This chapter rests on the Mosaic deliverance, and the intercession of Solomon which does not go beyond it, and hence refers to the dealings with Israel, in captivity, for their sins, and looking towards Jerusalem. Thus Daniel, in his prayer (chapter 6:10) turns towards Jerusalem. And hence it is still the 'holy mountain' of his God, though Israel be captive, His sanctuary that is desolate, verses 16, 17, 19 and 20, and so called (verse 24) by the Angel Gabriel. They are called Daniel's people, and his holy city. Then seventy weeks are determined on them-sixty-nine as is known, to Christ who has nothing, for it is Jerusalem and earth which is in question, and then the people of the prince to come destroy the city and the sanctuary de novo. But this prince then comes in view, and, it would seem, in translating simply, his end that is with a flood. He establishes or enters into covenant for a week, makes the sacrifice and oblation cease, the idols or abominations of him who desolateth are set up, whether you translate ka-naph (wing) 'protection' or 'battlement,' and al (upon) 'because of' or 'upon,' and until all be fulfilled that is decreed, ruin and misery are poured forth upon the desolate.
These then are the relations of God with Israel and Jerusalem, when she is not owned, but still called, in the faith and desire of the saint and the answer of God, ' the holy city,' yet desolate, yet her children also many.
It seems to me clear enough that this chapter refers more particularly to chapter 7, or Western power, and chapters 10, 11 and 12 to chapter 8, or North Eastern. Both, note, are in the favorable time of the Persian empire, either Darius the Mede, or Cyrus.
It seems to me that chapter 11:32-35 can in no way, as some have supposed, apply to the times of Antichrist. Verse 31 Then presents a difficulty, for it would seem to be the success of the forces acting on the part of the king of the North; and so I suppose it must be, primarily. Verse 36 begins properly the willful king, as he is called. I think I have noticed that he is only introduced here by the bye. But then from that verse, we are clearly in the time of the end, and then we have the time, times and half a time, and the abomination of desolation, and the daily taken away, the date of 1,260 days, and so 1,335 days. He will have accomplished scattering the power of the holy people, and that will be the end. We have the same date for the delivery of the times and laws into the hand of the blasphemous horn of the beast of the seventh chapter. I suppose in chapter 9: 27, we have the same in the form of dividing of the week. In Isa. 28 we have the scornful men at Jerusalem, on the other hand, making a covenant with death and hell that the scourge may not reach them. Hence, though a sure and tried foundation, and true, blessed be the God of all grace, is laid in Zion, yet when the scourge passes through they will be trodden down by it (there will be a flood-the same word, Isa. 28:17, 1817Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. 18And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. (Isaiah 28:17‑18), as Dan. 9:2727And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:27), as is indeed the 'treading down,' Isa. 28:1818And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. (Isaiah 28:18), compare verses 2 and 3, and Dan. 8:1010And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. (Daniel 8:10)) and this, Isa. 28:2222Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth. (Isaiah 28:22), is because ka-lah v'ne-che-ratzah (the completion, and that which has been decreed) is to be executed on all the Land. Compare the language in the Lord's judgment at the end of the chapter 30. All these chapters of Isaiah give the fullest illustration of the two parties brought forward in Daniel. Tophet is for "the king," as well as for the Assyrian. I question whether chapter 33 may not introduce Gog, but this is a further question, and compare Mic. 5 Chapter 34 would also seem to say it was the Assyrian, comparing Psa. 83 and the history of Sennacherib, with chapter 33: 8.
Note, the horn of Dan. 8 is not strong by his own power, so that though geographically, perhaps, the Assyrian, the latter may remain behind in the judgment of God, and come up after all, finally, as Gog. Psa. 82 and 83 give the Lord rising up to judge those who were called elohim once, but Adam, and the last confederacy in which judgment sets up the name of Jehovah Elion; compare Isa. 8:99Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. (Isaiah 8:9).
