Daniel Prays for His People, 1-20

9:1 In the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus, who was of Median descent and who had been appointed king over the Babylonian empire—9:2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, came to understand from the sacred books that, according to the word of the LORD disclosed to the prophet Jeremiah, the years for the fulfilling of the desolation of Jerusalem were seventy in number. 9:3 So I turned my attention to the Lord God to implore him by prayer and requests, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. 9:4 I prayed to the LORD my God, confessing in this way:

“O Lord, great and awesome God who is faithful to his covenant with those who love him and keep his commandments, 9:5 we have sinned! We have done what is wrong and wicked; we have rebelled by turning away from your commandments and standards. 9:6 We have not paid attention to your servants the prophets, who spoke by your authority to our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, and to all the inhabitants of the land as well.

9:7 “You are righteous, O Lord, but we are humiliated this day—the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far away in all the countries in which you have scattered them, because they have behaved unfaithfully toward you. 9:8 O LORD, we have been humiliated—our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors—because we have sinned against you. 9:9 Yet the Lord our God is compassionate and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him. 9:10 We have not obeyed the LORD our God by living according to his laws that he set before us through his servants the prophets.

9:11 “All Israel has broken your law and turned away by not obeying you. Therefore you have poured out on us the judgment solemnly threatened in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against you. 9:12 He has carried out his threats against us and our rulers who were over us by bringing great calamity on us—what has happened to Jerusalem has never been equaled under all heaven! 9:13 Just as it is written in the law of Moses, so all this calamity has come on us. Still we have not tried to pacify the LORD our God by turning back from our sin and by seeking wisdom from your reliable moral standards. 9:14 The LORD was mindful of the calamity, and he brought it on us. For the LORD our God is just in all he has done, and we have not obeyed him.

9:15 “Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with great power and made a name for yourself that is remembered to this day—we have sinned and behaved wickedly. 9:16 O Lord, according to all your justice, please turn your raging anger away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain. For due to our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors, Jerusalem and your people are mocked by all our neighbors.

9:17 “So now, our God, accept the prayer and requests of your servant, and show favor to your devastated sanctuary for your own sake. 9:18 Listen attentively, my God, and hear! Open your eyes and look on our desolated ruins and the city called by your name. For it is not because of our own righteous deeds that we are praying to you, but because your compassion is abundant. 9:19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, pay attention, and act! Don’t delay, for your own sake, O my God! For your city and your people are called by your name.”

Gabriel Gives to Daniel a Prophecy of Seventy Weeks, 21-27

9:20 While I was still speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and presenting my request before the LORD my God concerning his holy mountain—9:21 yes, while I was still praying, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen previously in a vision, was approaching me in my state of extreme weariness, around the time of the evening offering. 9:22 He spoke with me, instructing me as follows: “Daniel, I have now come to impart understanding to you. 9:23 At the beginning of your requests a message went out, and I have come to convey it to you, for you are of great value in God’s sight. Therefore consider the message and understand the vision:

9:24 “Seventy weeks have been determined
concerning your people and your holy city
to put an end to rebellion,
to bring sin to completion,
to atone for iniquity,
to bring in perpetual righteousness,
to seal up the prophetic vision,
and to anoint a most holy place.

This passage is thought, by more critical commentators, to have been written in the second century to encourage God’s people in the time of Antiochus.

“Seventy weeks” – lit. ‘seventy sevens’.

Baldwin says that any attempt to interpret the timescale mentioned here must take account of the presence of symbolism.

Cf. the seventy years of captivity (Jer. 25:11–14) .

Probably ‘weeks of years’, i.e. 490 years (cf. Lev 25:8).

Some think this began with the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC and ended with the cessation of Antiochus Epiphanes’ persecution in 164-5 BC (which would entail of miscalculation of about 67 years, unless an approximation was intented).

Christians have generally thought that this predicts Christ’s first or second coming.  However, it is difficult to determine when this period of time starts and ends.

In Baldwin’s tentative interpretation of this verse:

‘it is speaking of the accomplishment of God’s purpose for all history. If we look at this from our vantage-point it was accomplished partly in the coming of Christ, but it still has to be consummated (Eph. 1:10; 1 Cor. 15:28).’

9:25 So know and understand:
From the issuing of the command to restore and rebuild
Jerusalem until an anointed one, a prince arrives,
there will be a period of seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.
It will again be built, with plaza and moat,
but in distressful times.

The issuing of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem – Probably referring to the edict of Cyrus in 539 BC.

An anointed one – Fulfilled, in the view of many, in the coming of Jesus Christ.

According to Harper’s Bible Commentary, it is Zerubbabel ‘the last legitimate descendant of the Davidic house (see Hag. 1:1–14; Zech. 6:9–14)’.

In dispensational thinking Daniel’s ‘seventieth week’ refers to a seven-year Tribulation.

According to Baldwin:

‘Though the command to build was given in 539, it was not until the time of Nehemiah that Jerusalem as a city was completed with squares and moat.’

9:26 Now after the sixty-two weeks,
an anointed one will be cut off and have nothing.
As for the city and the sanctuary,
the people of the coming prince will destroy them.
But his end will come speedily like a flood.
Until the end of the war that has been decreed
there will be destruction.

Sixty-two weeks – In the view of Harper’s Bible Commentary, these represent ‘the 434 years of the Persian and Hellenistic periods’.  Then comes the final week of 7 years:

‘Verse 26 describes the beginning of that week with the cutting off of the last anointed one—a reference to Antiochus’ deposition of the legitimate high priest Onias III in favor of his brother Jason in 175 B.C. (2 Macc. 4:8). The desolator of Dan. 9:27 is surely Antiochus, who, in Jewish eyes, “destroyed the city and the sanctuary” by profaning them. The final three and a half years of history are marked by the dominance of “the one who makes desolate,” but for that one the end comes on schedule at the end of the second half of the last week.’

9:27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one week.
But in the middle of that week
he will bring sacrifices and offerings to a halt.
On the wing of abominations will come one who destroys,
until the decreed end is poured out on the one who destroys.”

Dispensationalists regard this ‘week’ as a seven-year period of Tribulation.  In the first half, Antichrist will permit worship in the Temple,  But, at the mid-point, he will break that covenant.  The second half of the Tribulation will be characterised by the ‘abomination that brings desolation’.

It is often thought that this was fulfilled in the sacrilege perpetrated by Antiochus Epiphanes.  And it is further thought, by some, that this anticipates the sacrilege that will take place at the mid-point of the Tribulation.