Daniel 9.11-God Judged Israel Because of Her Unrepentant Disobedience to His law According to the Judgment Written in the Law of Moses
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday October 30, 2013
Daniel: Daniel 9:11-God Judged Israel Because of Her Unrepentant Disobedience to His Law in Accordance with the Sworn Judgment in the Mosaic Law
Lesson # 266
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 9:1.
Daniel 9:1 During Darius’ first year, Ahasuerus’ son, who was from Median descent, who was made king over the Chaldeans’ kingdom- 2 during the first year of his reign, I myself, Daniel understood by means of the scrolls the specific number of years which the word of the Lord communicated to Jeremiah the prophet for completing devastating Jerusalem-seventy years. 3 Therefore, I devoted my full attention to my Lord, the one and only God by repeatedly presenting prayer request in the form of pleas for mercy while fasting with sackcloth as well as ashes. 4 Indeed, I caused myself to enter into prayer to the Lord my God. Specifically, I caused myself to enter into confession and said, “O my Lord, the one and only God, the Great One yes the Awesome One, who is faithful to His covenant because of His unconditional love on behalf of those who love Him, namely on behalf of those who conscientiously observe His commands, 5 we have sinned, thus we have done wrong so that we have been condemned as guilty because we have rebelled. Specifically, we have deviated from Your commands, that is, from Your laws. 6 Furthermore, to our own detriment, we never paid attention to Your servants, the prophets who spoke by Your authority to and for the benefit of our kings as well as our leaders and in addition our ancestors, yes, to and for the benefit of all the people belonging to the land. 7 You are righteous my Lord but we are publicly disgraced as is the case this very day. To the detriment of the Judean people as well as to the detriment of Jerusalem’s inhabitants likewise to the detriment of all Israel, those nearby as well as those far away in all the countries where You have driven them because of their unfaithfulness which they perpetrated against You. 8 We are publicly disgraced Lord, to the detriment of our kings, to the detriment of our leaders as well as to the detriment of our ancestors because we have sinned against You. 9 My Lord, our God is merciful as well as forgiving even though we have rebelled against Him. 10 Specifically, to our own detriment, we never paid attention to the Lord, our God’s voice by living by means of His laws which He gave in our presence through His servants, the prophets.” (My translation)
Daniel 9:11 “Indeed all Israel has transgressed Your law and turned aside, not obeying Your voice; so the curse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against Him.” (NASB95)
“Indeed all Israel has transgressed Your law” affirms what can be concluded by the previous statement in verse 10, which records Daniel acknowledging to God that Israel never paid attention to the Lord, their God by living by means of His laws.
It also advances upon and intensifies the previous statement in verse 10.
“Has transgressed” is the verb ʿā·ḇǎr (עָבַר) (aw-bar´), which denotes that Israel “passed beyond” the law or in other words they “transgressed” it.
The English word “transgress” fits the meaning of the verb here in Daniel 9:11.
“Your law” is referring to the 365 prohibitions and 248 commands which appear in the Mosaic Law.
“And turned aside, not obeying Your voice” describes Israel’s transgression of God’s law from a different perspective.
“Turned aside” is the verb sûr (סוּר) (soor), which means “to turn away, to deviate” from a particular course of action or prescribed course of action.
Here it refers to Israel “deviating” from obedience to the various commands and prohibitions in the Mosaic Law.
It is a word that conveys the idea of apostasy since it implies that a person was obeying God but now no longer does so.
“Not obeying” is composed of the adverb bil·tî (בִּלְתִּי) (bil-tee´), “not” which is negating the meaning of the verb šā·mǎʿ (שָׁמַע) (shaw-mah´), “obeying.”
The verb šā·mǎʿ means “to listen” and is an idiomatic expression for obedience.
Its meaning is emphatically negated by the adverb bil·tî which functions here as a particle of negation and specifically it is employed as a marker of emphatic negation.
Therefore, together, these two words indicate that Israel “never paid attention to” the voice of the Lord, their God.
The preposition lĕ is prefixed to the infinitive construct form of this verb and governs it and is functioning as a marker of means indicating that all Israel deviated from God’s law “by” never paying attention to God’s voice.
“Your voice” refers to the voice of God which Israel heard through the voice of the prophets God sent to them to communicate a message to them, which would move them to repentance.
