Daniel – Chapter 9

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.

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 forgivenesses, 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 thy 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 shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.

24 Seventy weeks are segregated (*) unto thy people and unto 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 (**).

(*) The King James rendered this word as “determined”, but its meaning really is “cut off from” or “segregated”, which provides an incredibly valuable clue to understand what this prophecy was talking about: there was nowhere else to cut off this time period from, other than the 2300 days prophecy right in [27] Daniel 8, the previous chapter. Both these 2 time prophecies, the 2300 day and the 70 weeks (490 days), therefore have the same starting point.

(**) Referring to Lord Jesus, not “the most holy place”. The Jews were given a second chance here to fulfill their mission of ushering in the Messiah to the world.

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.

(*) There were three decrees about the restoration of Jerusalem, among which the third one that finished its complete restoration was found in [15] Ezra 7:7-26, and was issued in the 7th year of Artaxerxes, which was 457 BC. In the prophetic language of the Bible, one prophetic day equals one year in real time (compare with [26] Ezekiel 4:6 and [04] Numbers 14:34) so this period of 69 weeks, or 483 days, would be 483 years. From 457 BC, 483 years later, the autumn of 27 AD would be the time the Messiah – the anointed one – shall appear, which was exactly when John the Baptist baptized Lord Jesus, and God anointed His Son by the Holy Spirit!

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.

(*) Titus, son of Vespasian – Caesar of Rome – commanded the Roman army to lay siege and destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD.

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 on the wing of desolating abominations (**) even until the consummation, then that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

(*) This is how Christ caused the sacrificial ordinances of Moses to be fulfilled and ended them in the midst of the 70th week of this prophecy: 3 and a half years after He was anointed by the Holy Spirit in autumn 27 AD would bring us to the Passover in spring 31 AD, which is exactly when Christ died on the cross, and the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom ([01] Matthew 27:51), signaling the fulfillment of all sacrificial ordinances of Moses – which were in fact prophecies foretelling the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but established as religious ordinances – and from that point on forth they would no longer be in force. After Jesus rose again, He continued to send His disciples to the Jews in the next 3 and a half years, because they still had 3 and a half years until the 70th week of this prophecy closed. By the time of 34 AD, when the Sanhedrin – the highest council of the Jews – murdered Stephan the deacon while screaming and closing their ears ([05] Acts 7:57-58), the time for the Jews terminated, and the Gospel of our Lord went to the Gentiles. This entire 70-week prophecy, thus has already been fulfilled completely down to every smallest detail.

(**) Referring to the black eagle, the symbol of the Roman empire, which was usually embroidered on their flag and made into an idol when they marched against their enemies. Lord Jesus later on in [01] Matthew 24:15 and [02] Mark 13:14 had quoted the prophet Daniel right on this passage and told the Christians: when they saw this “desolating abomination” come outside Jerusalem, they must flee immediately from the city, because right after that this doomed city, doomed to the destruction it brought upon itself by murdering the Son of God and rejecting His Gospel, will receive its just punishment. Thanks to the understanding given by the Lord regarding this prophecy, during the siege of Jerusalem by the Roman empire, no Christians were killed whatsoever. See lesson “Cleansing the Sanctuary” in “the Prophecy Encyclopedia“, explaining in detail both [27] Daniel 8 and [27] Daniel 9.