Daniel 9:17

Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. The Septuagint differs here, "Now give ear, O Lord, to the prayer of thy servant, and to my supplications; for thy servant's sake lift up thy countenance upon thy holy mountain which is desolate, O Lord." The omission of the vav in taḥenoonayiv would occasion the LXX . rendering, "my supplications." They had read אדני before, עבדךָ . Certainly the Septuagint rendering gives better sense than the violent change to the third person from the second. Keil would escape the difficulty by translating, "because thou art the Lord"—a translation that is independent of Hebrew grammar. The conjunction would not naturally be lema ‛an ( לְמַעַן ), but possibly ‛eqeb asher ( עֶקֶב אֲשֶׁר ) . Further, the covenant name would certainly have been used in such a connection, and it would necessarily have been followed by "thou." As it stands, it really asserts that the desolations are on account of the Lord—an assertion which would not be germane to the tenor of the prayer. The reading of the LXX . is thus better here. Theodotion is closer to the Massoretic text, but instead of "O our God," reads, "O Lord our God," and avoids the change of person in the last clause by reading אדני as a vocative, and inserting σου . The Peshitta has, "our supplication," and avoids the awkward change of person by reading, "for thy Name's sake." Jerome gives a fairly accurate rendering of the Massoretic. only in the last clause he omits "Lord" and renders temet ipsum. The influence of the Psalter is to be seen in this verse. The first clause is a slightly altered and condensed version of Psalms 143:1 . The verb that ought to open the second member is omitted. The word taḥooneem is not a very common one. Cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary has a close resemblance to Psalms 80:3 , Psalms 80:7 , Psalms 80:19 . As they.had no temple sacrifices in Babylon, the captive Jews would have only the psalms of the sanctuary to keep the sense of worship alive in their hearts.