Daniel 9 · Verse 4

Daniel 9:4

And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;
Daniel 9:4, King James Version

Daniel 9:4 in other translations

BSBAnd I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed, “O, Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of loving devotion to those who love Him and keep His commandments,
WEBI prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, “Oh, Lord, the great and dreadful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with those who love him and keep his commandments,
ASVAnd I prayed unto Jehovah my God, and made confession, and said, Oh, Lord, the great and dreadful God, who keepeth covenant and lovingkindness with them that love him and keep his commandments,
YLTAnd I pray to Jehovah my God, and confess, and say: ‘I beseech Thee, O Lord God, the great and the fearful, keeping the covenant and the kindness to those loving Him, and to those keeping His commands;
DARBYand I prayed unto Jehovah my God, and made my confession, and said, Alas Lord! the great and terrible God, keeping covenant and loving-kindness with them that love him, and that keep his commandments:
BBEAnd I made prayer to the Lord my God, putting our sins before him, and said, O Lord, the great God, greatly to be feared. keeping your agreement and mercy with those who have love for you and do your orders;
WebsterAnd I prayed to the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;

What does Daniel 9:4 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
4. my confession--according to God's promises in Le 26:39-42, that if Israel in exile for sin should repent and confess, God would remember for them His covenant with Abraham (compare De 30:1-5; Jr 29:12-14; Jas 4:10). God's promise was absolute, but prayer also was ordained as about to precede its fulfilment, this too being the work of God in His people, as much as the external restoration which was to follow. So it shall be at Israel's final restoration (Psa 102:13-17). Daniel takes his countrymen's place of confession of sin, identifying himself with them, and, as their representative and intercessory priest, "accepts the punishment of their iniquity." Thus he typifies Messiah, the Sin-bearer and great Intercessor. The prophet's own life and experience form the fit starting point of the prophecy concerning the sin atonement. He prays for Israel's restoration as associated in the prophets (compare Jr 31:4, 11, 12, 31, &c.) with the hope of Messiah. The revelation, now granted, analyzes into its successive parts that which the prophets, in prophetical perspective, heretofore saw together in one; namely, the redemption from captivity, and the full Messianic redemption. God's servants, who, like Noah's father (Ge 5:29), hoped many a time that now the Comforter of their afflictions was at hand, had to wait from age to age, and to view preceding fulfilments only as pledges of the coming of Him whom they so earnestly desired to see (Mt 13:17); as now also Christians, who believe that the Lord's second coming is nigh, are expected to continue waiting. So Daniel is informed of a long period of seventy prophetic weeks before Messiah's coming, instead of seventy years, as he might have expected (compare Mt 18:21, 22) [Auberlen]. great and dreadful God--as we know to our cost by the calamities we suffer. The greatness of God and His dreadful abhorrence of sin should prepare sinners for reverent, humble acknowledgment of the justice of their punishment. keeping ... covenant and mercy--that is, the covenant of Thy mercy, whereby Thou hast promised to deliver us, not for our merits, but of Thy mercy (Eze 36:22, 23). So weak and sinful is man that any covenant for good on God's part with him, to take effect, must depend solely on His grace. If He be a God to be feared for His justice, He is one to be trusted for His "mercy." love ... keep his commandments--Keeping His commandments is the only sure test of love to God (Joh 14:15).

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 4 Keeping the covenant - Fidelity and truth are characteristics of God. He had never yet broken his engagements to his followers, and was ever showing mercy to men.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Daniel 9:4-19
In every prayer we must make confession, not only of the sins we have been guilty of, but of our faith in God, and dependence upon him, our sorrow for sin, and our resolutions against it. It must be our confession, the language of our convictions. Here is Daniel's humble, serious, devout address to God; in which he gives glory to him as a God to be feared, and as a God to be trusted. We should, in prayer, look both at God's greatness and his goodness, his majesty and mercy. Here is a penitent confession of sin, the cause of the troubles the people for so many years groaned under. All who would find mercy must thus confess their sins. Here is a self-abasing acknowledgment of the righteousness of God; and it is evermore the way of true penitents thus to justify God. Afflictions are sent to bring men to turn from their sins, and to understand God's truth. Here is a believing appeal to the mercy of God. It is a comfort that God has been always ready to pardon sin. It is encouraging to recollect that mercies belong to God, as it is convincing and humbling to recollect that righteousness belongs to him. There are abundant mercies in God, not only forgiveness, but forgivenesses. Here are pleaded the reproach God's people was under, and the ruins God's sanctuary was in. Sin is a reproach to any people, especially to God's people. The desolations of the sanctuary are grief to all the saints. Here is an earnest request to God to restore the poor captive Jews to their former enjoyments. O Lord, hearken and do. Not hearken and speak only, but hearken and do; do that for us which none else can do; and defer not. Here are several pleas and arguments to enforce the petitions. Do it for the Lord Christ's sake; Christ is the Lord of all. And for his sake God causes his face to shine upon sinners when they repent, and turn to him. In all our prayers this must be our plea, we must make mention of his righteousness, even of his only. The humble, fervent, believing earnestness of this prayer should ever be followed by us.

