Daniel: A Prayer and a Prophecy

Daniel 9:20-27 NASB
While I was still speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God, 21 while I was still speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously, came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering. 22 And he instructed me and talked with me and said, “Daniel, I have come now to give you insight with understanding. 23 At the beginning of your pleas the command was issued, and I have come to tell you, because you are highly esteemed; so pay attention to the message and gain understanding of the vision. 24 “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the wrongdoing, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place. 25 So you are to know and understand that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with streets and moat, even in times of distress. 26 Then after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. 27 And he will confirm a covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come the one who makes desolate, until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, gushes forth on the one who makes desolate.”

Zephaniah 2:4 NASB
For Gaza will be abandoned, and Ashkelon will become a desolation; the inhabitants of Ashdod will be driven out at noon, and Ekron will be uprooted.

Acts 8:26-28 NASB
But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Get ready and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) 27 So he got ready and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of  Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading Isaiah the prophet.

Psalm 83:1-5a (NASB)
God, do not remain quiet; do not be silent and, God, do not be still. 2 For behold, Your enemies make an uproar, and those who hate You have exalted themselves. 3 They make shrewd plans against Your people, and conspire together against Your treasured ones. 4 They have said, “Come, and let’s wipe them out as a nation, so that the name of Israel will no longer be remembered.” 5 For they have conspired together with one mind; They make a covenant against You.

Psalm 83:6-8 NASB
The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites; 7 Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; 8 Assyria also has joined them; They have become a help to the children of Lot.

Daniel 9:2-3 NASB
in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. 3 So I gave my attention to the Lord God, to seek Him by prayer and pleading, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

Daniel 1:8 ESV
But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank.