Dan. 9:24-27
Seventy weeks have been decreed
for your people (Israel)
and for your holy city (Jerusalem). The historical fulfillment of the first part of the prophecy shows that the weeks are weeks of years. Thus seventy weeks equal 490 years. We will see that the seventy weeks are divided into seven weeks plus sixty-two weeks, and then, after a time gap, one final week. At the end of these
seventy weeks, the following six things will happen:
To finish the transgression, to make an end of sins. While this may refer in a general sense to all Israel's sinful ways, it has special reference to the nation's rejection of the Messiah. At the Second Advent of Christ, a remnant will turn to Him in faith and the nation's
transgression and
sins will be forgiven.
To make reconciliation for iniquity. The basis for
reconciliation was laid at Calvary, but this refers to the time, still future, when the believing portion of the nation of Israel will come into the benefit and enjoyment of the finished work of Christ.
To bring in everlasting righteousness. This, too, points forward to the Second Advent and the Millennium, when the King will reign in
righteousness. It is
everlasting righteousness in the sense that it will continue on into the eternal state.
To seal up vision and prophecy. The main body of
OT prophecy centers on the glorious Return of Christ to earth, and His subsequent kingdom. Therefore, the bulk of prophecies will be fulfilled at the end of the seventy weeks.
And to anoint the Most Holy Place. At the beginning of the thousand-year reign, the temple described in Ezekiel 40-44 will be anointed or consecrated in Jerusalem. The glory will return in the Person of the Lord (Ezek. 43:1-5).
9:25 So you are to
know and understand that from the issuing of
the command to restore and rebuild
Jerusalem. This was the decree of Artaxerxes in 445 b.c. (
Neh. 2:1-8).
Until Messiah the Prince. This refers not merely to the First Advent of Christ, but more particularly to His death (see v. 26a).
There shall be seven weeks (forty-nine years)
and sixty-two weeks (434 years). The sixty-nine weeks are divided into two periods,
seven weeks and
sixty-two weeks.
The city
shall be built again, with plaza and moat,
even in troublesome times. Jerusalem would be rebuilt (during the first seven weeks) with public square and protective channel, but not without opposition and turmoil.
9:26 Then
after the sixty-two weeks—that is,
after the sixty-two week portion of time, which is really at the end of the sixty-ninth week,
The Messiah shall be cut off. Here we have an unmistakable reference to the Savior's death on the cross. A century ago in his book
The Coming Prince, Sir Robert Anderson gave detailed calculations of the sixty-nine weeks, using "prophetic years," allowing for leap years, errors in the calendar, the change from b.c. to a.d., etc., and figured that the sixty-nine weeks ended on the very day of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, five days before his death.
But not for Himself, or literally
and have nothing. This may mean that He had received nothing from the nation of Israel, to which He had come. Or it may mean that He died without apparent posterity (Isa. 53:8). Or it may be a general statement of His utter poverty; He left nothing but the clothes that He wore.
And the people of the prince who is to come. This
prince who is to come is the head of the revived Roman Empire, identified by some as the Antichrist. He will come to power during the Tribulation. His
people, of course, are
the Romans.
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The Romans, under Titus, destroyed Jerusalem and its magnificent gold-trimmed white marble temple in a.d. 70.
The end of it shall be with a flood. The city was leveled as if by a flood. Not one stone of the temple, for instance, was left on another. Titus forbade his soldiers to put Herod's temple to the torch, but in order to get the gold they disobeyed, thus melting down the gold. To retrieve the melted gold successfully from between the stones they had to pry loose the great stones, thus fulfilling Christ's words in Matthew 24:1, 2, as well as Daniel's prophecy.
And till the end of the war desolations are determined. From that time on, the history of the city would be one of war and destruction.
The end here means the end of the times of the Gentiles.
9:27 We now come to the seventieth week. As mentioned previously, there is a time gap between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks. This parenthetical period is the Church Age, which extends from Pentecost to the Rapture. It is never mentioned specifically in the OT; it was a secret hidden in God from the foundation of the world but revealed by the apostles and prophets of the
NT period. However, the principle of a gap is nicely illustrated by our Lord in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:18, 19). Jesus quoted Isaiah 61:1, 2a but cut it short at "the acceptable year of the Lord" (His First Advent), and left off the judgment of His Second Advent: "and the day of vengeance of our God" (Isa. 61:2b). In between was to occur the whole Church Age.
Then he (the Roman prince)
shall confirm a covenant with many (the unbelieving majority of the nation of Israel)
for one week (the seven-year Tribulation Period). It may be a friendship treaty, a non-aggression treaty, or a guarantee of military assistance against any nation attacking Israel.
But in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. The Roman prince will turn hostile toward Israel, forbidding further sacrifices and offerings to Jehovah.
And on the wing of abominations. We learn from Matthew 24:15 that he will set up an abominable idolatrous image in the temple and presumably he will command that it be worshiped. Some think that
wing here refers to a wing of the temple.
Shall be one who makes desolate. He will persecute and destroy those who refuse to worship the image.
Even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate. Terrible persecution of the Jews will continue for the last half of the seventieth week, a period known as the Great Tribulation. Then the Roman prince, "the
one who makes desolate," will himself be destroyed, as decreed by God, by being cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:20).
Believer's Bible Commentary: A Thorough, Yet Easy-to-Read Bible Commentary That Turns Complicated Theology Into Practical Understanding.
