“Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.”
My Notes
What Does Daniel 9:10 Mean?
"Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets." Daniel's prayer of confession (chapter 9) includes this acknowledgment: we haven't obeyed God's voice. We haven't walked in His laws. And those laws were DELIVERED — set before us by God's servants the prophets. The disobedience isn't the result of unavailable instruction. It's the result of available instruction deliberately ignored.
The phrase "neither have we obeyed" (velo shama'nu — and we did not listen/obey) uses the Hebrew verb that means both 'hear' and 'obey': the failure to obey IS a failure to hear properly. True hearing produces obedience. The hearing that doesn't produce obeying wasn't real hearing. The sound waves reached the ears. The obedience didn't reach the hands.
The "which he set before us by his servants the prophets" (asher natan lephaneinu beyad avadav haneviim — which He gave before our face by the hand of His servants the prophets) identifies the delivery system: the laws came through PROPHETS. God didn't just inscribe laws on tablets. He SENT prophets — human messengers, His own servants, who delivered the instructions face-to-face. The instruction was personal, relational, and unavoidable.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What instruction has been set before your face that you haven't walked in?
- 2.What does Daniel confessing with 'we' — despite personal righteousness — teach about corporate identification?
- 3.How does obedience being 'walking' (not just knowing) define what real response to God's laws looks like?
- 4.What prophetic voice has delivered God's instruction to you face-to-face — and did you obey?
Devotional
We didn't obey. We didn't walk in the laws. And the laws were SET BEFORE US — delivered by God's own servants, the prophets, placed right in front of our face. The disobedience wasn't because we didn't have the instruction. It was because we didn't follow the instruction we had.
The 'neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God' is Daniel's corporate confession: Daniel — one of the most righteous people in Scripture — says WE. He includes himself in the nation's failure. The man who prayed three times daily and faced a lion's den confesses with the pronoun 'we.' The personal righteousness doesn't exempt him from the corporate confession. The faithful individual identifies with the unfaithful community.
The 'to walk in his laws' makes obedience AMBULATORY: the laws aren't just information to know. They're paths to WALK. The obedience is locomotion — it has direction, duration, and daily steps. The failure isn't just intellectual ('we didn't understand the laws'). It's behavioral ('we didn't walk in them'). The knowing was present. The walking was absent.
The 'set before us by his servants the prophets' eliminates the excuse of unavailability: God didn't just publish the laws in a distant library. He SET THEM BEFORE our faces — through PROPHETS, through SERVANTS, through human messengers who stood in front of us and delivered the instructions personally. The instruction was as accessible as a person standing before you, speaking directly to you. And we still didn't obey.
What instruction has been set before your face — delivered personally, unavoidably — that you haven't walked in?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God,.... Speaking in the law, and by his prophets; for what was spoken…
Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord - The commands of God as made known by the prophets, Dan 9:6.
We have here Daniel's prayer to God as his God, and the confession which he joined with that prayer: I prayed, and made…
obeyed(lit. hearkened to) the voice, &c. So Exo 15:26; Exo 19:5; and especially in Deut. (as Deu 4:30; Deu 9:23; Deu…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture