Daniel 9:17-27

17 “Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary.

18 Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.

19 Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.”

The Seventy “Sevens”

20 While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the LORD my God for his holy hill—

21 while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice.

22 He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding.

23 As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision:

24 “Seventy ‘sevens’^[a] are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish^[b] transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.^[c]

25 “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One,^[d] the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.

26 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing.^[e] The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.

27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’^[f] In the middle of the ‘seven’^[g] he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple^[h] he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.^[i] ”^[j]

Daniel 9:17-27 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.

Cross References

• 1. Numbers 6:24-26; Psalms 80:19
• 2. S Psalms 5:1
• 3. Psalms 116:1
• 4. Psalms 80:14
• 5. S Deuteronomy 28:10; S Isaiah 37:17; Jeremiah 7:10-12; Jeremiah 25:29
• 6. Luke 18:13
• 7. Psalms 44:23
• 8. S 1 Samuel 12:22
• 9. S Ezra 10:1
• 10. S ver 3; Psalms 145:18; S Isaiah 58:9
• 11. S Daniel 8:16; S Luke 1:19
• 12. S Exodus 29:39
• 13. S Daniel 7:16; Daniel 10:14; Amos 3:7
• 14. S Isaiah 65:24
• 15. Daniel 10:19; Luke 1:28
• 16. Daniel 10:11-12; Matthew 24:15
• 17. S Isaiah 1:26
• 18. S Isaiah 53:10
• 19. S Isaiah 56:1; Hebrews 9:12
• 20. S Ezra 4:24; S Ezra 6:15
• 21. Matthew 1:17; John 4:25
• 22. S 1 Samuel 13:14
• 23. S Ezra 3:3
• 24. S Isaiah 53:8; Matthew 16:21
• 25. Isaiah 28:2; Daniel 11:10; Nahum 1:8
• 26. S Psalms 46:8
• 27. Isaiah 61:1; S Ezekiel 4:5-6; Haggai 2:23; Zechariah 4:14
• 28. S Isaiah 10:22

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "‘weeks’" ; also in verses 25 and 26
• [b]. Or "restrain"
• [c]. Or "the most holy One"
• [d]. Or "an anointed one" ; also in verse 26
• [e]. Or "death and will have no one" ; or "death, but not for himself"
• [f]. Or "‘week’"
• [g]. Or "‘week’"
• [h]. Septuagint and Theodotion; Hebrew "wing"
• [i]. Or "it"
• [j]. Or "And one who causes desolation will come upon the wing of the abominable temple, until the end that is decreed is poured out on the desolated city"