O LORD, we are covered with shame—our kings, our leaders, and our fathers—because we have sinned against You.
In this verse Daniel completes his own confession. We have stated the beginning of his prayer to be this: He threw himself before God as a criminal, with the whole people, and prayed earnestly for pardon. It was his duty to begin in this way: he had previously named the whole people; he now speaks of kings, princes, and fathers, and thus comprehends the common people.
We have here Daniel's prayer to God as his God, and the confession which he joined with that prayer: I prayed, and made my confession. Note, In every prayer we must make confession, not only of the sins we have been guilty of (which we commonly call confession), but of our faith in God and dependence upon him, our sorrow for sin and our resolutions against it.
Commenting on Daniel 9:4-19
O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face,.... Which is repeated, to show how much the mind of the prophet was affected with it, and to fix a sense of it in the minds of others; as well as to suggest that he wanted words fully to express that shame that everyone ought to take to themselves; and also in order to introduce what follows...