Further, we cannot but conclude, I think, from Isaiah to and 28 that the consumption decreed falls on Israel, whatever it may involve as to others. If this be so, it would go far to show that, Dan. 9:2727And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:27), the consumption decreed was on the same, and sho-mem would be taken in its usual sense of 'desolate.' The consumption decreed—there will be a desolator till the decreed judgment be fully executed on the desolate, the oikos eremos (house desolate) of Matt. 23 If this be so, the question becomes important, if the m'sho-mem (‘desolation' or 'desolator,' chaps. 9:27 and 11:31) and sho-mem (desolate, chaps. 9:27 and 12:11) be not intentionally different in chapters II and 12. The abomination of the desolator of chapter 11 being, though generally typical, different from the abomination of the desolate or desolation of chapter 12—in the former, the violence of the desolator being noticed, whereas in the abomination of chapter 12 The desolate herself is engaged. All through Isaiah, idolatry is marked as stamping the iniquity of the Jews of the latter day. The Lord's testimony as to the unclean spirit, I doubt not, confirms it. Sho-mem, in Jeremiah, is several times used for Jerusalem desolate. M'sho-mem is used in Ezra, for his state, it is true, but I should judge from the passage, in a reflective sense, like etaraxen heauton (He troubled Himself) John 11:3333When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, (John 11:33), margin. In this case the abomination of desolation, of which the Lord speaks, would be that of chapter 12.
It appears to me that this expression, kalah v'ne-che-ratzah refers always to the final judgments. But it would appear here that it was what fell on the apostate body desolator, as well as the Jewish part, for certainly here the marginal reading, as far as I can see, must be right-Sho-mem (desolate)-the other places where this is used are Isa. 28:2222Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth. (Isaiah 28:22), and 10: 23. The use of the word may be seen, 2 Sam. 13:2020And Absalom her brother said unto her, Hath Amnon thy brother been with thee? but hold now thy peace, my sister: he is thy brother; regard not this thing. So Tamar remained desolate in her brother Absalom's house. (2 Samuel 13:20). As far as I judge, it applies to all, indiscriminately, as done, in the righteousness of His abstract character, as against all inconsistent with that, in the exercise of its power. The difficulty of Dan. 9:2727And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:27), seems to me to flow from k'naph (wing). My ignorance of the force of this word bars me from any confidence in interpretation, or I should think the prophetic order ran thus: confirm a covenant with many, one week. In the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and offering (min-khah) to cease, and upon the k'naph (wing) of the abominations of him that desolateth, and even until the consumption, and short work (of the Lord) shall be poured on the desolator, see also Dan. 11:3636And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. (Daniel 11:36), where we find the same principles developed in their actual effects, bringing the things together, as indeed in Isa. 19:2525Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance. (Isaiah 19:25); but note this seems to cloud the evidence of the difference of the Assyrian and the antichristian king. This however would need inquiry. This last supposed difficulty is merely a mistake. All this happens in Jerusalem—the Assyrian never enters there.
It is well to keep in mind the way in which Daniel is given a sort of mediatorial character, like Moses, the Lord saying, 'Thy people,' as in verse 24, also chapters 10:14, 11:14, and 12: 1. It is in verses 15, 16 of this chapter, that, as Moses, Daniel calls them, to the Lord, 'Thy people.'This gives a distinct character to chapters 7 and 8, and to chapters 9-12, which also should be studied.
15, 16. Daniel's faith outreaches their sin, and rests on God's faithfulness, so did that of Moses—only here he goes back to Moses and Egypt; Moses also goes back to the fathers.
23. Note Daniel stands in a very peculiar place, something analogous to Moses. God says to him "thy people," just as He said to Moses as mediator. Only Daniel stands as representative, and securer of the hopes of the people, in the midst of Israel, and more especially as the witness of God's mind when the Jews were in captivity—Moses, as a deliverer in power. So remark that God gives what is needed to His people at all times. He may not, when sorrow, and captivity, and Babylonish trial, is their place according to His government, give the delivering power which would take them out of it, but He gives fully and perfectly what is wanted for them in it, and that is what they need. A Moses, as such, would have thrown all into confusion in Daniel. A Daniel, in the prosperity of Israel, would have had no place. So he does not even return when the Remnant of the Captivity went back.
Note, in this place, faithfulness in not defiling himself with the Gentiles, among whom he dwelt, was the foundation of all. Then God gives him wisdom, and he is made the depository of the mind of God for Israel, in that state of things. So he confesses and intercedes like Moses, and gets the answer of a better blessing—answering to the Jews' state in grace—than Moses ever got. Babylon to the first year of Cyrus, is his moral position as first placed as a witness there, for he continued longer. Chapter 6 is peculiar. Darius is favorable to the Remnant under God, and yet he sets up to have no petition addressed to any but himself, exclusively of every God. Daniel prospered after Babylon. Chapter 12 is like Rev. 14, God's dealings in the time of the great subject of the previous part of the prophecy.
