19. Forgive us! Hurry and do something, not only for your city and your chosen people, but to bring honour to yourself.
20. I was still confessing my sins and those of all Israel to the Lord my God, and I was praying for the good of his holy mountain,
21. when Gabriel suddenly came flying in at the time of the evening sacrifice. This was the same Gabriel I had seen in my vision,
22. and he explained:Daniel, I am here to help you understand the vision.
23. God thinks highly of you, and at the very moment you started praying, I was sent to give you the answer.
24. God has decided that for seventy weeks, your people and your holy city must suffer as the price of their sins. Then evil will disappear, and justice will rule for ever; the visions and words of the prophets will come true, and a most holy place will be dedicated.
25. You need to realize that from the command to rebuild Jerusalem until the coming of the Chosen Leader, it will be seven weeks and another sixty-two weeks. Streets will be built in Jerusalem, and a trench will be dug around the city for protection, but these will be difficult times.
26. At the end of the sixty-two weeks, the Chosen Leader will be killed and left with nothing.A foreign ruler and his army will sweep down like a mighty flood, leaving both the city and the temple in ruins, and war and destruction will continue until the end, just as God has decided.
27. For one week this foreigner will make a firm agreement with many people, and halfway through this week, he will end all sacrifices and offerings. Then the “Horrible Thing” that causes destruction will be put there. And it will stay there until the time God has decided to destroy this one who destroys.