Daniel 9:3

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek him by prayer and petitions, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

Hebrew Names Version
I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and petitions, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

King James Version
And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

English Standard Version
Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

New American Standard Bible
So I gave my attention to the Lord God, to seek Him by prayer and pleading, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

New Century Version
Then I turned to the Lord God and prayed and asked him for help. To show my sadness, I fasted, put on rough cloth, and sat in ashes.

Amplified Bible
So I directed my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And I turned my face vnto the Lord God, and sought by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.

Berean Standard Bible
So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

Contemporary English Version
Then, to show my sorrow, I went without eating and dressed in sackcloth and sat in ashes. I confessed my sins and earnestly prayed to the Lord my God: Our Lord, you are a great and fearsome God, and you faithfully keep your agreement with those who love and obey you.

Complete Jewish Bible
I turned to Adonai, God, to seek an answer, pleading with him in prayer, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.

Darby Translation
And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes;

Easy-to-Read Version
Then I turned to the Lord God. I prayed to him and asked him for help. I did not eat any food. I put ashes on my head and put on the clothes that showed I was sad.

George Lamsa Translation
And I lifted up my face before the LORD God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and with sackcloth and with ashes;

Good News Translation
And I prayed earnestly to the Lord God, pleading with him, fasting, wearing sackcloth, and sitting in ashes.

Lexham English Bible
Then I turned my face to the Lord God to seek him by prayer and pleas for mercy, in fasting and in sackcloth and ashes.

Literal Translation
And I set my face toward the Lord God, to seek by prayer and holy desires, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
ad I turned me vnto God the LORDE, for to praye and make myne intercessio, with fastinge, sackcloth ad ashes

American Standard Version
And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

Bible in Basic English
And turning my face to the Lord God, I gave myself up to prayer, requesting his grace, going without food, in haircloth and dust.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.

King James Version (1611)
And I set my face vnto the Lord God to seeke by prayer, and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And I turned my face vnto the Lord God, and sought by prayer and supplication, with fasting, sackcloth, and asshes.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And I set my face toward the Lord God, to seek him diligently by prayer and supplications, with fastings and sackcloth.

English Revised Version
And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.

World English Bible
I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and petitions, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And Y settide my face to my Lord God, to preie and to biseche in fastyngis, in sak, and aische.

Update Bible Version
And I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

Webster's Bible Translation
And I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

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

New King James Version
Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

New Living Translation
So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and fasting. I also wore rough burlap and sprinkled myself with ashes.

New Life Bible
So I turned to the Lord God in prayer and did not eat. I dressed in cloth made from hair, and threw ashes on myself.

New Revised Standard
Then I turned to the Lord God, to seek an answer by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
So I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek him by prayer, and supplication, - with fasting, and sackcloth and ashes;

Douay-Rheims Bible
And I set my face to the Lord, my God, to pray and make supplication with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.

Revised Standard Version
Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

Young's Literal Translation
and I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek [by] prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.

Contextual Overview

¹"Darius, son of Ahasuerus, born a Mede, became king over the land of Babylon. In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, was meditating on the Scriptures that gave, according to the Word of God to the prophet Jeremiah, the number of years that Jerusalem had to lie in ruins, namely, seventy. I turned to the Master God, asking for an answer—praying earnestly, fasting from meals, wearing rough penitential burlap, and kneeling in the ashes. I poured out my heart, baring my soul to God , my God: "‘O Master, great and august God. You never waver in your covenant commitment, never give up on those who love you and do what you say. Yet we have sinned in every way imaginable. We've done evil things, rebelled, dodged and taken detours around your clearly marked paths. We've turned a deaf ear to your servants the prophets, who preached your Word to our kings and leaders, our parents, and all the people in the land. You have done everything right, Master, but all we have to show for our lives is guilt and shame, the whole lot of us—people of Judah, citizens of Jerusalem, Israel at home and Israel in exile in all the places we've been banished to because of our betrayal of you. Oh yes, God , we've been exposed in our shame, all of us—our kings, leaders, parents—before the whole world. And deservedly so, because of our sin. "‘Compassion is our only hope, the compassion of you, the Master, our God, since in our rebellion we've forfeited our rights. We paid no attention to you when you told us how to live, the clear teaching that came through your servants the prophets. All of us in Israel ignored what you said. We defied your instructions and did what we pleased. And now we're paying for it: The solemn curse written out plainly in the revelation to God's servant Moses is now doing its work among us, the wages of our sin against you. You did to us and our rulers what you said you would do: You brought this catastrophic disaster on us, the worst disaster on record—and in Jerusalem! "‘Just as written in God's revelation to Moses, the catastrophe was total. Nothing was held back. We kept at our sinning, never giving you a second thought, oblivious to your clear warning, and so you had no choice but to let the disaster loose on us in full force. You, our God , had a perfect right to do this since we persistently and defiantly ignored you. "‘Master, you are our God, for you delivered your people from the land of Egypt in a show of power—people are still talking about it! We confess that we have sinned, that we have lived bad lives. Following the lines of what you have always done in setting things right, setting people right, please stop being so angry with Jerusalem, your very own city, your holy mountain. We know it's our fault that this has happened, all because of our sins and our parents' sins, and now we're an embarrassment to everyone around us. We're a blot on the neighborhood. So listen, God, to this determined prayer of your servant. Have mercy on your ruined Sanctuary. Act out of who you are, not out of what we are. "‘Turn your ears our way, God, and listen. Open your eyes and take a long look at our ruined city, this city named after you. We know that we don't deserve a hearing from you. Our appeal is to your compassion. This prayer is our last and only hope: "‘Master, listen to us! Master, forgive us! Master, look at us and do something! Master, don't put us off! Your city and your people are named after you: You have a stake in us!' "While I was pouring out my heart, baring my sins and the sins of my people Israel, praying my life out before my God , interceding for the holy mountain of my God—while I was absorbed in this praying, the humanlike Gabriel, the one I had seen in an earlier vision, approached me, flying in like a bird about the time of evening worship. "He stood before me and said, ‘Daniel, I have come to make things plain to you. You had no sooner started your prayer when the answer was given. And now I'm here to deliver the answer to you. You are much loved! So listen carefully to the answer, the plain meaning of what is revealed: "‘Seventy sevens are set for your people and for your holy city to throttle rebellion, stop sin, wipe out crime, set things right forever, confirm what the prophet saw, and anoint The Holy of Holies. "‘Here is what you must understand: From the time the word goes out to rebuild Jerusalem until the coming of the Anointed Leader, there will be seven sevens. The rebuilding will take sixty-two sevens, including building streets and digging a moat. Those will be rough times. After the sixty-two sevens, the Anointed Leader will be killed—the end of him. The city and Sanctuary will be laid in ruins by the army of the newly arriving leader. The end will come in a rush, like a flood. War will rage right up to the end, desolation the order of the day. "‘Then for one seven, he will forge many and strong alliances, but halfway through the seven he will banish worship and prayers. At the place of worship, a desecrating obscenity will be set up and remain until finally the desecrator himself is decisively destroyed.'"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I set: Daniel 6:10, Nehemiah 1:4-11, Psalms 102:13-17, Jeremiah 29:10-13, Jeremiah 33:3, Ezekiel 36:37, James 5:16-18

