Dan 9:24-27 | KingComments | STEP | The verses we now come to, , are called ‘the ABC’ of the prophecy. First a short overview: In we read about 1. the duration of the period: seventy weeks, 2. who it is about: your people and your holy city, which are Israel and Jerusalem and 3. what happens during that period: finish the transgression, etc. In we learn that the first and largest part of the seventy weeks is divided into two periods: seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, which is sixty-nine weeks together. The events in these sixty-nine weeks are described. These weeks are concluded with the mention of one person: Messiah the Prince. In it is said that after sixty-two weeks, so in total after sixty-nine weeks, the Messiah will be cut off. This is followed by the announcement that Jerusalem will be destroyed. In we are informed of the events that take place in the remaining week, the seventieth. We also read there about the division of this week into two halves with an indication of what happens halfway the week and what the consequences are for the second half of that week. After this overview we will look at the meaning of each verse. The weeks mentioned in are not weeks of seven days, but periods of seven years. The seventy weeks are a total of four hundred and ninety years. This number of years will pass before the full blessing can come for “your people and your holy city”. Before that happens, a few things have to happen: 1. First, “transgression” must have finished, that is to say, the people and the city no longer live in rebellion against God, but are obedient to Him. 2. Then “an end of sin” must be made, that is to say that they are no longer committed. 3. Also “atonement for iniquity” must be made. God can pass by the iniquity of His people only when atonement has been made for it. These events are negative, they have to do with what has to stop and be removed because it cannot exist before God. The following events are positive. In them we see God’s work for the benefit of His people and His holy city. 1. He will “bring in everlasting righteousness”. That indicates the kingdom of peace, under the government of the Messiah. 2. Sealing up “vision and prophecy” means invariably recording what has been shown by and on behalf of God in the vision and said by the prophet. Both vision and prophecy bear the stamp of God’s work in its fulfilment. 3. The last event is the anointing of “the most holy”. What this refers to is not immediately clear. Several possibilities have been suggested. Some possibilities are that it can refer to the most holy of the temple or to the whole temple or to the city of Jerusalem or to the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. In any case, this is something that is sanctified for God by a special ordination and will have a special place in the realm of peace, to the glory of God.

‏ Daniel 9:24-27

The Seventy Weeks

The verses we now come to, Dan 9:24-27, are called ‘the ABC’ of the prophecy. First a short overview:

In Dan 9:24 we read about

1. the duration of the period: seventy weeks,

2. who it is about: your people and your holy city, which are Israel and Jerusalem and

3. what happens during that period: finish the transgression, etc.

In Dan 9:25 we learn that the first and largest part of the seventy weeks is divided into two periods: seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, which is sixty-nine weeks together. The events in these sixty-nine weeks are described. These weeks are concluded with the mention of one person: Messiah the Prince.

In Dan 9:26 it is said that after sixty-two weeks, so in total after sixty-nine weeks, the Messiah will be cut off. This is followed by the announcement that Jerusalem will be destroyed.

In Dan 9:27 we are informed of the events that take place in the remaining week, the seventieth. We also read there about the division of this week into two halves with an indication of what happens halfway the week and what the consequences are for the second half of that week.

After this overview we will look at the meaning of each verse. The weeks mentioned in Dan 9:24 are not weeks of seven days, but periods of seven years. The seventy weeks are a total of four hundred and ninety years. This number of years will pass before the full blessing can come for “your people and your holy city”. Before that happens, a few things have to happen:

1. First, “transgression” must have finished, that is to say, the people and the city no longer live in rebellion against God, but are obedient to Him.

2. Then “an end of sin” must be made, that is to say that they are no longer committed.

3. Also “atonement for iniquity” must be made. God can pass by the iniquity of His people only when atonement has been made for it.

These events are negative, they have to do with what has to stop and be removed because it cannot exist before God. The following events are positive. In them we see God’s work for the benefit of His people and His holy city.

1. He will “bring in everlasting righteousness”. That indicates the kingdom of peace, under the government of the Messiah.

2. Sealing up “vision and prophecy” means invariably recording what has been shown by and on behalf of God in the vision and said by the prophet. Both vision and prophecy bear the stamp of God’s work in its fulfilment.

3. The last event is the anointing of “the most holy”. What this refers to is not immediately clear. Several possibilities have been suggested. Some possibilities are that it can refer to the most holy of the temple or to the whole temple or to the city of Jerusalem or to the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. In any case, this is something that is sanctified for God by a special ordination and will have a special place in the realm of peace, to the glory of God.

