected the covenant. But the people who are loyal to their God will act valiantly.

"Then the king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every deity and he will utter presumptuous things against the God of gods. He will succeed until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been decreed must occur.

He will not respect the gods of his fathers—not even the god loved by women. He will not respect any god; he will elevate himself above them all.

What he will honor is a god of fortresses—a god his fathers did not acknowledge he will honor with gold, silver, valuable stones, and treasured commodities.

But I will have pity on the nation of Judah. I will deliver them by the Lord their God; I will not deliver them by the warrior's bow, by sword, by military victory, by chariot horses, or by chariots."

Then the Lord said: "Name him ‘Not My People' (Lo-Ammi), because you are not my people and I am not your God."