with: Daniel 10:2, Daniel 10:3, Ezra 8:21, Ezra 9:5, Ezra 10:6, Nehemiah 1:4, Nehemiah 9:1, Esther 4:1-3, Esther 4:16, Psalms 35:13, Psalms 69:10, Psalms 69:11, Isaiah 22:12, Joel 1:13, Joel 2:12, Jonah 3:6-9, Luke 2:37, Acts 10:30, James 4:8-10

Reciprocal: Leviticus 16:21 - confess over Leviticus 26:40 - confess 1 Samuel 7:6 - fasted 1 Kings 8:33 - pray 1 Kings 18:42 - he cast himself 2 Kings 19:15 - prayed 1 Chronicles 22:19 - set your 2 Chronicles 6:24 - pray 2 Chronicles 6:38 - pray toward 2 Chronicles 20:3 - proclaimed Ezra 8:23 - we fasted Ezra 10:1 - when Ezra Nehemiah 9:2 - confessed Esther 4:3 - many lay in sackcloth and ashes Job 9:15 - I would Job 42:6 - repent Psalms 27:4 - seek Psalms 102:17 - He will Psalms 137:1 - we wept Ecclesiastes 7:3 - is better Isaiah 37:15 - General Isaiah 45:11 - Ask Isaiah 58:5 - it such Jeremiah 29:12 - General Jeremiah 51:50 - remember Ezekiel 6:9 - remember Daniel 10:12 - from Matthew 6:16 - when Matthew 17:21 - but Mark 9:29 - fasting Luke 10:13 - repented Luke 11:9 - seek Acts 13:2 - fasted 1 Peter 1:10 - and

Cross-References

Genesis 9:1
God blessed Noah and his sons: He said, "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill the Earth! Every living creature—birds, animals, fish—will fall under your spell and be afraid of you. You're responsible for them. All living creatures are yours for food; just as I gave you the plants, now I give you everything else. Except for meat with its lifeblood still in it—don't eat that.

Genesis 9:5
"But your own lifeblood I will avenge; I will avenge it against both animals and other humans.

Genesis 9:12
God continued, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and everything living around you and everyone living after you. I'm putting my rainbow in the clouds, a sign of the covenant between me and the Earth. From now on, when I form a cloud over the Earth and the rainbow appears in the cloud, I'll remember my covenant between me and you and everything living, that never again will floodwaters destroy all life. When the rainbow appears in the cloud, I'll see it and remember the eternal covenant between God and everything living, every last living creature on Earth."

Deuteronomy 12:15
It's permissible to slaughter your nonsacrificial animals like gazelle and deer in your towns and eat all you want from them with the blessing of God , your God. Both the ritually clean and unclean may eat.

Romans 14:17
God's kingdom isn't a matter of what you put in your stomach, for goodness' sake. It's what God does with your life as he sets it right, puts it together, and completes it with joy. Your task is to single-mindedly serve Christ. Do that and you'll kill two birds with one stone: pleasing the God above you and proving your worth to the people around you.