Matthew Henry, 1706 · public domain

Daniel 9:4 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

וָֽאֶתְפַּֽלְלָ֛הva.'et.pa.Lahand I prayed !H6419
לַיהוָ֥הla.Yah.wehto YahwehH3068
אֱלֹהַ֖י'e.lo.HaiGod myH430
וָאֶתְוַדֶּ֑הva.'et.va.Dehand I confessedH3034
וָאֹֽמְרָ֗הva.'o.me.Rahand I said !H559
אָנָּ֤א'a.Na'I beg youH577
אֲדֹנָי֙'a.do.NaiO LordH136
הָאֵ֤לha.'El<the> GodH410
הַגָּדוֹל֙ha.ga.dOl<the> greatH1419
וְהַנּוֹרָ֔אve.ha.no.Ra'and <the> awesomeH3372
שֹׁמֵ֤רsho.Mer[who] keepsH8104
הַבְּרִית֙ha.be.Ritthe covenantH1285
וְֽהַחֶ֔סֶדve.ha.Che.sedand <the> covenant loyaltyH2617
לְאֹהֲבָ֖יוle.'o.ha.Vavto [those who] love himH157
וּלְשֹׁמְרֵ֥יu.le.sho.me.Reiand to [those who] keepH8104
מִצְוֹתָֽיו\׃mitz.vo.Tav<of> commandments hisH4687

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Daniel 9:4

  • Romans 8:28

    And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

  • Exodus 20:6

    And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

  • Deuteronomy 5:10

    And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

  • Exodus 34:6-7

    And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

  • Daniel 9:5-12

    We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee. O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. …

  • Jeremiah 32:17-19

    Ah Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee: Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the Lord of hosts, is his name, Great in counsel, and mighty in work: for thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:

  • 2 Chronicles 7:14

    If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

  • Nehemiah 9:32

    Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day.

  • Deuteronomy 7:9

    Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;

  • 1 Kings 8:23

    And he said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart:

  • Psalms 32:5

    I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

  • Numbers 14:18-19

    The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
made.
5-12; Le 26:40-42; 1Ki 8:47-49; 2Ch 7:14; Ne 9:2,3; Ps 32:5
Jer 3:13; 1Jo 1:8-10
the great.
Ex 20:6; 34:6,7; Nu 14:18,19; De 5:10; 7:9; 1Ki 8:23; Ne 1:5; 9:32
Jer 32:17-19; Mic 7:18-20; Na 1:2-7; Lu 1:72; Ro 8:28; Jas 1:12
Jas 2:5; 1Jo 5:2,3

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Daniel 9:3

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

  • Daniel 9:4

    And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;

  • Daniel 9:5

    We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:

Read all of Daniel 9

Daniel 9:4 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909
Y oré á Jehová mi Dios, y confesé, y dije: Ahora Señor, Dios grande, digno de ser temido, que guardas el pacto y la misericordia con los que te aman y guardan tus mandamientos;
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885
Et je priai l’ Éternel, mon Dieu, et je fis ma confession, et je dis: Je te supplie, Seigneur, le ✶Dieu grand et terrible, qui gardes l’alliance et la bonté envers ceux qui t’aiment et qui gardent tes commandements!
German
Elberfelder 1871
Und ich betete zu Jehova, meinem Gott, und ich bekannte und sprach: Ach, Herr! du großer und furchtbarer Gott, der den Bund und die Güte denen bewahrt, die ihn lieben und seine Gebote halten!
Latin
Clementine Vulgate
Et oravi Dominum Deum meum, et confessus sum, et dixi: Obsecro, Domine Deus magne et terribilis, custodiens pactum, et misericordiam diligentibus te, et custodientibus mandata tua: