a year (as a revolution of time) · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
Darius
לְדָרְיָ֛וֶשׁle.da.re.Ya.vesh
H1867
Darejavesh · preposition + proper noun, a man's name
son
בֶּןben-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Ahasuerus
אֲחַשְׁוֵר֖וֹשׁ'a.chash.ve.Ro.osh
H325
Achashverosh (i.e. Ahasuerus or Artaxerxes · proper noun, a man's name
seed
מִזֶּ֣רַעmi.Ze.ra'
H2233
seed · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
Medes
מָדָ֑יma.Dai
H4074
Madai · proper noun, a place name
king
הָמְלַ֔ךְha.me.Lakh
H4427
to reign · verb, hophal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
realm
מַלְכ֥וּתmal.Khut
H4438
a rule · noun, common feminine singular construct
Chaldeans
כַּשְׂדִּֽיםkas.Dim
H3778
a Kasdite · proper noun, a place name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Daniel 11:1 Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood to confirm and to strengthen him.
Daniel 1:21 And Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus.
Daniel 5:31-6:1 And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.
Daniel 6:28 So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Daniel 9:1-3
We left Daniel, in the close of the foregoing chapter, employed in the king's business; but here we have him employed in better business than any king had for him, speaking to God and hearing from him, not for himself only, but for the church, whose mouth he was to God, and for whose use the oracles of God were committed to him, relating to the days of the Messiah. Observe, 1. When it was that Daniel had this communion with God (Dan 9:1), in the first year of Darius the Mede, who was newly made king of the Chaldeans, Babylon being conquered by him and his nephew, or grandson, Cyrus. In this year the seventy years of the Jews' captivity ended, but the decree for their release was not yet issu…
In the first year on Darius - This is the same Darius the Mede, spoken of before, who succeeded Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans. See Dan 5:31.
John Gill on Daniel 9:1
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes,.... This is the same with Darius the Median, that took the kingdom after the death of Belshazzar; so called, to distinguish him from Darius the Persian; and yet Porphyry has the gall to assert that this was Darius the Persian, under whom the temple was built, that Daniel might appear to live later than he did: Ahasuerus, whose son he was, is not he that was the husband of Esther, and was many years later than this; but the same with Astyages king of the Medes, and who is called Ahasuerus, in the Apocrypha:
"But before he died he heard of the destruction of Nineve, which was taken by Nabuchodonosor and Assuerus: and…
Daniel 9:1-3
1. In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;
1. Anno uno, id est, primo, Darii filii Assueri e semine Medorum, qui rex fuit constitutus, [78] in regno Chaldaico.
2. In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
2. In anno primo, inquam, [79] regni illius, ego Daniel intellexi in libris numerum annorum, de quibus fuerat sermo Jehovae, ad ad Jeremiam prophetam, [80] ad implendum desolationem Jerusalem annos septuaginta.
3.…
The Church Fathers
We must distinguish between the reign of Darius son of Ahasuerus and that of Darius the Persian. In this way, the things that are now being read will harmonize with the things that were spoken earlier. He did not simply introduce Darius as Darius the Mede but rather as one "from the race of the Medes." Now, as it is clear, he was not a Mede on both sides of his family, that is, on his father's and mother's side. At the same time he ruled over the kingdom of the Chaldeans, when Belshazzar was killed in the middle of the night by a divine intervention after his godless act. According to my research, this Darius seems to have reigned for a very brief time.
Verse 1. "In the first year of the Darius who was the son of Ahasuerus of the race of the Medes and who reigned over the kingdom of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign..." This is the Darius who in cooperation with Cyrus conquered the Chaldeans and Babylonians. We are not to think of that other Darius in the second year of whose reign the Temple was built (as Porphyry supposes in making out a late date for Daniel); nor are we to think of the Darius who was vanquished by Alexander, the king of the Macedonians. He therefore adds the name of his father and also refers to his victory, inasmuch as he was the first of the race of the Medes to overthrow the kingdom of the Chaldeans. He does this to avoid any mistake in the reading which might arise from the similarity of the name.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Ahasuerus — There are three kings designated by this name in Scripture. (1.) The father of Darius the Mede, mentioned in Dan. 9:1. This was probably the Cyaxares I. known by this name in profane history, the…
Captivity — (1.) Of Israel. The kingdom of the ten tribes was successively invaded by several Assyrian kings. Pul (q.v.) imposed a tribute on Menahem of a thousand talents of silver (2 Kings 15:19, 20; 1 Chr.…
Daniel — God is my judge, or judge of God. (1.) David’s second son, “born unto him in Hebron, of Abigail the Carmelitess” (1 Chr. 3:1). He is called also Chileab (2 Sam. 3:3). (2.) One of the four great…
Darius — The holder or supporter, the name of several Persian kings. (1.) Darius the Mede (Dan. 11:1), “the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes” (9:1). On the death of Belshazzar the Chaldean he…
Median, The — Darius, “the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes,” (Daniel 9:1) or “the Mede,” ch. (Daniel 11:1) is thus denoted in (Daniel 5:31)
Ahasuerus · 3. Father of Darius — 3. Father of Darius
Darius · 1. The Me — 1. The Me
Medes · Supremacy of, in the Chal — Supremacy of, in the Chal
Persia · Darius — Darius
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Dan 9:1 and Dan 9:2 mention the occasion on which the penitential prayer (vv. 3-19) was offered, and the divine revelation following thereupon regarding the time and the course of the oppression of the people of God by the world-power till the completion of God's plan of salvation.
Regarding Darius, the son of Ahasverosch, of the race of the Medes, see under Dan 6:1. In the word המלך the Hophal is to be noticed: rex constitutus, factus est. It shows that Darius did not become king over the Chaldean kingdom by virtue of a hereditary right to it, nor that he gained the kingdom by means of conquest, but that he received it (קבּל, Dan 6:1) from the conqueror of Babylon, Cyrus, the general of the…
Daniel prayed for his people, realizing that Jerusalem’s seventy years of desolation were due to end. His prayer is comparable to prayers of Solomon (1 Kgs 8:14-61), Ezra (Ezra 9), and Nehemiah (Neh 9). God answered Daniel’s prayer very quickly (see study note on Dan 9:19; see also 9:20-27).
9:1 Darius the Mede: See study note on 5:31. • Ahasuerus is the Hebrew rendering of a Persian word taken into Greek as “Xerxes.” The father of Darius the Mede must have been a different Xerxes from the later Xerxes I, who reigned from 486 to 465 BC (see Esth 1:1); the time of this vision was 539 BC. It has been argued that the name Xerxes/Ahasuerus is an ancient throne name for Persian kings.
Rashi on Daniel 9:1
In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus This is not the Ahasuerus of the days of Haman, for he was the king of Persia, whereas this one was Darius the Mede who was crowned over the kingdom of the Chaldeans when Belshazzar was slain, as is written above (6:1): “And Darius the Mede took (sic) the kingdom.”