Seven Weeks and Sixty-Two Weeks

Now Daniel is told – and we are told – when to start counting the seventy weeks, that is to say the four hundred and ninety-year period. We have to “know and discern” that, otherwise we will miss the meaning. The counting should start at “the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem”. This cannot refer to what Cyrus ordered, for he did not command to rebuild Jerusalem, but to rebuild the temple (Ezra 1:2). Only a hundred years later has permission come to rebuild the city and that is what this verse is about. Artaxerxes is the king who gives Nehemiah the permission to rebuild the city, in the fourth year of his reign (Neh 2:1), that is the year 445 BC. Then the four hundred and ninety years begin.

Then an intermediate event is given, namely the coming of the Messiah. When He comes, sixty-nine weeks have passed. This period of sixty-nine weeks is divided into a period of seven weeks and a period of sixty-two weeks. The first period, that of seven times seven weeks, that is forty-nine years, is the period in which the restoration of Jerusalem takes place. The second period of sixty-two weeks is linked to this period in one breath. The end of those two periods – that of seven weeks (forty nine years) and that of sixty-two weeks (= four hundred and thirty-four years), that is four hundred and eighty-three years together – is connected with a person: “until Messiah the Prince”.

A certain characteristic of this time is given: “It will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.” This shows that Jerusalem has been rebuilt, but that in those four hundred and sixty-three years (sixty-nine weeks) it is always under pressure from foreign peoples.

The Messiah Is Cut Off

The end of the period of sixty-nine weeks in total is not only linked to the Person of the Messiah but also to an event. This event is the cutting off of the Messiah. “Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing.” As we can see from the number of weeks that have passed, since Nehemiah Jerusalem began to rebuild, four hundred and eighty-three years have elapsed at the moment that the Messiah is cut off.

Then we have entered history at the time of the walk of the Lord Jesus on earth. He is the ‘Messiah’ or ‘Anointed One’. He comes to fulfill the last week to complete the period of seventy year-weeks and to establish the kingdom of peace. But what happens? His people reject and murder Him. Being innocent – ‘while there is nothing against Him’, as can also be translated – He is put to death. It also means that He has “nothing”. He didn’t get what He came for: His people as His kingdom. At the same time His death on the cross is the basis for the fulfillment of God’s plans for His people.

A simple calculation shows how accurate God’s Word is. The years in the Bible are years of 360 days. The period of 483 years is 483 x 360 = 173,880 days. This means that, counting from the date of the order to rebuild the city, we arrive at the Lord Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, the Sunday before the Friday on which He will die the death of the cross. For an exact calculation see Jerusalem – Hindernis für den Weltfrieden (Jerusalem, obstacle to world peace) by Roger Liebi.

This is how the sixty-nine year-weeks end. Because the people reject their Messiah, that last, seventieth, year-week cannot directly connect to the sixty-nine already expired year-weeks and the kingdom of peace cannot be established. Are the plans of God thus annulled? No, it means that the seventieth year-week is yet to come, because the sealing of the prophecy (Dan 9:24) concerns seventy year-weeks and not sixty-nine year-weeks. ‘Sealing’ means that everything, including the seventieth year-week, comes true and that everything that has been communicated in visions and by the prophets is fulfilled. It means a postponement of the fulfillment, for that the fulfillment comes, is certain.

What now happens between the sixty-ninth and seventieth year-week? Important events take place during this indefinite period. Daniel, and therefore we too, are further informed about this by the angel. The sixty-nine year-week ends with the death of the Messiah, as stated in the beginning of Dan 9:26. He is cut off “and have nothing”. This means He is leaving earth without receiving the kingdom He came for.

Then the interpretation continues and Gabriel speaks of “the people of the prince who is to come”. He also says what that people will do: they “will destroy the city and the sanctuary”. Also the end of that people is made known by Gabriel: “And its end [will come] with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.”

Here it speaks of a people of a prince who is to come. That people are the Romans. In the year 70, the Roman armies, led by Titus, destroyed Jerusalem as God’s punishment for the rejection of the Messiah. God gives up the city to the nations. Luke gives more details about this in his account of the speech on the end time by the Lord Jesus (Lk 21:20-24). The Lord Jesus says there: “And Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” (Lk 21:24).