The noun qôl, “voice” is also the object of the preposition bĕ, which is a marker of opposition meaning that by disobeying the voice of the Lord, their God which was heard through the prophets He sent to them, Israel was opposing God.
“So the curse has been poured out on us” presents the result or the direct consequence of Israel never paying attention to God’s voice, which was heard through the prophets He sent to them throughout her history.
“The curse” is the noun ʾā·lā(h) (אָלָה) (aw-law´), which means “curse” in the sense of God judging the nation of Israel for their failure to fulfill their covenant responsibilities with God.
Specifically, it refers to the judgments for rebellion, which were threatened by God through Moses as recorded in Deuteronomy 28.
“Along with the oath” is composed of the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “along with” which is followed by the noun šeḇû·ʿā(h) (שְׁבוּעָה) (sheb-oo-aw´), “the oath.”
The noun šeḇû·ʿā(h) means “sworn oath, vow” referring to a contractual promise to fulfill an agreement between two parties, with sanctions for non-compliance.
The agreement is assumed to be in conformity to truth, yet the oath itself has no particular focus on the truth or falsity of a statement.
The inherent meaning of the root is “to bind oneself volitionally by one’s own words,” putting oneself under obligation.
Here in Daniel 9:11, the noun šeḇû·ʿā(h) is used to denote the oath taken by the Lord Himself with regards to His covenant relationship with Israel.
It specifically speaks of the oath He took to judge Israel if they unrepentantly disobeyed His laws.
The conjunction wa is used to join the nouns ʾā·lā(h) and šeḇû·ʿā(h), in order to communicate one idea, which is called “hendiadys.”
Therefore, these two words express one idea, namely that the Mosaic covenant with its threatened judgments was ratified by solemn oath and made legally binding upon the Israelites.
“For we have sinned against Him” presents the reason for the previous statement that God’s sworn judgment was poured out against Israel.
Daniel 9:11 “Indeed, all Israel has transgressed Your law. In other words, they deviated to their own detriment by never paying attention to Your voice. Consequently, the sworn judgment was poured out against us, which was written in the law given to Moses, the servant of the one and only God because we have sinned against Him.” (My translation)
Now, we need to clarify something in that when Daniel says “all” in Israel was guilty of disobeying God’s law, he does not mean every single person including himself.
What he is saying is much like we would say in America that “the whole country watched the events of 911 transpire on television!”
Of course not each and every person would have done so but the idea behind the statement is that a good majority in the country did watch the events of 911.
Thus, Daniel is acknowledging that the majority of Israel was disobedient to God’s law and not every single person.
In fact, Daniel was one of the few who conscientiously observed the commands and prohibitions of the Mosaic Law as demonstrated in Daniel chapter one.
If you recall, he refused to eat the food and drink the wine prescribed by Nebuchadnezzar because this food and wine would have made him ceremonially unclean according to the dietary regulations of the Law.
Daniel also refused to obey Darius’ edict in chapter six which prohibited Daniel from praying to his God.
Daniel chose instead to die than not to pray to his God.
Then, Daniel explains specifically what he means by acknowledging to God that the majority in Israel had unrepentantly transgressed His law by saying that Israel deviated from God’s law by never paying attention to His voice, which was heard through the prophets He sent Israel.
By never paying attention, Daniel means that they never obeyed God.
In Daniel 9:11, Daniel presents the result of the majority in Israel unrepentantly disobeying God’s laws, namely, God’s sworn judgment was executed against the nation of Israel.
Daniel says that this sworn judgment was “poured out” in Israel in the sense that God’s judgment overwhelmed the nation.
Like a tremendous flood, the Assyrian and Babylonian armies were used by God to carry away the entire nation to death and exile.
This sworn judgment appeared in the Mosaic Law and was given to Moses who put this sworn judgment in writing to be a witness against the nation when it sinned unrepentantly against God.
Daniel 9:11 concludes with Daniel stating that Israel’s unrepentant sinning against God was the reason why God’s sworn judgment was executed against the nation.
The sworn judgment which Daniel speaks of is recorded in Leviticus 26:14-35 and Deuteronomy 28:15-68.
The majority chose disobedience which resulted in God judging the nation by sending Assyria to destroy the northern kingdom and Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar to destroy the southern kingdom.