I give here the end of this chapter, "Seventy weeks are appointed to (or for) thy people, and for thy holy city, to stop the transgression, to close sins, and pardon iniquity, and to bring in the righteousness of ages, and to close up vision and prophet, and to anoint the Holy of Holies. And know, and consider [that] from the going forth of the word to restore [return] and to [re-]build, or build again, Jerusalem, to Messiah Prince, seven weeks, and sixty and two weeks, shall return and be rebuilt the street and the fosse, and in trouble of times. And after sixty and two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, and shall have nothing: and the city and the sanctuary shall the people of a prince to come destroy: and its [or his] end with a flood (an inundation), and to the end (of the) war decreed desolations. And he shall confirm covenant with the many one week: and the dividing of the week he shall cause to cease sacrifice and offering, and because of (or upon) the wing (protection) of abominations (there shall be) a desolator, and until the completion, and that which is decreed shall be poured on the desolator."
24. First, note that the seventy weeks are determined upon "thy people"; compare verse 7 (there is never in Messiah's interference, anything short of "All Israel," though Judah and Jerusalem may be the scene of it) but this, we may learn, reaches therefore to the end, as Matt. 24, "The end is not by and bye." But the coming of the Messiah is the point of intervention. The coming of Messiah and the end therefore coalesce—the Gentile dispensation being passed over as not concerned in "thy people." This is habitually the case in Old Testament prophecy, being the mystery hidden. We are therefore to speak of all Jewish transactions as consequent on each other, omitting all from one coming to the other, save only the tribulation, of the facts of Jerusalem's destruction, which I believe are taken up in Scripture in the latter day, and then the prophecy proceeds. This opens this prophecy, I think, much.
"Seventy weeks are determined on thy people, and upon thy holy city." L'ha-them (in order to complete) is the keri form, from ta-mam (to complete)—so to 'complete' or 'finish.'
Then from the going forth of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, which I take of the ordinary decree, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It is mere nonsense to talk of seventy, sevens being neither Hebrew nor sense. We have then two persons, 'Messiah the Prince,' and (the people of) 'the prince that shall come' (to wit, Antichrist, the head of the Roman power); but it is not in the first instance ‘the prince,' but ‘the people of the prince'—they destroy the city and the sanctuary. This was true, but its reality was cut off in Christ. Well! after the sixty-two weeks, i.e., including the previous seven, sixty-nine, to wit, in the last week, Messiah shall be cut off. Afterward (time is no longer reckoned) the people of the prince to come, the people of Antichrist, shall destroy the city and sanctuary. Then, I believe, comes the mystery of the two princes—Jesus Messiah, the Prince (not owned indeed) did confirm the covenant; compare Rom. 15:88Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: (Romans 15:8). But this was, in fact, or effect rather, only with the Remnant. He came in ills Father's name, and the and abhorred Him. If another should come, the prince that should come, in his own name (magnifying himself above all) him they would receive. Antichrist then became to the people of the Jews, unbelieving, who would have no king but Caesar, what Jesus was indeed to the remnant people of God. He confirms covenant with the many, one week. I believe it is said, 'covenant,' and not ha-b'rith (‘the' covenant), that it may apply to both. I suspect also the word 'many' is introduced, to leave it open, as compare Isa. 53:1212Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:12). But here it more particularly applies to Antichrist, with the multitude of the Jews. But as Jesus, for His people, caused sacrifice and oblation to cease in the midst of the week, so I believe Antichrist, having beguiled the multitude for as long as Jesus was rejected, will, in willful injury, make all their forms cease—the sacrifice of the restored temple and city—and then he will persecute the Jews bitterly, and shed their blood like water.
Surely there will be also a rebuilding and restoring in the latter day. The expression v'en lo (and not to Him, i.e., He shall have nothing) is most plain for Messiah's laboring in vain. His end—the prince's as well as the people's—shall be with a flood. The accents in Hebrew then give the end of the war, otherwise one might have been tempted to have read ' until the end,' but this flood is indeed a scene of conflict—Jerusalem is encompassed with armies, and, till the end of this, there is a decree of desolations—upon making the offering and the sacrifice to cease. The sacrifice is a matter of continual circumstance, not including burnt offerings. The abominations of the desolator are (set) upon the edge or pinnacle, but note the accents, in Hebrew, read 'upon the wing,' or edge, 'of abominations is the desolator,' quod nota. Indeed it would be in the common translation "abominable things" (shikkuuim), so that the sense must be quite different, I suppose. The common English version is surely the right one, al (upon) being used as "for," "because of," but I should rather take k'naph (wing), etc., as the false protection of Antichrist, the protection of abominations, which indeed was a desolator. Because of that, there was a desolator, i.e., they were given up to him. I apprehend, however, that it is not the protection of Antichrist, but given up to Antichrist because of the other; compare Isa. 65 and 66.