When the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, comes what Gabriel here calls “the end”. “The end” is the end time, the return of Christ and the related events. In the middle of this Dan 9:26 a big leap is made from the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the year 70 to the return of Christ in the end time. The destruction of Jerusalem and of the Roman empire, both then and in the end, are determined. The people, the Romans, have been there and have come to their end. Germanic tribes have destroyed the empire. Europe has disintegrated into many different countries.

But the prince of that people is yet to come. He will also come. About him is written in Dan 9:27. The events of then, in the year 70, are a foreshadowing of the events in the end time, events that directly precede the establishment of the millennial empire of peace. The events of the end time are the events of the seventieth year-week. These are described in Dan 9:27.

The Seventieth Week

The second part of Dan 9:26 gives the transition from the situation in the year 70 to the situation in the end time or the seventieth year-week. That seventieth year-week is what we are talking about in Dan 9:27. During the seventieth year-week, Israel is back in its land. This is demonstrated by the fact that sacrifices are being made again. There is a temple service again.

The “he” of this verse is the prince of the previous verse who will come. It is the ruler of the restored Western Roman empire, the fourth world empire, the united Europe that gave its power into the hands of a single dictator, the beast from the sea (Dan 7:3 ; 7; Rev 13:1-10). It points to the time when the Roman empire is again present and Israel is again present and both empires have a ruler.

The covenant that he makes firm is the covenant that he, the autocrat of the united Western Europe, will make with the unbelieving mass of the Jews, “the many”, possibly under the leadership of the antichrist. Seen from the Jewish side, it is a treaty with death (Isa 28:15a ; 18). The apostate mass of the Israelites will do this to defend themselves and protect themselves against the enemies surrounding them, of which the greatest enemy is Assyria. By Assyria we can understand Syria in an alliance with some other Arab states. Assyria is so strong because it is supported by the mighty Russian empire that lies north of them. That is what the prophetic word shows and what we see confirmed in current events.

“In the middle of the week”, however, a dramatic change takes place. This change heralds the most terrible time the earth has ever experienced. This time is called the “great tribulation” (Mt 24:21) and also “the time of Jacob’s distress” (Jer 30:7). This period will last half a year-week, i.e. three and a half years.

In that time an unprecedented suffering will affect mankind. What people will do to each other defies any description. Violence of war and natural disasters will uninhibitedly cause their slaughter. The spiritual torments to which men are exposed will drive them to insanity. An impressive description of it can be found in Revelation 6-19. The introductory event is the casting of the devil from heaven to earth, knowing that he has little time, i.e. three and a half years (Rev 12:9 ; 12b).

His first activity is to put an end to the Jewish religion, which we see in the prohibition to sacrifice. Through his servant, the Roman ruler, who is supported by his ally the antichrist, he puts an end to worship in Jerusalem. The Roman ruler and the antichrist establish their own idolatrous religion. The antichrist will erect an idol of the Roman ruler, the beast out of the sea, in the temple (2Thes 2:3-4), most likely the court of the temple.

This image is intended as protection against the enemies. As a result, the antichrist will propagate the alliance with Western Europe. He will convince the remaining mass of the Jews to expect their salvation from that great power when they are threatened by Assyria and all Arab countries. He will make sure that people worship the image and even let it speak. He who withdraws from this mass psychosis and does not worship the beast will be killed (Rev 13:15).

God calls it “the wing of abominations”. A wing indicates protection and an abomination is an indication for an idol image (Mt 24:15a). But instead of protection, this abomination will bring destruction to Israel. There “[will come] one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate”. It is an abomination that will lead to destruction, that is God’s judgment on the apostates, on the most horrible idolatry that has ever happened. This destruction happens because it is decreed by God.

The one who will come and “who makes desolate” is the king of the North, the ancient Assyrian empire, supported by Russia. This is the beginning of the last world war. The destroyer will quickly pour himself out “on the one who makes desolate”, that is Jerusalem. It will happen so quickly that the alliance turn out to be no protection at all. Jerusalem will be taken and the inhabitants will suffer terribly (Zec 14:2a).

This brings the angel to the end of his teaching (Dan 9:22). It seems to be an abrupt end, where judgment seems to be the last word. But we have to think of two things. The fact that the explanation about the future ends here means that it is not about the continuation, but about the elaboration of what has been announced. What does it do to me that I know how it will go? The other is that the angel said at the beginning of his statement that “everlasting righteousness” will come when the seventy weeks have passed (Dan 9:24). After the judgments follows the glorious kingdom of peace under the reign of the Messiah, the Prince of peace.