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Daniel’s Seventy
Weeks
By Alfred Henry Burton
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Bibles & Publications
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Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
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Contents
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks ...................................................5
Introduction ..................................................................................5
Daniel’s Supplication ....................................................................7
e Seventy Weeks ..................................................................... 12
“the Messiah, the Prince” ............................................................ 16
“the Prince at Shall Come” .....................................................20
After Two Days ..........................................................................26
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
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Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
Introduction
We have thought it well, before turning to the special
study of Daniel’s seventy weeks, to give a brief outline of
the dispensations, illustrated by a diagram.
e line A to B represents the period of about 4000
years from Eden to Calvary. e rst circle represents the
present dispensation from Pentecost to the coming of the
Lord to take the saints to meet Him in the air (1ess. 4).
e line between the two circles is the short period of not
much more than seven years between the removal of the
church and the return of Christ to judge the living nations
(Matt. 25:31-46). e second circle is the period of the
millennial reign of Christ. e short line that follows is
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
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the brief period of the rebellion of the unconverted of the
millennial period, those that have been born, but not new-
born during the thousand years; then at E commences the
eternal state.
1
e lower line in our diagram represents the 70 weeks
of Daniel. As the reader will see in the following pages,
this period is divided into three portions — 7 weeks, 62
weeks, and 1 week. ese are weeks of years; that is, each
day stands for one year. Hence the 70 weeks are 490 years.
e point of departure of the prophecy is the “going forth
of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.”
For this we must go to Nehemiah 2, and not to Ezra 7.
Ezra had to do with the building of the temple, Nehemiah
with the building of the city. Hence the 70 weeks start at
about B.C. 445.
In Daniel 9:26, the denite article should be placed,
“And after the three score and two weeks”; that is, after the
69th week Messiah was cut o. is verse, then, takes us to
the Cross; then comes a long dreary waste of desolations for
the Jewish people, during which time is not counted. is
is the period of the rst circle — desolation for Jerusalem
and the Jew, but salvation for the Gentile. e 70th week
is rent o from the 69 weeks, and we nd it in the period
between the two circles. e rst circle has already extended
to more than 1900 years. All the events described in the
book of Revelation (Rev. 4-19) are crowded into the short
space of seven years; that is, the short line between the two
circles.
e last half of that period, or 1260 days, is taken up
with the great tribulation which will come upon all the
1 For a fuller explanation the reader is referred to a pamphlet by
the author entitled Prophetic Outlines.
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
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world, but will fall with special severity upon the Jews. Out
of that time of trial the true church, called out during the
present dispensation, will be kept (Rev. 3:10), having been
removed at the coming of the Lord.
Daniel’s Supplication
(Dan. 9:1-19)
e portion now before us is lled with moral
instruction of the most important character. For a right
and intelligent understanding of its prophetic teaching, it
is no doubt essential that we should study it from a correct
dispensational standpoint. But it may safely be asserted
that no exposition, however clear, no interpretation,
however sound, will suce unless accompanied by that
attitude of soul so beautifully depicted in Daniel himself at
the commencement of our chapter.
It should be observed that the chapters in the book of
Daniel do not follow one another in strict chronological
sequence. Daniel 6 describes what took place in the reign
of Darius the Mede, whereas Daniel 7 and 8, record visions
of the prophet before the Babylonian dynasty had passed
away. But here in Daniel 9 we nd ourselves once more in
the time of Darius.
Babylon had been judged. But Daniel’s heart is still
oppressed with a heavy burden. e “desolations of
Jerusalem” still continued. Was there to be no end to this?
Could the heart that feared the Lord remain satised so
long as the people of God were found in misfortune and
distress? Neither Media nor Persia was the land that God
had promised to Abraham, any more than was Babylon;
and yet a multitude of God’s people were still in captivity,
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
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and worse than that, the city of Jehovah’s choice was still a
heap of rubbish and desolation.
