The Prophecy of Weeks (Daniel 9:24–27)

Robert F. Wall

Daniel’s prayer

Daniel confesses the sin of the fathers and that of the people as his own. He could take this place before God because he did not first have to stand apart from the people and say, ‘I have sinned’. Daniel was a righteous man though of course not altogether without sin (Ezek. 14:14, 20). His confession was for all Israel and his prayer was for Jerusalem and the sanctuary there. 

Gabriel sent in answer to his prayer

Gabriel was sent and came from God while Daniel was still speaking. He writes that he ‘touched me about the time of the evening oblation’. The ‘touch’ was to give him strength to receive and understand the prophecy about to be communicated to him (Dan. 10:8–11, 15–19). That Daniel also writes that this was ‘about the time of the evening oblation’ shows how much Jerusalem and what would normally be happening there was at the centre of his thoughts, even though no sacrifices were actually being offered at that time. We also have words that would have been a great encouragement to him personally: ‘thou art one greatly beloved’ (v. 23; 10:11, 19). As the object of such love he could quietly consider the meaning of the prophecy in the stillness of God’s presence.

The timescale of the prophecy of weeks

‘Seventy weeks are apportioned out upon thy people and upon thy holy city’ (v. 24).

It is clear that a literal ‘seventy weeks’ cannot be taken as the timescale. It is said in verse 25 that from a certain date ‘unto Messiah, the Prince’ would be a total of 69 weeks. We will see that there was actually a gap of hundreds of years between these two points. As we might expect, however, Scripture itself furnishes the key. Apart from this chapter there is only one other place in the Bible where we are not to understand ‘weeks’ as literal periods of seven days. It is in Genesis 29:27–28: ‘Fulfil the week with this one: then we will give thee the other one also, for the service that thou shalt serve me yet seven other years. And Jacob did so, and fulfilled the week with this one, and he gave him Rachel his daughter to be his wife’. Applying this timescale to the prophecy of weeks in Daniel 9 shows that it covers a total period of 490 years (70 weeks x 7 years).

These 490 years were ‘apportioned out’ upon Daniel’s people (the Jews) and upon his holy city (the earthly Jerusalem). The prophecy does not refer to the church or to Christians. It was given in answer to Daniel’s prayer for his people and for the city of Jerusalem, where God had placed His name.

The full end that the prophecy has in view

‘to close the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make expiation for iniquity,[1] and to bring in the righteousness of the ages, and to seal the vision and prophet, and to anoint the holy of holies’ (v. 24).

The complete fulfilment of the prophecy will mark the point when what has characterised Israel and Judah throughout their history — transgression, sins and iniquity — will cease to do so. Instead, ‘the righteousness of the ages’ will be introduced, forever unmarred by a falling back again into sin. This will ‘seal the vision and prophet’ in the sense that its fulfilment will show both that the prophecy had been given by God and that Daniel was indeed His prophet in this matter. Lastly, it was to ‘anoint the holy of holies’. Henceforth the rich blessing of God will rest upon the very sanctuary that in its former structures had been repeatedly defiled and destroyed. This will never happen again.

The date on which the period of 70 weeks begins

‘Know therefore and understand: from the going forth of the word to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah, the Prince, are seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks. The street and the moat shall be built again, even in troublous times’ (v. 25).

We are next given the point in time when this period of 490 years was to begin: ‘from the going forth of the word to restore and to build Jerusalem’. This is very specific. It does not refer to the proclamation of Cyrus whom Jehovah had charged ‘to build him a house at Jerusalem’ (Ezra 1:2), nor does it refer to the subsequent declaration of Artaxerxes, in the seventh year of his reign, which also related to the house rather than the city (Ezra 7:7–8, 11–26). It is not until we come to the twentieth year of his reign that we read of a declaration to restore and to build Jerusalem (Neh. 2:1–8). It is from this point in time that the 490 years referred to in the prophecy begin to run.

The first seven weeks (49 years)

The first 69 weeks of the prophecy (69 x 7 = 483 years) are divided into an initial period of 7 weeks (7 x 7 = 49 years) and a further period of 62 weeks (62 x 7 = 434 years). In the 49 years after the declaration of Artaxerxes in the twentieth year of his reign, the rebuilding of Jerusalem would be completed. This was a time that was full of trouble for the faithful remnant that returned there, as the Book of Nehemiah shows us.

The next 62 weeks (434 years)

After this a further 434 years were to run ‘unto Messiah, the Prince’. The language used is precise. In his book, ‘The Coming Prince’[2] (chapter 10, ‘The fulfilment of the prophecy’), Sir Robert Anderson calculated that this period of time was fulfilled to the day when the Lord Jesus entered Jerusalem in fulfilment of Zechariah 9:9 (Matt. 21:1–11 and the parallel passages).

In contrast with verse 25 any precise dating of what verse 26 describes is deliberately omitted

‘And after the sixty-two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, and shall have nothing; and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with an overflow, and unto the end, war, — the desolations determined’ (v. 26).

Verse 26 says simply: ‘And after the sixty-two weeks’. The events subsequently described take place between the close of the sixty-ninth week and the opening of the seventieth week, though the statement ‘and unto the end, war, — the desolations determined’ may include the events of the seventieth week as well. The cutting off of Messiah happened just a few days after His entry into Jerusalem but the destruction of the city and the sanctuary did not take place until some 40 years later in AD 70. The end of the verse speaks of the subsequent desolations that we now know have continued over many centuries.

Messiah cut off

This cutting off of Messiah refers to Christ’s death at the hands of men. He was ‘put to death in flesh’ though afterwards ‘made alive in the Spirit’ (1 Pet. 3:18). He had nothing of the earthly kingdom and honours that belong to Him as God’s anointed man. The consequence of this was judgment not blessing: ‘and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary’.

The people of the prince that shall come

For the moment we need only notice that it was the people of this prince and not the prince himself that came and destroyed the city (Jerusalem) and the sanctuary (the temple). These were Romans under the command of Titus, the son of Vespasian, the Roman emperor at that time. 

The ‘church’ period

Before we consider verse 27 we should notice again that the first 69 weeks of the prophecy closed with ‘Messiah, the Prince’ and His entry into Jerusalem. During the interval between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks, God is occupied with the assembly. At the appointed hour, Christ will come for it and take His own to be with Himself. It is not until after this has taken place that the seventieth week of the prophecy, the last seven years to which it refers, will begin.

The seventieth week

‘And he shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and because of the protection of abominations there shall be a desolator, even until that the consumption and what is determined shall be poured out upon the desolate’ (v. 27).

What verse 27 describes still lies wholly in the future. Although it is not stated explicitly, this ‘one week’ is clearly the seventieth week. At the beginning of it, the head of the revived Roman Empire will confirm a covenant with the ‘the many’. This refers to the unbelieving mass of the Jews. A covenant is made to guarantee Israel’s security and perhaps in support of the restored temple services. It is referred to in Isaiah 28. Despite the confidence that the unbelieving Jews will place in it, God has already said, ‘your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, ye shall be trodden down by it’ (Isa. 28:18; see also v. 15). In truth, this will be the character of the covenant then made, and faith will know it. The covenant will be for a period of seven years but in the midst of the week (i.e. after three and a half years), this prince causes the sacrifice and oblation to cease.

The protection of abominations

At this point the antichrist will set up an image in the holy place.[3] The Lord Jesus referred to this when speaking to the disciples on the Mount of Olives:[4]‘When therefore ye shall see the abomination of desolation, which is spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in what is a holy place, (he that reads let him understand,) then let those who are in Judaea flee to the mountains’ (Dan. 12:11; Matt. 24:15; Mark 13:14).[5]

The remnant preserved

The believing Jews living in Judaea will obey these instructions and flee to the mountains where God will have prepared a place for them and provide their necessary daily food (Rev. 12:6, 14; Matt. 6:11). Here in verse 27 it is made clear that because the unbelieving mass of the Jews will support the antichrist in these actions ‘there shall be a desolator’.

The desolator

Daniel writes about the antichrist, the king who will do according to his will, in chapter 11:36–39. In the following section we read: ‘And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him; and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind’. These compass points are relative to Israel (the centre of God’s thoughts concerning the earth). The ‘king of the south’ is Egypt and the ‘king of the north’ is the Assyrian, the desolator (vs. 40–45). 

Both the king of the south and the king of the north will attack Israel, although not allied with one another. The king of the north will prevail to such an extent that ‘the land of Egypt shall not escape. And he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps’ (vs. 42–43).

In the course of this drive south he will pass through Israel and attack Jerusalem. It is then that Zechariah 14:2 will be fulfilled: ‘And I will assemble all the nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity; and the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.’[6]

The everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ

The Lord Jesus will deal with all of the forces assembled against Him and His people, as well as the individuals who lead them (Rev. 16:12–16; 19:11–21; Isa. 14:24–25; 30:31, 33). These and certain other judgments will bring the times of the Gentiles to an end. Then will come ‘the kingdom of the world of our Lord and of his Christ, … and he shall reign to the ages of ages’ (Rev. 11:15).

[1] The statement ‘and to make expiation for iniquity’ comes after the clauses about closing ‘the transgression’ and making ‘an end of sins’. It refers to the application of the finished work of the Lord Jesus to the Jewish remnant at the close. This is shown clearly in the type of the goat ‘for Azazel’ (called the ‘scapegoat’ in the King James translation) offered for Israel on the day of atonement (Lev. 16). The blood of the goat on which the lot for Jehovah fell was taken into the sanctuary and it was only after this, when the high priest came out from the sanctuary, that the sins of the children of Israel were put on the head of the live goat that was then sent away into the wilderness. These actions in relation to the goat ‘for Azazel’ were ‘to make atonement with it’ (Lev. 16:10).

[2] This book, published in 1894, contains careful research and calculations based on a number of assumptions. As such it provides interesting insights though faith knows that Daniel 9:26a has been fulfilled. It is available new or second-hand from Chapter Two (eds.).

[3] This is probably ‘the image of the beast’ referred to in Revelation 13:11–18 and elsewhere in the Book of Revelation.

[4] The reference to ‘the abomination that maketh desolate’ in Daniel 11:31 is (now) historical. The section from verses 21–31 concerns Antiochus Epiphanes who was king of the Seleucid Empire from 175 BC until his death in 164 BC. He desecrated the temple in Jerusalem by offering the sacrifice of a pig to Zeus on the altar.

[5] In J N Darby’s translation there is a footnote to Mark 13:14 that reads “‘Desolation’ is an active word ‘causing desolation,’ ‘desolating,’ … see Matt. 24:15; Dan. 9:27.”

[6] It would appear that the Assyrian will be the leader of a group of nations attacking Jerusalem at this time (eds.).

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From: Truth and Testimony, 2022