1 In the first year of Dareyawesh the son of Aḥashwĕrosh, of the seed of the Medes, who was set up as sovereign over the reign of the Chaldeans –
2 in the first year of his reign I, Dani’ĕl, observed from the Scriptures the number of the years, according to the word of יהוה given to Yirmeyah the prophet, for the completion of the wastes of Yerushalayim would be seventy years.
3 So I set my face toward יהוה the Elohim to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.
4 And I prayed to יהוה my Elohim, and made confession, and said, “O יהוה, great and awesome Ěl, guarding the covenant and the kindness to those who love Him, and to those who guard His commands.
5 “We have sinned and did crookedness, and did wrong and rebelled, to turn aside from Your commands and from Your right-rulings.
6 “And we have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your Name to our sovereigns, our heads, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.