Daniel was a man of faith. Years before (Dan. 2), he
had uttered his rm and solemn conviction that there was
a God in heaven; that God was his God, and this captive
people belonged to Him. Daniel knew enough of God
to be assured that this desolation could not last forever,
deliverance must come. is it was that produced in him
that attitude of soul depicted in this marvelous outpouring
of his heart in confession and prayer.
But further, Daniel nds comfort and relief in turning
to the Word of the Lord. As with Jeremiah a short while
previously (Jer. 15:16), so now with Daniel, “y Word
was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” He was a
diligent student of the Scripture, and not only a prophet.
At the close of the chapter, he was inspired of God to give
forth one of the most marvelous prophetic utterances of
the Old Testament, but here at the commencement he is
reading with deep and prayerful attention what had already
been communicated through Jeremiah.
Away in Jerusalem with broken heart and streaming
eyes (Jer. 9:1) had Jeremiah stood forth and faithfully
declared the warnings of Jehovah in the midst of the
rebellious nation.
“e word of the Lord hath come unto me, and I have
spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not
hearkened” (Jer. 25:3).
But now the threatened judgment is at the door, and
Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, was Jehovah’s
servant to carry this judgment into execution (Jer. 25:9;
27:6).
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
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And yet amidst the desolations that were to follow, faith
is not left without its consolation.
“And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are
accomplished, that I will punish the King of Babylon” (Jer.
25:12).
Seventy years! e time had just come. We can well
imagine the eager interest with which the captive in the
Persian kingdom perused the letter sent by Jeremiah the
prophet “From Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders
which were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to
the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar
had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon” (Jer.
29:1).
Did not Daniel see in that awful night of revelry in
Babylon, when the nger of God wrote upon the walls of
Belshazzar’s palace, “God hath numbered thy kingdom
and nished it” — did he not see in that the fulllment of
this very prediction? e seventy years had come, and the
stroke of judgment had fallen upon Babylon.
But Jerusalem was still desolate, and Daniel was still
a captive. On he reads — “For thus saith the Lord, at
after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit
you, and perform My good word toward you in causing you
to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think
toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of
evil, to give you an expected end. en shall ye call upon
Me, and ye shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken
unto you. And ye shall seek Me, and nd Me, when ye
shall search for Me with all your heart. And I will be found
of you, saith the Lord; and I will turn away your captivity,
and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the
places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
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bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be
carried away captive” (Jer. 29:10-14).
e immediate eect of this discovery upon Daniel’s
spirit is most beautiful. Instead of springing to his feet in
an ecstasy of joy, he falls upon his knees in confession and
prayer. We may surely learn a deep lesson in all this. We
might safely say that not a single captive Israelite was less
guilty than was Daniel, and yet in the spirit of Christ he
identies himself with the sin and failure of the nation.
Our blessed Lord and Saviour identied Himself truly
with our sin after a manner that no other could. Spotless
Himself, He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. In
redeeming love He identied Himself with His people’s
sins in such a way that He bowed His head beneath the
judgment of a holy God on their account. is none other
could do.
“For none but He in heaven or earth
Could oer that which justice claimed.”
“We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have
done wickedly, and have rebelled,” says Daniel, confessing
the sin of the nation as his own.
“Neither have we hearkened unto y servants the
prophets, which spake in y name to our kings, our
princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land”
(Dan. 9:6).
When God speaks He speaks to all. A principle lies
here which in these days of ecclesiastical and sacerdotal
pretension it is most important to hold fast. Not only did
God send His message to the kings and princes, but to all
the people of the land. When God speaks, every soul of
man is responsible to listen and obey.
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“Righteousness belongeth unto ee, but unto us
confusion of face” (Dan. 9:7).
Not only does Daniel condemn himself and confess his
own and the nation’s sins, but he justies God.
But with the Lord were found “mercies and
forgivenesses,” although not one of the people deserved
them. “e law of Moses the servant of God” had been
transgressed; against God they had sinned, and “yet made
we not our prayer before the Lord our God.” e judgment
long since threatened (see Deut. 28; Lev. 26) had now
come, and Daniel in the energy of faith avails himself
of the gracious provision of the Lord who had declared
through His servant Moses, in Leviticus 26:40, “If they
shall confess their iniquity … then will I remember My
covenant.”
Daniel pleads with Jehovah on the ground of redemption,
“And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought y people
forth out of the land of Egypt.” He pleads with Him, too,
on the ground of righteousness, “O Lord, according to all
y righteousness, I beseech ee, let ine anger and y
fury be turned away.”
If God was righteous in taking vengeance, He was
righteous also in fullling His promise of blessing.
Yet once more does Daniel plead, and this time on the
ground that low as they had sunk, they nevertheless were
the people of the Lord, “y city Jerusalem … y holy
mountain … y people” (Dan. 9:16). is is a beautiful
climax to Daniel’s petition. He can claim nothing upon
the ground of what the people are in themselves, but he
does present an earnest petition on the ground that they
are “y people” and “called by y name.”
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It is beautiful, too, to see how if Daniel identied himself
with the nation in their sin, he likewise links them with
himself in confession, though possibly and most probably
few were to be found ready to take that ground in actual
fact, “We do not present our supplications before ee for
our righteousnesses, but for y great mercies” (Dan. 9:18).
e Seventy Weeks
(Dan. 9:20-27)
We have been considering the attitude of Daniel’s soul
as revealed in the opening part of this chapter.
Before passing to an examination of the prophecy at
the close, it may be well to remark that the prophet in his
prayer and confession dwells upon “the oath that is written
in the law of Moses” (Dan. 9:11-14), and does not allude to
the promises made to Abraham. Upon the ground of these
promises the Jewish people will eventually be brought into
their land in blessing; but meanwhile they are put under
responsibility to walk in obedience to the law.
In Leviticus 26:3-14, a most beautiful picture is drawn
of the earthly blessings that would have been theirs had
they walked in Jehovah’s statutes and kept Jehovah’s
commandments. Fruitful seasons, plentiful harvests, peace
and prosperity, would have marked their inheritance.
Jehovah Himself would have set up His tabernacle amongst
them, and would have manifested to all the nations around
that He, their God, dwelt and walked amongst them, and
that they were His redeemed and chosen people.
en follows a long, description of the judgments, woes,
and desolations that would fall upon them in the event of
their disobedience.
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“I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw
out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and
your cities waste. en shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths,
as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land;
even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her Sabbaths” (Lev.
26:33-35).
It was this very judgment that in Daniel’s day was being
put into execution. e captivity in Babylon, whither Daniel
had been carried, was to this very end, “To fulll the word
of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had
enjoyed her Sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she
kept Sabbath, to fulll three score and ten years” (2Chron.
36:21).
ese seventy years were now about to end, and Daniel,
deeply conscious of the desolation that had befallen the
city and sanctuary of Jehovah, confessed the sin that
had brought it all about. He appeals to the Lord for His
forgiving mercy, “for y city and y people are called by
y name.” To faith they were still the people of God.
Daniel’s lips were still moving in prayer when God
sends the answer. is is not always the case. In the next
chapter we nd Daniel praying for three weeks before the
answer came. Sometimes when an immediate answer is not
given we are disposed to assume that God has not heard.
But this is not so. Faith may need to be tested, and there
may be other reasons too, but “is is the condence that
we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His
will, He heareth us” (1John 5:14-15).
And now a fresh revelation is made to Daniel. “Seventy
weeks are determined upon y people” (Dan. 9:24). To
understand the prophecy we must banish from our minds
all idea of applying it to the church, or the people of God
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
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in this present time. Daniel’s people were not Christians,
but Jews. “y holy city” was none other than Jerusalem.
Indeed the whole atmosphere of the passage was Jewish.
