In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus This is not the Ahasuerus of the days of Haman, for he was the king of Persia, whereas this one was Darius the Mede who was crowned over the kingdom of the Chaldeans when Belshazzar was slain, as is written above (6:1): “And Darius the Mede took (sic) the kingdom.”

Contemplated the calculations Heb. בִּינֹתִי בַּסְפָרִים.

the number of the years, etc. I contemplated the calculation of the years, for I thought about what Jeremiah (29:10) prophesied: “For at the completion of seventy years of Babylon I will remember you,” and I thought that this remembrance is the building of the Temple, and that the seventy years end in the first year of Darius the Mede, since the kingdom of Babylon stretched forth a hand upon Israel, when Nebuchadnezzar vanquished Jehoiakim to be his slave. Now that was in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, as the master said (Meg. 11b): “In the first year he conquered Nineveh; in the second year he went up and vanquished Jehoiakim.” Figure from that year until now, and you will find them [the 70 years]. This calculation is found also in the Mishnah of Seder Olam (ch. 28), and we learned there that in the year of Belshazzar’s death were 70 years from the day that Nebuchadnezzar ascended the throne: seventy minus one since the day that he conquered Jehoiakim, and yet one more year for Babylon, which Darius completed. And when I [Daniel] saw that the redemption was not hastening to come, I contemplated and put my heart to the calculation, and I knew that I should not have counted according to the conquest of Jehoiakim but [according] to the destruction of Jerusalem, when 70 years will be complete from the exile of Zedekiah, when Jerusalem was destroyed. And there are yet 18 years to come, for this exile was in the eighteenth year counting from the conquest of Jehoiakim, as we learned in Seder Olam: “They were exiled in the seventh year; they were exiled in the eighth year; they were exiled in the eighteenth year; they were exiled in the nineteenth year.” Our Sages in Tractate Megillah (11b) explained that they were exiled in the exile of Jeconiah in the seventh year, counting from the conquest of Jehoiakim, which is the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. They were exiled a second time in the eighteenth year, counting from the conquest of Jehoiakim, which is the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign.

and I confessed the sins of my people.

O great and awesome God but he did not say, “mighty.” He said [to himself], “Heathens are enslaving His children, so where are His mighty deeds?”

turning away We were constantly turning away from Your commandments, tolant in Old French, turning away.

To you, O Lord, is the righteousness i.e., Your judgments and retributions that You have brought upon us—justice and righteousness are with You.

and to us is the shamefacedness We should be ashamed for what has happened to us, for we caused it for ourselves.

as of this day as we see today.

To the Lord our God are the mercies that we did not perish for our iniquities, for we rebelled against Him.

have befallen us Heb. וַתִּתַּךְ, and You caused to reach us, like (Exod. 9:33): לֹא נִתַּךְ אָרְצָה, and Onkelos rendered: did not reach the earth.

the curse and the oath the curses of the Covenant with which You adjured us at Horeb (Lev 26:14): “And if you do not listen etc.”; all the curses written there.

as was done in Jerusalem the sword, slaying, the burning of the city; and they humbled women and put captives into neck irons.

As is written in the Law of Moses a hint that He warned us that if we transgress the oath, all this evil will befall us.

hastened Heb. וַיִשְׁקֹד, and hastened.

for...is righteous for justice is with Him. Our Rabbis, however, explained that the Holy One, blessed be He, is charitable, and it is charity for us that He hastened and brought [the evil] two years before the numerical value of וַנוֹשַּׁנְתֶּם (Deut. 4:25): “and you will have grown old,” in order that [the curse of] “that you shall perish” should not be fulfilled with you. The numerical value of וַנוֹשַּׁנְתֶּם is 852, but they were exiled at the end of 850 [years] after their entry into the land.

And now, O Lord, our God We confess that we have sinned and have dealt wickedly.

a mockery [as translated,] a mockery.

to all those surrounding us to all our neighbors; they all mock us.

for the sake of the Lord For the sake of the holy Name that is called upon the Temple, as it says (Exod. 15:17): “the Sanctuary, O Lord, (אֲדֹנָי) which Your hands have established.”

and see our desolations and the desolations of the city upon which Your name is called, because not upon the support of our righteousness do we cast our supplications to benefit us, but we have come upon Your mercies.

O Lord, hear our supplications.

O Lord, forgive our sins.

O Lord, hearken Your ear to our cry.

and do our request and do not delay.

about the mount of the Sanctuary of my God for the mount of the House of God, that it be built.

at first in the days of Belshazzar, as is written above (8:15 26).

in swift flight [He was] caused to fly to me with flying and with gliding.

And he enabled me to understand Heb. וַיָבֶן.

