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. |
Its end shall come with a flood: literally “his (or its) end is a flood.” It is unclear what the intended antecedent of the pronoun is. It can be either the leader with his invading army or the city with its sanctuary. If the latter interpretation is adopted, it may be necessary to translate “they (the city and the sanctuary) will come to an end like a flood” or “the city with its Temple will be destroyed as in a flood.” The flood is to be understood figuratively and not in its literal sense. The former interpretation, which is perhaps more likely, can be rendered as in, “The end of that prince will be catastrophe.”(1)
Traditional Jewish commentary helps confirm the long time frame of Daniel's prophetic passages, linking some of their complete fulfillment to the future coming of Messiah as King such as this commentary by Rashi.
"The end of the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem will be total destruction through the promised Messianic King."(2)
The end of Jerusalem will be like a flood.(2)
That this ungodly prince who comes as the desolater of the city and the sanctuary will on that account become desolate, that the destruction irrevocably decreed by God shall pour down upon him as a flood.(3)
Perhaps points to both the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and the end of the age. It may come suddenly and overwhelmingly.(4)
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). Pťer-Contesse, Ren.̌ ; Ellington, John: A Handbook on the Book of Daniel. New York : United Bible Societies, 1993 (UBS Handbook Series; Helps for Translators), S. 256
2). ArtScroll Tanach Series on Daniel p.264
3). Keil, Carl Friedrich ; Delitzsch, Franz: Commentary on the Old Testament. Peabody, MA : Hendrickson, 2002, S. 9:740
4). Discovery Series, The Daniel Papers, RBC Ministries p.24.