It was “about the time of the evening oblation” (Dan. 9:21)
that the prophet bent his knees in prayer. Far away from
Jerusalem, deprived of the joy of treading the courts of the
house of the Lord, nevertheless his thoughts were there,
and God answers him according to His promise (Lev.
36:40-46).
e study of Jeremiah’s prophecy had brought to
Daniel’s soul the glad prospect of a speedy deliverance, but
the Spirit of God here carries his thoughts forward to a
time of blessing which has not yet been reached.
“Seventy weeks.” ese seventy weeks, all are agreed,
represent weeks, not of days, but of years. at is to say,
each day of the week stands for a year; therefore seventy
weeks represent 7 x 70, that is, 490 years.
“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people [that
is, the Jews], and upon thy holy city [that is, Jerusalem], to
nish 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.”
It is to be noted how God, in His answer, takes up the
very words that had been on the lips of His beloved and
heartbroken servant. Daniel had been confessing as his
own the sins, iniquities, and transgressions of his people,
and God holds out the bright and glorious prospect that all
this history of failure and guilt should end, and “everlasting
righteousness” take its place. Clearly, this has not yet
been fullled. Israel lies at this very moment under the
consequences of far greater guilt than that which brought
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upon them the captivity in Babylon. If for seventy years
they were driven from their land because of idolatry and
departure from the law, what has been the greater crime
which has scattered them for nearly nineteen hundred
years? Is it not the rejection and murder of their Messiah,
foretold in this very prophecy we are considering? And yet
there is forgiveness for even this!
Some may be surprised at the thought that all the
blessings enumerated in this verse are yet future. ey may
ask, Has not an end been made of our sins at the cross? Has not
everlasting righteousness been already brought in? Quite true,
the believer in Christ today may rejoice to know that all his
sins have been put away by the blood of Christ, and that
he is now made the righteousness of God in Christ (2Cor.
5:21). e Christian now may thus apply these expressions
to himself, while yet the proper fulllment of it all for
Daniel’s people awaits a coming day.
“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 three score and two weeks.”
What a marvelous answer to Daniel’s prayer is here!
What an honor conferred upon this faithful servant, to
reveal to him and through him to others, the very time of
Messiah’s advent. For the dates are here precise. e point
of time where these seventy weeks commence is given in no
vague and uncertain manner. Some have thought that the
passage referred to Ezra’s journey to Jerusalem about B.C.
536. But the main object before Ezra was the building of
the house or temple (Ezra 1:2-3), whereas here it speaks of
a commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem — not
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
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the temple, but the city. e allusion is clearly to Nehemiah
1 and 2, and the date is B.C. 445.
From this date, then, the month Nisan in the twentieth
year of Artaxerxes, unto the Messiah, the Prince, were to be
reckoned sixty-nine weeks, that is, 7 x 69 years = 483 years.
But these 69 weeks are subdivided into 7 weeks and 62
weeks. It may be asked, Why is this? e 7 weeks, no doubt,
was the time during which the wall was being built, “the
street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous
times.” ese troublous times are described in the book of
Nehemiah, when the builders, everyone with one of his
hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held
a weapon (Neh. 4:17). en follow the 62 weeks, making a
period of 69 weeks, or 483 years to the time of Christ.
“the Messiah, the Prince”
(Dan. 9:26)
ere is nothing more striking than the deniteness
of the dates recorded in Scripture, both historically and
prophetically. Rationalistic criticism, which is ever hostile,
has not hesitated to impugn the correctness of some of
these dates, so far as the history of the Bible is concerned,
but in result has been forced to bow and acknowledge their
accuracy.
We are now considering dates which are by no means
vague, and it is well to remember, whatever the “higher
critics” may endeavor to prove to the contrary, that Daniel
was uttering a prophecy and not recording history. e
communication given to Daniel by the angel Gabriel was
made in the rst year of Darius the Mede (Dan. 9:1),
about B.C. 538, whereas the point of departure for the
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seventy weeks was, as we have seen, the twentieth year of
Artaxerxes (Neh. 2:1), or B.C. 445. e very month even
is stated, “And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the
twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king.”
