Chapter IX
1. In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; 2. In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. NOTE: Daniel was reading from the book of Jeremiah 29:10-14, "For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished...I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive." (Jerusalem). 3. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: 4. And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; 5. We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: 6. Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. 7. O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee. 8. O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. 9. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him; 10. Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. 11. Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him. 12. And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem. 13. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth. 14. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice. 15. And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly. 16. O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from they city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. 17. Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. 18. O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. 19. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
20. And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; 21. Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. 22. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. 23. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.
24. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. Note.-- The angel came to finish the explanation of the vision of Daniel 8. The period of 2,300 prophetic days (literal years) was the part not explained in chapter 8. So here the angel begins at once with prophetic time. The first seventy weeks (490 days, literally 490 years) were allotted to the Jewish people.
25. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. NOTE: After the "seven weeks" or 49 years of rebuilding Jerusalem, and after the "threescore and two weeks" (another 434 years), the Messiah would die for our sins, not His; and after this time-period the city and the temple would be destroyed by the Romans in A.D.70. 27. And 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. NOTE: It is important that we understand who "he" is, that will confirm the covenant. Malachi 3:1 states, "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me (John the Baptist): and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts." Jesus was the "messenger of the covenant" who would "confirm the covenant" or establish the way to salvation. A proper translation of this verse would be: 27. And Jesus shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week Jesus shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease (by his death on the cross), and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. NOTE: Jesus made Jerusalem desolate when he proclaimed, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate" (Matthew 23:38); and it was desolate until the destruction that had been determined (Matt. 27:25) was done to it in A.D.70. Note.-- The long periods, both of the 2,300 years and the first 490 years of it allotted to the Jewish nation, began with the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem. This was in the year 457 B.C., the seventh year of Artaxerxes. Ezra 7:7,8. Beginning here, the "seven weeks and threescore and two weeks," which make sixty-nine weeks, or 483 years, were to reach to the Messiah the Prince. Reckoning from 457 B.C., when the period began, the 483 years end in A.D. 27, when Jesus was Baptized and publicly shown as the Messiah (which means the "anointed") by being anointed by the descent of the Holy Spirit visibly upon Him in the form of a dove. (Compare Acts 10:38.) The last "week" (the last seven years of the 490) still remained. In "the midst" of this week,-- after three and one-half years of ministry,-- the Messiah was "cut off," crucified for us. Still for the remainder of the "week"-- another three and one-half years,-- the gospel was preached mostly to the Jewish people. But when the full seventy weeks ran out, in A.D.34, we see the gospel movement turning largely to the Gentile world. The Jewish nation, as a nation, had rejected the gospel message by their persecution of Christians and the stoning of Stephen. Yet still, as for all men, the love and promises of God and the salvation of Jesus are for the Jew as well as for the Gentile. The events of the seventy weeks thus set the seal of certainty upon B.C.457 as the starting-point of the great prophetic period. From this date the full 2,300 years run on to the year 1844. Then was to arise on earth the special gospel movement described in Revelation 14:6-14. And so it came to pass. That movement is spreading into all the world, proclaiming the message, "Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come." It calls men to turn from the traditions of the papal power that has "thought" to change the times and the laws of the Most High. It lifts up the downtrodden truths of "the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:12. |
