The 70-Week Prophecy – Daniel 9:24-27
With regard to all future posts, I will be using Charles Thomson’s English translation of the Greek Septuagint, which was published in 1808, a few decades before Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton published his version of the Greek Septuagint in 1851.
Daniel 9 states as follows: IN the first year of Darius, the son of Assuerus of the seed of the Medes, who reigned over the kingdom of the Chaldeans, I Daniel understood by the books that the number of the years, which was a word of the Lord to Jeremias the prophet, for the accomplishment of the desolation of Jerusalem, was seventy years. Therefore I turned my face to the Lord my God, to seek a prayer and supplication by fasting and sackcloth. And I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession and said, O Lord, the God great and marvelous, who keepest thy covenant and thy mercy for them who love thee and keep thy commandments! We (Israelites, particularly the House of Judah), have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have transgressed and apostatized and turned away from thy commandments, and from thy judgments, and have not hearkened to thy servants the prophets who spoke in thy name to our kings and our chiefs and our fathers and to all the people of the land. To thee, O Lord, belongeth righteousness; but to us confusion of face as at this day – to the man Juda and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to all Israel – and to those near (The House of Judah) and to them far off (The House of Israel), in every land where thou hast scattered them for their breach of covenant of which they have been guilty. In thee, O Lord, is our righteousness. Though to us belongeth confusion of face – to our kings, and our chiefs and our fathers, who have sinned against thee; with the Lord our God are tender mercies and forgivenesses. Because we apostatized and did not hearken to the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His Laws which He set before us by the ministry of His servants the prophets; and all Israel transgressed Thy Law, and declined to hearken to Thy Voice; therefore upon us came the curse and the execration which is written in the Law of Moses the servant of God. Because we sinned against Him, therefore He confirmed His words which He spoke against us and against our judges who judge us, by bringing upon us great evils, such as never happened under the whole heaven; as was the case in Jerusalem. According to what is written in the Law of Moses all those evils have come upon us. We indeed did not supplicate the favor of the Lord our God, by turning from all our wickedness, therefore that we might be made sensible of all thy truth, the Lord hath indeed been watchful and hath brought upon us these things. For the Lord our God is righteous in every act of His which He hath done, and we have not hearkened to His Voice.
Now, O Lord our God, who broughtest Thy People our of the land of Egypt with a strong hand and who hast made Thyself a great name as at this day; we have sinned, we have committed iniquity. Mercy, O Lord, is thine in all things; let Thy wrath, I beseech Thee, be turned away and Thine indignation from Thy city Jerusalem, Thy holy mountain. Because we have sinned, therefore for our iniquities and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Thy People are become an object of reproach among all those around us. But now, O Lord our God, hearken to the prayer of Thy servant and to his supplications; and let Thy face shine upon Thy sanctuary which is desolate. For Thine own sake, O Lord, incline, O my God, Thine ear and hear. Open Thine eyes and behold our desolation and that of Thy city which is called by Thy name. For we do not for our own righteousness present our piteous case before Thee; but we cast ourselves upon Thy tender mercies, O Lord, which are many. O Lord hear! O Lord, be appeased! Attend, O Lord! Defer not, O my God, for Thine own sake! for Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name.
Now whilst I was still speaking and praying and confessing mine own sins and the sins of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the mount of the sanctuary; even whilst I was uttering this prayer, behold a man, Gabriel, whom I saw in the former vision, came flying and touched me about the hour of the evening sacrifice and instructed me and conversed with me and said,
Daniel, I am now come to teach thee knowledge. At the beginning of thy supplication a word went forth, and I am come to tell thee; for thou art a man greatly beloved. Be instructed therefore by the decree, and understand by the vision. Seventy weeks are set apart for thy people and for the holy city; for finishing sin offerings, and for sealing up sin offerings; and blotting out iniquities, and making atonement for iniquities; and for bringing in an everlasting righteousness; and for sealing vision and prophet; and for anointing the Holy of Holies. (Mission accomplished by Yahshuah at His first coming.)
Therefore thou art to know and understand, that from the going forth of a word for returning an answer and for building Jerusalem until an Anointed ruler are seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks. They shall indeed return and a street shall be built and a wall, and these times shall be emptied out, and after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah shall be cut off, though there is no crime in Him; and He, with the ruler who is coming, will destroy the city and the sanctuary. They shall be destroyed with a deluge, and even to the end of the war determined on in course, with desolations. Now one week shall confirm a covenant for many and in the half of that week My sacrifice and libation shall be taken away. And upon the temple shall be an abomination of the desolations, and at the end of a time, an end shall be put to that desolation.
My Thoughts: Most dispensational evangelicals in “Christianity” today believe that there is a gap between the 69th and the 70th-week of Daniel called the “church age,” i.e. Revelation 2:1 – 3:22, and that the 70th week of Daniel is yet future, i.e. the 7 year Tribulation period before the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ. However, as I have written in my book on page 296, Kenneth Schortgen, in his book, The Israel Deception, believes that the entire prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27 – The 70-Week Prophecy – covers a period of seventy consecutive weeks. He states that, “Logic requires that 70 weeks refers to one consecutive block of time, in other words, to 70 straight sequential weeks. The truth is, there is no example in the Bible of a stated time-period starting, stopping, and then starting again. All Biblical reference to time are consecutive:
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40 days and 40 nights (Genesis 7:4);
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400 years in Egypt (Genesis 15:13); and
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70 years of captivity (Daniel 9:2); etc.
Schortgen further states that, “In Daniel’s prophecy, the 70 weeks were to begin during the rule of the Persians and continue to the time of Christ…Jesus Christ ceased the Old Covenant ways of sacrifice and oblation through His final sacrifice (on the cross), and at the moment of His Resurrection.”
I agree!
Remember, in Bible prophecy, a day = a year of 360 days. There were 360 days on Yahweh’s Calendar. See Numbers 13:25; Ezekiel 4:4-8; and Luke 13:32-33.
So, “Daniel understood by the books that the number of the years, which was a word of the Lord to Jeremias the prophet, for the accomplishment of the desolation of Jerusalem, was seventy years.”
70 years x 7 days = 490 years
One week = 7 days.
Seven weeks of years x 7 days = 49 years.
Sixty-two weeks of years x 7 days = 434 years.
Subtotal of 483 years.
One final week of years = 7 years.
Grand Total of 490 years = the 70 weeks of judgment on the House of Judah. Mission accomplished!
30 or 33 A.D. – Yahshuah is crucified, buried, and resurrected
70 A.D. – Jerusalem and the temple are razed to the ground by the Romans, i.e. Titus and Vespasian
73 A.D. – The stronghold of Masada has fallen
Daniel 9:24-26 has been fulfilled. Reread the last half of verse 27 that has been underlined…what is located there now that YAHWEH considers to be a desolation?