Daniel 9
Both Isaiah and Jeremiah had prophesied of a brighter day to dawn for the Jews when the rule of Babylonia should be ended, and Jeremiah in chapters 25:11 and 29:10 had foretold the limit of the captivity at Babylon as seventy years. Sixty-eight of those years were past when Daniel understood by the books (of these prophets) that the time of deliverance was fast approaching.
Feeling deeply the inward state of the people which had caused the captivity (a state that it is very plain had not been truly judged and confessed to God by very many), Daniel made intercession for them, pouring out his heart in confession of their sins and the hardness of their hearts. Though little more than a child when carried off to Babylon, and living a life of holy separation and marked godless there, he identified himself fully with the people he loved, in his prayer: “We have sinned, and have committed iniquity.”
While he was engaged in prayer, Gabriel was sent to enlighten Daniel regarding the restoration of; Jerusalem and of Israel for which he prayed. Seventy weeks of years, it is plain were to pass to complete the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make expiation for iniquity, to bring in the righteousness of the ages, to seal the vision and prophet, and to anoint the holy of holies (verse 24. The weeks are in verses 25-27 divided into periods of 7, 62 and 1, the last being separated from the 62 by the cutting off of the Messiah.
The 70 weeks began “from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem”, an event recorded in Nehemiah 2:1-91And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. 2Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid, 3And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? 4Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favor in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it. 6And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time. 7Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah; 8And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me. 9Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. (Nehemiah 2:1‑9), Cyrus in B. C. 536 opened the way for the captives’ return (Ezra 1), and Artaxerxes in B. C. 468 authorized, the restoration of the temple (Ezra 7), but it was not until B. C. 455, eighty years after the close of the seventy years foretold by Jeremiah, that the seventy weeks of our chapter began.
The “seven weeks” or forty-nine years are evidently the period during which the “street and the wall” were built, and Jerusalem became a city again,—of which time the book of Nehemiah tells.
In verse 26, a marginal note shows a better reading, than “but not for Himself”; it is “and shall have nothing.” The reference is to the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, Israel’s Messiah. Here the recording of prophetic time is suspended; His people rejected their Messiah, and on that account are wholly set aside as the people of God. Presently, for the last week has not begun, God will take them up again. Verse 20 points no further than the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple Herod built, which occurred in A. D. 70, and to a period of undefined length: “and the end thereof shall be with an overflow, and unto the end, war—the desolation determined” (N. T.)
Verse 27 gives the last week. The (Roman) “prince that shall come’’ will confirm a covenant with “many’’ (or, the many, the majority of the Jewish people) for seven years, and in the middle of the period the sacrifices will be stopped. “And because of the protection of abominations there shall be a desolator, even until, etc.,” (N. T.)
The appearing of the Lord in glory at Jerusalem will mark the end of the seventieth week, but this is not spoken of here.
ML 07/26/1936