Daniel 9:4 (GNV)

Passage

And I prayed vnto the Lord my God, and made my confession, saying, Oh Lord God, which art great and fearefull, and keepest couenant and mercy toward them which loue thee, and toward them that keepe thy commandements,

Nearby Context

Daniel 9:2 Euen in the first yeere of his reigne, I Daniel vnderstood by bookes the nomber of the yeeres, whereof the Lord had spoken vnto Ieremiah the Prophet, that he would accomplish seuentie yeeres in the desolation of Ierusalem.

Daniel 9:3 And I turned my face vnto the Lord God, and sought by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

Daniel 9:4 And I prayed vnto the Lord my God, and made my confession, saying, Oh Lord God, which art great and fearefull, and keepest couenant and mercy toward them which loue thee, and toward them that keepe thy commandements,

Daniel 9:5 We haue sinned, and haue committed iniquitie and haue done wickedly, yea, we haue rebelled, and haue departed from thy precepts, and from thy iudgements.

Daniel 9:6 For we would not obey thy seruants the Prophets, which spake in thy Name to our Kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "mercy", "prayed", "vnto", "lord", "confession", "saying", "great", and "fearefull". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "mercy" and "prayed", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 3's "And I turned my face vnto the..." into verse 5's "We haue sinned and haue committed iniquitie...", so "mercy" and "prayed" belong inside that flow. In Daniel context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "mercy" and "prayed" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.