Page 253 - Daniel

DANIEL’S PRAYER OF CONFESSION (9:5–14)

9:5–6 “We have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and
rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. We have
not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to
our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the
land.”

Here began Daniel’s prayer of confession. He himself is one of the few

major characters of the Old Testament to whom some sin is not ascribed,
though we know theologically he was not sinless. In the context of his
prayer he was dealing not with his personal sins, but was identifying
with Israel’s sin and the collective responsibility he shared both in God’s
promises of blessing and warnings of divine judgment. Daniel did not
spare himself or his people in his confession. Calvin points out a fourfold

description of the extent of their sin: first, they “have sinned” (Heb.
), meaning a serious crime or offense; second, they had “done wrong”;
third, they had “acted wickedly,” or “conducted themselves wickedly”;
and fourth, by sinning in this way, they had “rebelled, turning aside
from your commandments and rules,” that is, “become rebellious and
9
declined from the statutes and commandments of God.” Stuart notes,
“The climactic construction of the sentence is palpable. To turn back

from obedience to the divine statutes, in the frame of mind which
belongs to rebels, is the consummation of wickedness, and so Daniel
rightly considers it. The variety of verbs employed here, indicates the
design of the speaker to confess all sin of every kind in its full extent” 10
(italics in original).

The heinousness of Israel’s sin is amplified in verse 6 by the fact that
they disregarded the prophets God sent to them. As Wood writes, “Not
only had the Law not been obeyed, but the people had not listened to
God’s prophets, who had called this disobedience to their attention.” 11

This disobedience to the prophets characterized all classes of Israel, from
her kings to “all the people.” Even in such times of revival as the reign of
Hezekiah, when the king’s messengers went throughout the land calling
people to the Passover at Jerusalem, many of the people “laughed them
to scorn and mocked them” (2 Chron. 30:10). Israel’s departure from the
precepts and judgments of God’s Word, as well as the disregard of the