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Daniel prays for the people

This is what happened in the first year that Darius ruled Babylonia. He was the son of Xerxes, a descendant of the Medes.[a] He became the king of Babylonia. In the first year that Darius was king, I, Daniel, was reading God's book. I read the message that the Lord had given to his prophet, Jeremiah. He told Jeremiah that Jerusalem would continue to be a heap of stones for 70 years.[b]

So I turned to my Lord God, to ask him for help. I prayed to him and I ate no food. I wore clothes of rough sackcloth. I put ashes on myself to show that I was upset.

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Footnotes

  1. 9:1 Xerxes was also called Ahasuerus.
  2. 9:2 When we write Lord like this, it is a special name for God. Sometimes people write it as ‘Yahweh’, or as ‘Jehovah’. It is his own name that he told Moses. See Exodus 3:14. It means ‘I am who I am’. This shows that God has always been there and he always will be there.