1 Corinthians 10:23
Looking at it one way, you could say, "Anything goes. Because of God's immense generosity and grace, we don't have to dissect and scrutinize every action to see if it will pass muster." But the point is not to just get by. We want to live well, but our foremost efforts should be to help others live well.

1 Corinthians 10:31
So eat your meals heartily, not worrying about what others say about you—you're eating to God's glory, after all, not to please them. As a matter of fact, do everything that way, heartily and freely to God's glory. At the same time, don't be callous in your exercise of freedom, thoughtlessly stepping on the toes of those who aren't as free as you are. I try my best to be considerate of everyone's feelings in all these matters; I hope you will be, too.

Colossians 2:16
So don't put up with anyone pressuring you in details of diet, worship services, or holy days. All those things are mere shadows cast before what was to come; the substance is Christ.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications,.... He set apart some time on purpose for this service, distinct from his usual stated times of prayer, as well as from his civil business and employment; and he not only set his face toward Jerusalem, as he used to do, Daniel 6:10, the more to affect his mind with the desolations the city and temple lay in; but towards the Lord God, the sovereign Lord of all, who does according to his will in heaven and in earth, the Governor of the universe, the one true God, Father, Son, and Spirit: and this denotes the intenseness of his spirit in prayer; the fixedness of his heart; the ardour of his mind; the fervency of his soul; his holy confidence in God; the freedom and boldness he used in prayer, and his constancy and continuance in it; which is a principal means, and a proper manner of seeking God. The Septuagint version, agreeably to the Hebrew text d, renders it, "to seek prayer and supplications"; such as were suitable and pertinent to the present case; most beneficial and interesting to him and his people, and most acceptable to the Lord:

with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes; as was usual on extraordinary occasions, in times of public mourning; and this he did, to show his sense of the divine Being, and of his own unworthiness to ask or receive anything of him; his great humiliation for the sins of the people; and to distinguish this prayer of his from ordinary ones, and to affect his own heart in it, with the sad condition his nation, city, and temple were in; and therefore abstained from food for a time, put sackcloth on his loins, and ashes on his head, or sat in them.

d לבקש תפלה ותחנונים του εκζητησαι προσευχην και δεησεις, Sept; "ad quaerendum orationem et deprecationes", Montanus; "ad quaerendam orationem et supplicationem", Cocceius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And I set my face unto the Lord God - Probably the meaning is, that he turned his face toward Jerusalem, the place where God had dwelt; the place of his holy abode on earth. See the notes at Daniel 6:10. The language, however, would not be inappropriate to denote prayer without such a supposition. We turn to one whom we address, and so prayer may be described by “setting the face toward God.” The essential idea here is, that he engaged in a set and formal prayer; he engaged in earnest devotion. He evidently set apart a time for this, for he prepared himself by fasting, and by putting on sackcloth and ashes.

To seek by prayer and supplications - To seek his favor; to pray that he would accomplish his purposes. The words “prayer and supplications,” which are often found united, would seem to denote “earnest” prayer, or prayer when mercy was implored - the notion of “mercy” or “favor” implored entering into the meaning of the Hebrew word rendered “supplications.”

With fasting - In view of the desolations of the city and temple; the calamities that had come upon the people; their sins, etc.; and in order also that the mind might be prepared for earnest and fervent prayer. The occasion was one of great importance, and it was proper that the mind should be prepared for it by fasting. It was the purpose of Daniel to humble himself before God, and to recal the sins of the nation for which they now suffered, and fasting was an appropriate means of doing that.

And sackcloth - Sackcloth was a coarse kind of cloth, usually made of hair, and employed for the purpose of making sacks, bags, etc. As it was dark, and coarse, and rough, it was regarded as a proper badge of mourning and humiliation, and was worn as such usually by passing or girding it around the loins. See the notes at Isaiah 3:24; Job 16:15.

And ashes - It was customary to cast ashes on the head in a time of great grief and sorrow. The principles on which this was done seem to have been,

(a) that the external appearance should correspond with the state of the mind and the heart, and

(b) that such external circumstances would have a tendency to produce a state of heart corresponding to them - or would produce true humiliation and repentance for sin.

Compare the notes at Job 2:8. The practical truth taught in this verse, in connection with the preceding, is, that the fact that a thing is certainly predicted, and that God means to accomplish it, is an encouragement to prayer, and will lead to prayer. We could have no encouragement to pray except in the purposes and promises of God, for we have no power ourselves to accomplish the things for which we pray, and all must depend on his will. When that will is known it is the very thing to encourage us in our approaches to him, and is all the assurance that we need to induce us to pray.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Daniel 9:3. I set my face - to seek by prayer — He found that the time of the promised deliverance could not be at any great distance; and as he saw nothing that indicated a speedy termination of their oppressive captivity, he was very much afflicted, and earnestly besought God to put a speedy end to it; and how earnestly he seeks, his own words show. He prayed, he supplicated, he fasted, he put sackcloth upon his body, and he put ashes upon his head. He uses that kind of prayer prescribed by Solomon in his prayer at the dedication of the temple. See 1 Kings 8:47-48.