Daniel 9:20-26

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.

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

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"