(2) Understood.--He gave special attention to Jeremiah's prophecy of the seventy years of the Captivity. Two passages occur in that prophet's writings where the duration of the Captivity is mentioned (Jeremiah 25:11; Jeremiah 29:10), to the former of which Daniel refers (see especially Daniel 9:9; Daniel 9:11-12). It will be observed that there existed at this time a collection of sacred books, consisting of what had been already admitted into the Canon.

Seventy years.--It appears from Haggai 1:2, Zechariah 1:12, that considerable uncertainty prevailed as to the time whence the seventy years were to be reckoned. It has been pointed out (Professor Leathes' Old Testament Prophecy, p. 179) that three periods of seventy years occur in connection with the Captivity:--(1) from B.C. 606, the date of Jeremiah's prophecy, to B.C. 536, the edict of Cyrus; (2) from B.C. 598, Jehoiachin's captivity, to B.C. 528, the period of Ezra 4:6; (3) from B.C. 588, the destruction of the Temple, to B.C. 518, the edict of Darius (Ezra 6:1). In the first year of Cyrus, seventy years had elapsed since the captivity of Daniel, but to him it was a question of melancholy importance whether his computation had begun at the right date.

9:1-3 Daniel learned from the books of the prophets, especially from Jeremiah, that the desolation of Jerusalem would continue seventy years, which were drawing to a close. God's promises are to encourage our prayers, not to make them needless; and when we see the performance of them approaching, we should more earnestly plead them with God.In the first year of his reign,.... Which was also the first of Cyrus, who was partner with him in the kingdom; in which year ended the seventy years' captivity of the Jews, and proclamation was made to have their liberty to go up to Jerusalem, and build the temple, Ezra 1:1, reckoning from the third, or the beginning of the fourth, of Jehoiakim king of Judah, when the desolation of the land began, and Daniel himself was carried captive; and which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, during whose reign, and that of his son, and son's son, the Jews were to be detained captives, Daniel 1:1.

I Daniel understood by books; the sacred Scriptures, which, though a prophet, he was not above reading; and, though a prime minister of state, yet found time to look into these divine oracles; which he read, studied, thoroughly considered, and well weighed in his mind; whereby he came to have knowledge of

the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem; Daniel might possibly have heard this prophecy of Jeremiah from his own mouth, before he went to Babylon; since the first intimation of it was in the first year of Jehoiakim, Jeremiah 27:1, and after this the prophecy might be sent to Babylon for the use of the captive Jews there; and indeed a copy of all his prophecies was no doubt brought thither at the last captivity of the people; so that it is easy to account for it how Daniel came by it; and it is plain it was now before him; for he uses the very word, "desolations", which Jeremiah does, Jeremiah 25:9, the prophecy of the seventy years' captivity, and of deliverance from it at the expiration of that term, stands in Jeremiah 25:12, which Daniel carefully read over, thoroughly considered, and as he full well knew what was the epoch of them, or when they begun, he found that they were just ready to expire; and this set him to the work of prayer, as in the following verses. From hence it is manifest that the law was not burnt, nor the Scriptures lost, in the Babylonish captivity; so that none knew what were or would be done by the Lord, as is falsely asserted in the Apocrypha:

"For thy law is burnt, therefore no man knoweth the things that are done of thee, or the work that shall begin. &c.'' (2 Esdras 14:21)