It would appear that the unbelieving Jews would be given up to utter abominations, or it is the recapitulation of all their evil, for the Lord is retrospective in judgment nationally (compare Acts 7, Stephen) and this certainly is included, but our Lord's words seem to imply a return of that evil spirit, and seven worse ones, and ' the last state worse than the first.' And there will be a m'shomem (desolation or desolator) even until the consumption decreed (the technical term for God's bringing things to a conclusion) shall be poured upon the desolator. There will be no desolator, I suppose, after this. The rest of Solomon may not be come, but there will be an end of desolations. The Lord will be the protection (k'naph, wing) of His people in Jerusalem, and take them up for His glory, making Judah His ' goodly horse,' etc. On the whole the difficulty of this passage seems cleared up, though more may be to learn.
"Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city." This is the subject—the thing to be accomplished, to complete or make an end of transgression—to seal up or finish sin—to make expiation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up, or finish the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. The ' making expiation,' if we trust the points it is in Pihel, and 'anointing the Most Holy,' seem to affix the application to the first coming of the Lord, which did accomplish, in His Person, prophecy, however wide a scene might then open before Him. Besides, if the suffering of the Jews, by which they received at the Lord's hand double of all their sins, be taken as the sense of kapher (to make reconciliation), though I think it forced, then the whole period of tzava (host), I apprehend should be included, and not the seventy weeks in any shape. On the whole then, though it looks out to the future as we shall see, and that especially, the primary object of this prophecy is the Lord's first coming, though that embraces, in its results, the second. But it is also hard to suppose that, if it meant to define the time of the second blessing, there should be no sort of reference to it, if it spoke of the seven weeks as the special period of the evil upon Jerusalem in the latter day, or in which the city should be built, nothing should be spoken of the great consummation, when this, in some shape, is the whole matter of the prophecy, expiation, sealing up prophecy, bringing in righteousness, and anointing the Most Holy—but not a word of anything relating to this, if taken as relation to the latter day.
Then comes the period. The last thing mentioned was 'anointing the Most Holy,' or as the original carries it, that we may be aware of the association to M'sho-ah (anoint) (the ‘o' being the infinitive) the Most Holy. 'Therefore from the going forth of the decree to Messiah the Prince.' This seems at once to identify and mark the association of the period—anointing, especially, was then. But there were, as it were, two subjects given—the city and the end of the period making an end of transgression, etc. The period is divided therefore with this reference, 'and know and understand, from the going forth of the word or decree to restore,' rebuild 'Jerusalem' (I think this is rather the sense, than the return from the captivity, but it includes the return of the people then) 'to Messiah the Prince, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. The street shall be built again' (return and be rebuilt—it is the same word as 'restore' before) ‘and the trench in trouble,' or strait, ‘of times.' There, I apprehend, is the period of the seven weeks, and the city being built. ‘After sixty-two weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, and has,' or ‘shall have,’ 'nothing'—for He had nothing. ‘Thou, 0 Israel, my servant, in whom,' etc. ‘Then I said, I have labored in vain, and spent my strength for naught,' and this relates only to Israel as a nation, the city and people, etc. On the Cross, alone, in that day, from a Gentile, in derision, he received the name of the King of the Jews.' There was nothing for Him, ‘not to Him' (en lo).
Then come the consequences. 'The people of a prince to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.' (This is the general acting of the Roman power all through) and his ' or 'the end thereof in a flood,' i.e., the end of this state of things shall be in a complete breaking up of judgment or destruction, or overwhelming of peoples—a flood, a well-known, and very intelligible expression in Scripture—'and until the end, a war of decreed desolations,' or ‘till the end of the war' (at any rate, this end previously spoken of) ‘decreed desolations.' All this is ‘no time,' for after these things again is true what ought to have been true before, so to speak, as was, in Jesus but not in them, but is now in effect, namely finishing transgression, etc. Messiah the Prince appearing, there were to be sixty-two weeks to this. Now this is the end of the final period of all. The things therefore which coalesce, are Messiah and Messiah, and that is all. The intermediate time is merely generally ad-ketz (until the end).
