Daniel 9:20-27

The 70 Weeks of Years

20 While I was speaking, praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my petition before Yahweh my God concerning the holy mountain of my God-
21 while I was praying, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the first vision,[a] came to me in my extreme weariness, about the time of the evening offering.
22 He gave me this explanation: "Daniel, I've come now to give you understanding.
23 At the beginning of your petitions an answer went out, and I have come to give it, for you are treasured [by God]. So consider the message and understand the vision:
24 Seventy weeks[b] are decreed about your people and your holy city- to bring the rebellion to an end, to put a stop to sin, to wipe away injustice, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place.
25 Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince[c] will be seven weeks and 62 weeks.[d] It will be rebuilt with a plaza and a moat, but in difficult times.
26 After those 62 weeks[e] the Messiah will be cut off[f] and will have nothing. The people of the coming prince will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The[g] end will come with a flood, and until the end there will be[h] war; desolations are decreed.
27 He will make a firm covenant[i] with many for one week,[j] but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and offering. And the abomination of desolation will be on a wing[k] of the temple[l][m] until the decreed destruction is poured out on the desolator."

Daniel 9:20-27 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DANIEL 9

This chapter contains a prayer of Daniel, and the answer to it. The time, occasion, and manner of his prayer, or circumstances of it, are observed, Da 9:1-3, the parts of it, an address unto God, under various suitable epithets and characters, Da 9:4 confession of sin, of his own, of the inhabitants of the land, kings, princes, and people, which are largely dwelt upon and exaggerated, Da 9:5-15 and petitions for mercy, Da 9:16-19, then the answer follows; the time when it was ordered and given, and the person by whom it was sent, are expressed, Da 9:20-23 who delivered to him the vision of the seventy weeks to be considered by him; in which both the work of the Messiah, and the time of his coming, are clearly pointed out, Da 9:24-27.

Footnotes 13

  • [a]. Dn 8:1,15
  • [b]. 490 years; 2 Ch 36:21; Jr 25:11-12; 29:10
  • [c]. Or until an anointed one, a prince
  • [d]. 49 years and 434 years
  • [e]. 434 years
  • [f]. Isa 53:8
  • [g]. Lit Its, or His
  • [h]. Or end of a
  • [i]. Or will enforce a covenant
  • [j]. 7 years
  • [k]. Isa 7:7-8; Mt 4:5
  • [l]. LXX; MT reads of abominations
  • [m]. Or And the desolator will be on the wing of abominations, or And the desolator will come on the wings of monsters (or of horror); Hb obscure
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