A most interesting reckoning of dates, showing the
accuracy of this prophetic period, will be found in Sir
Robert Anderson’s work, “Daniel in the Critic’s Den.” e
author tells us: “e edict for the rebuilding of Jerusalem
is to be assigned to the 1st Nisan, B.C. 445. From that
epoch, ‘unto the Messiah, the Prince,’ was to be sixty-
nine sevens of prophetic years.
2
But 483 years of 360 days
contain 173,880 days; and 173,880 days, computed from
the 1st day of Nisan in the 20th year of Artaxerxes, ended
on the 10th day of Nisan in the 18th year of Tiberias
Caesar — the day when, in the fulllment of this, and of
Zechariah’s prophecy, our Lord made His rst and only
public entry into Jerusalem.”
Whether we adopt the exact conclusions of the writer
or no, there can be no doubt that the period of the advent of
the Messiah is here intentionally most accurately specied.
And, moreover, it is certain that godly souls in Israel were
led at this very time to expect the coming of Christ. Wise
men had come to Jerusalem from the east to worship Him,
and all Jerusalem was troubled by their visit.
Simeon, in the same city, was “waiting for the consolation
of Israel” (Luke 2:25); nor was he alone in this, for Anna,
the prophetess, “spake of Him to all them that looked for
redemption in Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38). Besides this, the
testimony of John the Baptist rang forth in the wilderness
2 e prophetic year has 360 days. is will be evident to
anyone who compares the various ways of describing the same
prophetic period, namely, “time, times, and a half” (that is, 3
and a half years), “forty-two months,” and “1260 days.”
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
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of Judea, and in all the country about Jordan, calling upon
the nation to repent. His voice was as of one crying in the
wilderness, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.”
e land of Judea, and especially the city of Jerusalem,
was greatly stirred; minds were in suspense. “e people
were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of
John, whether he were the Christ or not” (Luke 3:15).
Priests and Levites came from Jerusalem, and sought
out the Baptist in the wilderness, in their anxiety to know
who the man could be that drew such crowds to the river
Jordan, and John “confessed, and denied not; but confessed,
I am not the Christ” (John 1:20).
e Christ, then, was expected, and about this very
time, in fulllment of Daniel’s prophecy that “‘Unto the
Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks and three score
and two weeks.”
But not only did Daniel foretell His advent, His
rejection was as clearly predicted. “And after the three score
and two weeks” — for the denite article should here
be inserted — “shall Messiah be cut o.” e marginal
reading of the next clause is doubtless correct — “and
shall have nothing.” He was “born King of the Jews,” but
they “received Him not.” ough the clearest prophecies
were fullled at His birth and all through His life of public
service, yet was the Jewish nation blind as to His Messianic
glory. e gospel narrative bears ample testimony to this.
Scribes and Pharisees, chief priests and rulers, yes, all the
religious teachers of the people, were rst and foremost in
His rejection, and at length fullled the very voices of the
prophets, read every Sabbath-day in their synagogues, in
condemning Him (Acts 13:27).
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
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“After the three score and two weeks,” that is after
sixty-nine of the weeks were ended (for seven weeks had
preceded the sixty-two), Messiah was cut o, and, instead
of the crown of David, was given the cross; He received
nothing of His earthly glory in connection with Israel.
God had other purposes in view, purposes not revealed in
the prophetic writings of Old Testament times, purposes
hidden until the tting time for their revelation had come,
and until that which formed the basis of their development
had been accomplished in the death, resurrection, and
ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the consequent
descent of the Holy Spirit — yes, God’s eternal purpose
in the calling of the church, out of this world of Jew and
Gentile, to share the heavenly glory of Christ.