Remember there are two subjects—the city, and the sanctuary—Daniel's city and sanctuary, and that which we may symbolize by anointing the Most Holy.' Now the Anointed, the Messiah, was cut off after the sixty-two weeks, then the city and sanctuary then given up to the people of the prince that should come, and the end of him, or of this desolation there were decreed desolations. Then is the fate of the city and sanctuary. He that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. This same final end, when Messiah shall be revealed, putting an end to the corruption, and destruction of them that destroy the earth.
Then comes Messiah's part. ‘He shall confirm covenant with many' or ‘fully,’ ‘one week, and in the dividing of the week he shall make the sacrifice and offering cease. And the abominations of the desolator shall be set up on the high place.'
And this will be so, i.e., the prevalence of this hostile power until the ka-lah v'ne-che-ratzah (completion, and that which has been decreed) be poured upon the desolator—the consummation determined. I am certainly of opinion that the person to confirm (hig-bir) is Messiah, Jesus in His first advent. Verse 26 finishes one subject; prima facie, confirm (hig-bir) would seem to refer to yash-khith (shall destroy) but I think the subject of the prophecy is Messiah, verse 27 being distinct and definite. I have no objection from system to refer it to Antichrist. I have no doubt he will be confederate with the ungodly Jews, as may be seen in notes elsewhere, and that he will set up abomination that maketh desolate. Whether he will do this, and make the sacrifices cease in the midst of a week, might be well settled by this passage, if it meant so, but I do not see this. It does not seem to me to be its subject.
I use k'naph (wing) generally, because I think purposely so used, but my mind at once turns to epi to pterugion you hierouon the pinnacle of the Temple, literally 'the little wing of the Temple'—which there seems a known definite expression, and so others, I believe, as Gesenius, compare Matt. 4:55Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, (Matthew 4:5). However, I am not quite satisfied as to the force of k'naph.
26. Clearly not "but not for Himself," but "And shall have nothing," i.e., not take the kingdom and promises.
I apprehend Messiah should have been received at once, on His presenting Himself. We must remember all the witness there was in the hill-country of Judea, the Simeons, and the Annas, and those 'who waited for redemption in Israel.' So, when He presented Himself as in Nazareth, Samaria, and so as to awaken the inquiry everywhere, when He had, as it is said, told them plainly, they ought to have received Him. If they did not, they would die in their sins. Hence, I apprehend, the moment He came out publicly, the sixty-two weeks were over. The rest of His life was patience, not going on to the time He ought to be received. Hence ' after the sixty and two weeks, Messiah shall be cut off.' There was no time noticed after, because the sixty-two weeks to Messiah the Prince were fulfilled. Hence the time does not count after, to the last week. After the sixty-two weeks, He was cut off, the time of His patience was only grace, and calling out the poor of the flock to know that it was the word of the Lord.
26, 27. 'And after sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, and shall have nothing, and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and his (its?) end with a flood, and until the end of the war, decreed ' (decree of) ' desolations, and he shall establish' (confirm or enter into) 'covenant with the many, one week, and in the dividing of the week, he shall cause to cease sacrifice and offering, and because of the protection of the idols' (on the pinnacle, the idols of the desolator) 'a desolator, and until the complete destruction and the decree' (all that is decreed that is—ruin or wrath) (it) 'shall be poured out on the desolate.'
27. We have here one who confirms covenant with the many one week, and in the midst of the week he causes sacrifice and offering to cease. Specifically, we have here the abomination, not, in general, abominations, idols. I know not if authorities deem it admissible, but 'because of the protection of abominations' seems more natural—k’naph (protection) is 'wing,' I apprehend, in the sense of summit, without a characterizing substantive of which it is the summit. 'There is one who desolates.' It is the history of Jerusalem here, not of the horns or hostile powers. We must keep this in mind. Still the agents are marked out, Messiah comes and has nothing (for it is a question of Jews). Then the prince that shall come is pointed out, and supplants, takes the place of Messiah, as to whom en lo (not to Him). And note, Daniel never goes beyond the verge of Gentile domination, under which he was. It is that, including its destruction, which he tells of. This prince then is allied with the mass of the Jews all the week, therefore before the 2,700 commences. There is idolatry, and, in the middle of the work, he stops all sacrifice.