The Gospel Truth and Bible Prophecy

Chapter Six: THE 70 WEEKS OF DANIEL

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city... Daniel 9:24a

The 9th chapter of Daniel contains one of the most amazing prophecies of the Bible. It gives the exact day that the Messiah would present Himself in Jerusalem, and tells us some of the things that will mark the last seven years of the world as we know it. In just four verses we receive the timetable for Messiah's first coming, as well as some signs of his second coming.

The chapter was written in the first year of the reign of Darius, which would be 538 BC, and begins with Daniel realizing the seventy years of the Babylonian Captivity, prophesied in Jeremiah 25:11, was almost finished:

And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. (Jeremiah 25:11)

The reason God punished Judah was because of their worshipping false gods and idols. God commanded them to let their farmland rest one out of every seven years. They neglected God's command for 490 years, or seventy times. So God punished them with captivity for seventy years.

The first nineteen verses of Daniel 9 contain his prayer of confession of the sins of his people and his request that God turn His anger away from them. Then, in the middle of his prayer, the angel Gabriel appears to Daniel to help him understand what is in store for the Jews and the holy city of Jerusalem. This is known as the 70-week prophecy:

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.(v24)

Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. (v25)

And after the threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. (v26)

And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (v27)

In verse 24, "upon thy (Daniel's) people and upon thy holy city" means that this prophecy applies to the tribe of Judah and Jerusalem. And the 70 weeks would be needed in order for the six goals Daniel had just prayed for to take place:

· To finish transgression

· To put an end to sin

· To atone for wickedness

· To bring in everlasting righteousness

· To seal up vision and prophecy

· To anoint the most holy

In this prophecy, the Hebrew word for "sevens" is "shabuwa," and it means a period of seven.

SHABUWA (shaw-boo'-ah); Noun Masculine, Strong #: 7620: seven, period of seven (days or years), heptad, week; Feast of Weeks (Shavuot)[62]

In the original Hebrew, it meant a "Feast of Weeks". Since there was only one "Feast of Weeks" per year, seventy shabuwa means seventy years.[63] We will also see that the fulfillment of the prophecy proves that the period of sevens referred to is years – 70 weeks of years, or 70 x 7 = 490 years.