The Little Book

Number 69
The Prophecy of Daniel’s Seventy Weeks And The Meaning of Daniel 9:25-27

Daniel 9:24:  “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.”

These seventy weeks are fulfilled.

To finish the transgression:

This transgression is rebellion.  Jesus’ death for our sins makes His Holy Spirit available to us so we can overcome the rebellion that is within us.  We cannot overcome it without His Holy Spirit.

To make an end of sins:

The phrase ‘make an end’ is one Hebrew word. This Hebrew word chatham: Strong’s Hebrews Lexicon #H2856(KJV):  to close up; especially to seal: make and end, …

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ was the end of sin. God has sealed us with the Holy Spirit.

II Corinthians 1:22, “Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.”

The Holy Spirit in you cannot sin. You are married to Christ. The Church will be the bride of Christ which cannot sin.

1 John 3:9, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”

Jesus Christ died for our past sins. Our physical self may sin but our Father forgives us. He chastises us for our sins as judgement begins now with us.

1 Peter 4:17, “For the time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?”

To make reconciliation for iniquity:

God reconciled us to Himself while we were still His enemies. Jesus’ death for us fulfilled God’s law that the wages of sin is death. His death paid for our sins and reconciled us to God.

To bring in everlasting righteousness:

Our faith in Jesus Christ gives us the righteousness of God.

Romans 3:21-22

21 “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;”

22 “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:”

Romans 4:13, “For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.”

Galatians 3:6, “Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

Galatians 5:5, “For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.”

To seal up the vision and prophecy:

The vision spoken of here is the vision of the ‘image’ in Daniel 2.  All of Daniel’s other visions elaborate on Daniels first vision of the four kingdoms in chapter 2.

The vision and all prophecy was sealed by the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

To anoint the Most Holy:

Jesus was anointed at the beginning of His three and one half year ministry following John the Baptist’s ministry.

Luke 4:18: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,” – (The first day of The Feast of Trumpets in 27 C.E.)

The Meaning of Daniel 9:25-27

Daniel 9:25

Daniel 9:25:  “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.”

The seven weeks and threescore and two weeks are a combined sixty-nine-week period.

The commandment to restore and build Jerusalem was given by Artaxerxes Longimanus on March 14, 445 B.C.

Study Nehemiah 2.

Jesus presented Himself as King on April 6, 32 A.D. riding into Jerusalem upon a donkey (Palm Sunday).  From March 14, 445 B.C. until April 6, 32 A.D. is sixty-nine weeks.

Until that day Jesus avoided the people’s attempts to promote Him as King.

On this particular day Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem upon a donkey fulfilling a prophecy by Zechariah that the Messiah would present Himself as King in just this way.

Zechariah 9:9:  “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.”

As Jesus rode into Jerusalem the disciples proclaimed Jesus as King.

Luke 19:38:  “Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.”

Jesus said in Luke 19:40 that if the disciples had not proclaimed what they did that the stones would immediately cry out.

Luke 19:40:  “And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.”

This is the only occasion that Jesus presented Himself as king.  It occurred on April 6, 32 A.D.

When we examine the period between March 14, 445 B.C. and April 6, 32 A.D., and correct for leap years, we discover that it is 173,880 days exactly, to the very day.

Here are the calculations.  March 14, 445 B.C. to March 14, 32 A.D. is 476 years.  (1 B.C. to 1 A.D. is one year, there is no year zero).

476 years x 365 days per year = 173,740 days.

Add for leap years = 116 days (Leap years do not occur in century years unless divisible by 400 (therefore, we must add three less leap years in four centuries).

March 14th to April 6th = 24 days

173,740 days + 116 days + 24 days = 173,880 days

This is the sixty-nine weeks from the time Artaxerxes gave the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem until the disciples proclaimed Jesus as King as He rode into Jerusalem upon a donkey.  This is now observed as Palm Sunday.

The last part of Daniel 9:25 states, “…. the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times.”

The street and wall were built again in spite of the delays and hardships caused by the enemies of the Jews.

Study the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Daniel 9:26

Daniel 9:26:  “And after 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.”

The first part of Daniel 9:26 states, “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off.”

This threescore and two weeks are part of the sixty-nine weeks shown in verse 25.

The Bible lists the weeks: seven weeks and threescore and two weeks.  The seven weeks are fulfilled with the restoring and building of Jerusalem and the building of the wall and the street.

When these things are completed, which will take seven weeks, the sixty-two weeks begin.

The next part of this verse, “…. but not for Himself:”

This means Jesus was crucified for our sake.

The next part of this verse, “….and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;”

This means the soldiers shall destroy the city and the temple.

The next part of Daniel 9:26 states, “….and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”:

This means the end shall come like a flood.  It is determined to let the place and people be destroyed by the desolations of war.

Daniel 9:27

Daniel 9:27: “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.”

In the first part of this verse, “…. he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week.”

This verse skips to the time of the end.

This means that the Son of Perdition, the person who proclaims himself to be God shown in II Thessalonians 2:3-4, will confirm a seven-year covenant that He has made with the Jewish people.

This person will be the leader of the fourth kingdom spoken of in Daniel 7.

This kingdom is the revived Holy Roman Empire.

This person as leader of this fourth kingdom will have made a covenant with the Jewish people to protect them from their enemies. He will confirm or strengthen this covenant between the Holy Roman Empire and the Jews.

In the next part of this verse, “…. In the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease”:

This means that after three- and one-half years the Son of Perdition will break the covenant and cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.

In the last part of this verse, “…. For the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate”:

Overspreading:  Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance #3671 from #3670:  an edge or extremity; a pinnacle, to project laterally, etc.

This means the Awful Horror will be placed on a point in the temple and will remain there until the one who put it there meets the end which God has prepared for him.

This Awful Horror will be the Image of the Beast.

This will be comparable to Antiochus IV Epiphanes setting up the abomination of desolation upon the alter of burnt offerings in the Jewish temple on the fifteenth day of Chislev in the hundred forty and fifth year.

The Jerusalem Bible, Reader’s Edition: I Maccabees 1:52-62,

See the letter “What is the Abomination of Desolation?”