Daniel 9:20-27

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 9:20-27 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.

Cross References 20

  • 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
  • 20. S Isaiah 10:22

Footnotes 10

  • [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"
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