In this first year of King Darius, Daniel read something in the Bible that was very current and striking at the time. He read in Jeremiah 25 and Jeremiah 29 that the Lord had said to his people that after seventy years of exile the people would again return to the promised land. That was God’s promise to his people. One should especially think here of Jeremiah 25:11–14 and Jeremiah 29:10–11.
So Daniel read that the Lord promised to deliver his people from exile again after seventy years. Then, when Daniel starts counting the years, he comes to the conclusion that the end of the exile is very near. How does Daniel react to what he has read? Will Daniel now pack his suitcases and ask his compatriots to do the same? Does he say to the Lord that the Lord should now give that deliverance because the seventy years are almost over? Does he react as someone who will now assert his right? Does he approach the promise of God and of his covenant like a contract between people? No, he prays in all reverence.
2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.