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Daniel 9

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1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made·​·king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans;

2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood in the books the number of the years, of which the word of Jehovah was to Jeremiah the prophet, to fulfill seventy years for the wastings of Jerusalem.

3 And I set my faces to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes;

4 and I prayed to Jehovah my God, and made· my ·confession, and said, I pray Thee, Lord, the great and fearsome God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep His commandments,

5 we have sinned, and have committed·​·iniquity, and have acted·​·wickedly, and have revolted, even by turning·​·aside from Thy commandments and from Thy judgments.

6 Neither have we hearkened to Thy servants the prophets, who spoke in Thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

7 To Thee, O Lord, is justice, but to us is shame on the faces, as at this day, to the men of Judah, and to those who dwell in Jerusalem, and to all Israel, near and far·​·off, in all the lands whither Thou hast expelled them, in their trespass by which they have trespassed against Thee.

8 O Lord, to us belongs shame on the faces, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, that we have sinned against Thee.

9 To the Lord our God belong compassions and pardon, for we have revolted against Him,

10 and we have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah our God, to walk in His laws, which He put before us by the hand of His servants the prophets.

11 And all Israel have crossed·​·over Thy law, and by turning·​·aside without obeying Thy voice; and the oath is poured·​·out upon us, and the promise that is written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, for we have sinned against Him.

12 And He has raised·​·up His words, which He spoke against us, and against our judges who judged us, to bring upon us great evil; for under all the heavens has not been done as has been done in Jerusalem.

13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come on us; and we implored not the face of Jehovah our God, to turn·​·back from our iniquities, and have·​·intelligence in Thy truth.

14 And Jehovah has watched over the evil, and brought it over us; for just is Jehovah our God concerning all His deeds which He does, and we obeyed not His voice.

15 And now, O Lord our God, who hast brought· Thy people ·out from the land of Egypt with a firm hand, and hast made for Thee a name, as this day, we have sinned; we have acted·​·wickedly.

16 O Lord, according·​·to all Thy justice, I pray Thee, let Thine anger and Thy fury be turned·​·back from thy city Jerusalem, the mountain of Thy holiness, for in our sins, and in the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Thy people have become a reproach to all who are around us.

17 And now, our God, hearken to the prayer of Thy servant, and to his supplications, and cause Thy face to give·​·light upon Thy sanctuary that is desolate, because·​·of the Lord.

18 O my God, incline Thine ear, and hear; open Thine eyes, and see our desolations, and the city upon which Thy name is called; for we do not cause our supplications to fall before Thee on·​·account·​·of our justice, but on·​·account·​·of Thy many compassions.

19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, pardon; O Lord, attend, and do; delay not, for Thine own sake, O my God; for Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name.

20 And as·​·long·​·as I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and causing my supplication to fall* before Jehovah my God, for the holy mountain of my God,

21 and I was still speaking in prayer, and the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being made faint with faintness, touched me about the time of the evening gift·​·offering.

22 And he understood, and spoke with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come·​·out to make· thee ·intelligent with understanding.

23 At the beginning of thy supplications the word went·​·out, and I have come to tell, for desired art thou; and understand the word, and understand the sight.

24 Seventy weeks are determined on thy people and on thy holy city, to complete the transgression, and to finish the sins, and to atone·​·for iniquity, and to bring eternal justice, and to seal the vision and the prophet, and to anoint the Holy of Holies.

25 And know and have·​·intelligence: from the going·​·out of the word to return and to build Jerusalem until the Messiah the Monarch shall be seven weeks, and sixty and two weeks; the avenue shall return and be built, and the ditch, but in the anguish of the times.

26 And after sixty and two weeks shall Messiah be cut·​·off, but not for Himself; and the people of the monarch that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and her end of it shall be with an overflow, and to the end of the war desolations are decided.

27 And yet* He shall make the covenant with many to prevail for one week; but at the half week He shall cause the sacrifice and the gift·​·offering to cease, and on the winged bird of detestable things shall be desolation, and even·​·to the complete end, and decision shall be poured·​·out on the desolation.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Arcana Coelestia # 9306

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9306. 'Take notice of his face' means holy fear. This is clear from the meaning of 'taking notice of the face', when it has reference to the Lord, whom 'the angel' is used to mean to here, as fearing that He may be angry on account of evils, or provoked on account of transgressions, as below; and fearing these things is holy fear. Regarding this fear, see 2826, 3718, 3719, 5459, 5534, 7280, 7788, 8816, 8925. The words 'taking notice of his face' are used because 'the face' means the interior things that constitute a person's life, thus his thought and affection, and in particular his faith and love. The reason for this is that the face has been fashioned so that it can produce an image of a person's interiors. It has been so fashioned to the end that those things which belong to the internal man may appear within the external, thus to the end that those things which belong to the spiritual world can be visualized in the natural world and so have an effect on one's neighbour. It is well known that the face presents visually, or as if in a mirror, what a person thinks and loves. This is so with honest people's faces, and especially with angels' faces, see 1999, 2434, 3527, 3573, 4066, 4326, 4796-4799, 5102, 5695, 6604, 8248-8250. For this reason 'face' in the original language is a general term that is used to describe the feelings a person has which reveal themselves, such as those of indulgence, favour, goodwill, helpfulness, or kindness, and also lack of pity, anger, or vengeance. So it is that in that language when this word is coupled with another it means beside, with, in front of, on account of, or else against, thus whatever is within, from, for, or against the person himself. For as has been stated, 'the face' is a person's true self, or that present within a person which reveals itself.

[2] All this enables one to know what is meant by the face of Jehovah, or 'the face of the angel', who in this instance is the Lord in respect of His Divine Human - namely the Divine Good of Divine Love, and the Divine Truth emanating from that Divine Good, since these reside within Jehovah or the Lord, come from Him, indeed are Himself, see 222, 223, 5585. From this it is evident what 'the face of Jehovah' means in the Blessing,

Jehovah make His face shine upon you and be merciful to you. Jehovah lift up His face upon you and give you peace. Numbers 6:25-26.

In David,

God be merciful to us and bless us and make His face shine upon us. Psalms 67:1.

The like may be seen in Psalms 80:3, 7, 19; 119:134-135; Daniel 9:17; and in other places.

[3] So it is that the Lord's Divine Human is called 'the angel of Jehovah's face' in Isaiah,

I will cause the mercies of Jehovah to be remembered. He has rewarded 1 them according to His mercies, and according to the abundance of His mercies; and He became their Saviour. And the angel of His face saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them. Isaiah 63:7-9.

The reason why the Lord's Divine Human is called 'the angel of Jehovah's face' is that the Divine Human is the Divine Himself facially, that is, in outward form, as also the Lord teaches in John,

If you know Me you know My Father also, and from now on you know Him and have seen Him. Philip said, Show us the Father. Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. John 14:7-11.

[4] 'Jehovah's (or the Lord's) face' also means anger, vengeance, punishment, and ill. It does so because simple people, in accepting the general idea that all things come from God, believe that even ill, especially the misery of punishment, comes from Him. For this reason - in keeping with that general idea, and also with appearances - anger, vengeance, punishment, or ill is attributed to Jehovah the Lord, when in fact the Lord is not the source of them but man. Regarding this, see 1861, 2447, 5798, 6071, 6832, 6991, 6997, 7533, 7632, 7877, 7926, 8197, 8227, 8228, 8282, 8483, 8632, 8875, 9128. This kind of meaning appears here in 'take notice of his face, lest you provoke him, for he will not bear your transgression', and also in Leviticus,

Whoever eats any blood, I will set My face against the soul eating blood and will cut him off from among his people. Leviticus 17:10.

In Jeremiah,

I have set My face against the city for ill and not for good. Jeremiah 21:10.

And in David,

Jehovah's face is against evildoers, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. Psalms 34:16.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. Reading retribuit (has rewarded) for retribuet (will reward)

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.