What does Daniel 9:16 mean?
Daniel pleads with the Lord, appealing to His righteousness, to restore the capital city of the Jewish people as it was before their defeat and exile. This would be according to God's own promise to one day restore His scattered people (Jeremiah 29:10–14). Daniel admits that it was Israel's own sin that led to their suffering (2 Kings 17:1–8; 2 Chronicles 36:5–7; Jeremiah 25:7–11). God warned, and the nation ignored Him (Deuteronomy 28:15–24, 48–50; 29:25).They were so utterly defeated and scattered that they became a "byword" or "a reproach" or "an object of scorn." Israel was disapproved of and considered shameful. The ESV uses "byword:" an example others use to suggest some specific idea. The Greek story of Oedipus made his name a "byword" for unintended consequences and terrible fate. A modern example might be "Chernobyl," often used as a shorthand reference to catastrophe because of the nuclear accident which happened there. Similar uses have been applied to terms such as "Titanic," used for disaster. Likewise, the phrase "Faustian bargain" has come to imply an ill-considered contract with evil. The most common biblical example would be "Sodom:" used to imply deep depravity and evil (Ezekiel 16:56; Matthew 10:15) or destruction (Zephaniah 2:9).
This is exactly what God said would happen (Deuteronomy 28:36). He predicted Israel would be "a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the LORD will lead you away" (Deuteronomy 28:37). The cultures in Daniel's era used references to Israel and the Jewish people to imply total defeat and utter subjugation.