In the beginning of your supplications, a word came forth a true [word came] from the Holy One, blessed be He, to me to tell you.

for you have desirable qualities You have qualities that are desirable to the Holy One, blessed be He.

now contemplate the word Put your heart to understand the word.

Seventy weeks [of years] have been decreed on Jerusalem from the day of the first destruction in the days of Zedekiah until it will be [destroyed] the second time.

to terminate the transgression and to end sin so that Israel should receive their complete retribution in the exile of Titus and his subjugation, in order that their transgressions should terminate, their sins should end, and their iniquities should be expiated, in order to bring upon them eternal righteousness and to anoint upon them (sic) the Holy of Holies: the Ark, the altars, and the holy vessels, which they will bring to them through the king Messiah. The number of seven weeks is four hundred and ninety years. The Babylonian exile was seventy [years] and the Second Temple stood four hundred and twenty [years].

And you shall know and understand from the emergence of the word From the emergence of this word, which emerged at the beginning of your supplications to tell you, you shall know to understand [how] to restore and build Jerusalem.

until the anointed king Time will be given from the day of the destruction until the coming of Cyrus, king of Persia, about whom the Holy One, blessed be He, said that he would return and build His city, and He called him His anointed and His king, as it says (Isa. 45:1): “So said the Lord to His anointed one, to Cyrus etc.” (verse 13): “He shall build My city and free My exiles, etc.”

seven weeks Seven complete shemittah cycles they will be in exile before Cyrus comes, and there were yet three more years, but since they did not constitute a complete shemittah cycle, they were not counted. In the one year of Darius, in which Daniel was standing when this vision was said to him, seventy years from the conquest of Jehoiakim terminated. Deduct eighteen years from them, in which the conquest of Jehoiakim preceded the destruction of Jerusalem, leaving fifty-two years. This is what our Rabbis learned (Yoma 54a): “For fifty-two years no one passed through Judea.” They are the fifty-two years from the day of the destruction until they returned in the days of Cyrus. Hence, we have seven shemittah cycles and three years.

and in sixty-two weeks it will return and be built i.e., the city with its streets.

and moat Heb. וְחָרוּץ. They are the moats that they make around the wall to strengthen the city, which are called fosse in French, ditch or moat.

but in troubled times But in those times they will be troubled and distressed, for in the subjugation of the kings of Persia and the heathens, they will burden them with harsh bondage. Now although there are sixty-two weeks and four years more that remain from the eighth week, whose beginning, viz. the three years, was included in the fifty-two years of the duration of the exile, those four years were not counted here because here he counted only weeks, and you find that from the beginning he started to count seventy weeks, and at the end, when he delineated their times and their judgments, he counted only sixty-nine, proving that one week was divided, part of it here and part of it there; and he mentioned only whole weeks.

but in troubled times They will be troubled in those times.

And after those weeks.

the anointed one will be cut off Agrippa, the king of Judea, who was ruling at the time of the destruction, will be slain.

and he will be no more Heb. וְאֵין לוֹ, and he will not have. The meaning is that he will not be.

the anointed one Heb. מָשִׁיחַ. This is purely an expression of a prince and a dignitary.

and the city and the Sanctuary lit. and the city and the Holy.

and the people of the coming monarch will destroy [The monarch who will come] upon them. That is Titus and his armies.

and his end will come about by inundation And his end will be damnation and destruction, for He will inundate the power of his kingdom through the Messiah.

and until the end of the wars of Gog the city will exist.

cut off into desolation a destruction of desolation.

And he will strengthen a covenant for the princes for one week לָרַבִּים, for the princes, like “and all the officers of (רַבֵּי) the king,” in the Book of Jeremiah (39:13).

will strengthen Titus [will strengthen] a covenant with the princes of Israel.

for one week He will promise them the strengthening of a covenant and peace for seven years, but within the seven years, he will abrogate his covenant.

he will abolish sacrifice and meal-offering This is what he says in the first vision (8: 26): “and in tranquility he will destroy many.” Through a covenant of tranquility, he will destroy them.

and on high, among abominations will be the dumb one This is a pejorative for pagan deities. i.e., on a high place, among abominations and disgusting things, he will place the dumb one, the pagan deity, which is dumb like a silent stone.

high Heb. כְּנַף, lit. wing, an expression of height, like the wing of a flying bird.

and until destruction and extermination befall the dumb one and the ruling of the abomination will endure until the day that the destruction and extermination decreed upon it [will] befall it, in the days of the king Messiah.

befall the dumb one Heb. תִּתַּךְ, reach; and total destruction will descend upon the image of the pagan deity and upon its worshippers.