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Daniel 9:7 · World English Bible

Daniel 9:7 Meaning Lord

Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us confusion of face, as it is today; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, who are near, and who are far off, through all the countries where you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you.

What does Daniel 9:7 mean?

Dhamma: The standard that holds regardless Dhamma is the norm that stands whether or not anyone keeps it. Righteousness sits wholly on one side and confusion of face on the other, and Daniel presses no claim to shift anything across.

From the Buddhism reading below.

Daniel 9:7 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

BUDDHISM

Buddhism

Dhamma: The standard that holds regardless Dhamma is the norm that stands whether or not anyone keeps it. Righteousness sits wholly on one side and confusion of face on the other, and Daniel presses no claim to shift anything across. A plumb line stays straight while the wall leans, and the leaning is news about the wall.

Kamma: Deed and its fruit Kamma is action bearing its own result. Being driven out through all the countries looks like a sentence handed down from above, and it is also the shape the trespass took once it had room to grow. Seed and harvest belong to the same field, and Judah is standing in the crop it sowed.

Hiri: Shame at one's own wrongdoing Hiri is the inward burn at what one has done. Confusion of face is the body reporting the matter before any argument does: the flush, the dropped eyes, the difficulty of looking straight at someone you have wronged. Held rightly it works as a guard rather than a wound, the thing that keeps the deed from happening twice.

Saṃvega: The shock that moves you Saṃvega is the jolt that turns a person toward practice. "As it is today" comes from a man who has looked hard at the ruined city and the counted years and then gone to fasting and ashes instead of looking away. Grief can settle into paralysis; this kind stays on its feet and walks as far as prayer.

Accaya: A fault called by its own name Accaya is the offense a person owns outright. "Their trespass that they have trespassed" rounds nothing down and hands nothing off to Babylon or to hard times. Growth in the noble discipline begins right here: see the offense as an offense, say so plainly, and hold the line afterward.

Mettā: Goodwill with no boundary Mettā is warmth sent out with no circle drawn around it. Those near and those far off, in every country they were scattered to, come into one prayer, and the old formula for goodwill uses that same reach: beings dwelling far or near, none dropped from the list. Daniel stands among the guilty and says "us" where he could easily have said "them."

Buddhism lens

Live Daniel 9:7 today

  1. Take one thing you got wrong this month and say it to yourself in plain words, with no "but" and no mention of what anyone else did. Just the sentence, named for what it is.
  2. Apologize to one person without the explanation attached. "I did that and I'm sorry" lands; "I did that because I was slammed and you also" does not.
  3. When a group email or a family dinner starts sorting out who is to blame, say your part out loud first instead of waiting to be named. Say "us" where you could easily have said "them."

Is there something you have been rounding down in your own telling of it?

The same truth in other traditions

Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius

If someone can show me that I am wrong, I change gladly, because what hurts me is the error, not the correction.

Judaism · Day of Atonement

The confession is said in the plural, we have done wrong, by everyone in the room together. No one gets to stand off to the side and say it was them.

Confucianism · Analects

The one worth following, having faults, does not shrink from changing them. The fault named plainly is already half undone.

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