The Prophecy - Daniel 9:24-27 - Daniel's 70 Weeks |
Old Testament Prophecy |
24) Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place. 25) So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. 26 ) Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. 27) And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate. |
Daniel's prophecy uses some key words in Dan. 9:26. The very first word "After" is a major word for understanding this prophecy. "After" tells us that sometime after the conclusion of the 62 Sevens (same as sixty two weeks or 434 Years) something(s) will take place. After does not mean "at the end of." It means sometime later than the end of the 434 years something will happen.
"After" used here covers both very short term and a much longer term timeline. After the 62 weeks (probably within days) the Messiah was "cut off" or crucified. Years later (38-40 years) "after" the sixty-two sevens were fulfilled, the city of Jerusalem was destroyed (70 A.D.).
62 Weeks is also known as "seven times sixty-two years" or "sixty-two times seven years" in some bible versions. Also can be found as “four hundred and thirty-four years.”
"After" at a later time, "after the threescore and two weeks" which follows the first seven weeks (that is after the 69 weeks) messiah the prince will be "cut off" and Jerusalem will again be destroyed by the people of another "prince" which is yet to come.(1)
Here are some links that have been created to help move around inside of the Daniel 9:24-27 prophecy.
Other links of interest include:
1). Things to Come by J. Dwight Pentecost p.241
Also contributing - Pter-Contesse, Ren. ; Ellington, John: A Handbook on the Book of Daniel. New York : United Bible Societies, 1993 (UBS Handbook Series; Helps for Translators), S. 255