Daniel was inspired to predict the cutting o and
rejection of the Messiah. us far the prophecy has been
fullled; sixty-nine out of the seventy have been accounted
for, but the blessings of verse 24 have not yet been realized
by Daniel’s people. So far from that, another prince is
spoken of, a prince yet to come, whose people in the past
destroyed the city and the sanctuary. If the cross of Christ
has brought to the Christian innite and eternal spiritual
blessings, it has left the nation of Israel in a worse, far worse,
condition than that in which they were when Daniel was a
captive at Babylon.
e destruction of Jerusalem, and not her nal blessing,
followed the cutting o of Messiah. A people came, the
Romans, under Titus, who destroyed Jerusalem and the
Temple, and ever since the people have been dispersed
and trodden down. An evident break occurs here in the
prophecy. e seventieth week is separated from the
sixty-ninth. e time of the cutting o of Messiah is
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
20
clearly and accurately reckoned, then follows an undened
and lengthened period during which the city and sanctuary
are destroyed, desolations are determined, and unrest,
confusion and war are prominent. How truly this has been
the history of the Jewish nation since, yea, because of their
rejection and crucixion of Messiah, is manifest to all.
“the Prince at Shall Come”
(Dan. 9:26)
We have followed the course of this remarkable
prophecy down to the rejection of the Messiah, the Prince,
after the sixty-ninth week. We have noticed the prediction,
already fullled, of the destruction of Jerusalem by the
Romans under Titus, which took place about A.D. 70. We
have seen, too, that there is an undened period of time
following upon this.
No hint is given in the passage before us as to the length
of this unreckoned stretch of time, nor are we here told
what special work of the Spirit of God was to ll up this
interval between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks. But
the intelligent Christian will be in no diculty. e calling
out of the church takes place during this parenthetical
period.
Most readers of these pages are familiar with the
thought that the history of the church upon earth, reaching
from Pentecost to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in
the air (1ess. 4), forms a break in God’s dealings with
the earth. In the portion of Holy Scripture we are now
considering, this parenthesis, though not enlarged upon,
is yet most clearly foreseen. But it will come to an end, and
that in a very solemn manner. e Lord Jesus Christ will
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
21
descend from heaven into the air and remove His saints,
and then once more will God take up the thread of His
earthly dealings, and Israel will again become the special
object of His interest.
e “city and sanctuary,” then, we have seen were
destroyed by the Romans. ey are not mentioned by
name, but it is the Romans that we are to understand by the
expression, “e people of the prince that shall come” (Dan.
9:26), for they it was that history informs us destroyed the
city of Jerusalem.
But this expression demands a closer attention. If “the
people” are the Romans, who is “the prince”? It must
be evident to everybody that this cannot be the same as
“the Messiah, the Prince.” In no sense could the Romans
have been called the people of the Messiah. Nor are we
to understand Titus to be that prince. Titus might have
been spoken of as their prince at the time that the Romans
destroyed the city, but here we are told, not that the people
shall come, but that the prince shall come. He has not yet
come, nor will he come until the time of the end of those
desolations determined upon Daniel’s people, the Jews. In
other words, the Roman empire is to revive, and will yet be
seen under the control of this very prince.
e last phase of the Roman empire, that of the division
into ten kingdoms, has not yet been introduced. Some are
in the habit of looking upon the present broken condition
of what once was an undivided empire as the ten-toed or
ten-horned period. But a passage in the Revelation already
noticed will show that this is not the case. ere we are told
that — “e ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings,
which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power
as kings one hour with the beast” (Rev. 17:12).
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
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Here by the expression “the beast” we are to understand
not so much the empire in itself as its head. e Roman
empire of the future will be dominated by one man,
sometimes called “the beast” (Rev. 13:4; 17:12), also
spoken of as the “little horn,”
3
and here in our chapter
“the prince that shall come” (Dan. 9:26). At the time of
the end the ten kings will give their power and strength
to this terrible prince, and they shall make war with the
Lamb. Clearly this has not yet taken place. In the early
days of the empire it was undivided, now it is broken up
into incoherent fragments, each seeking its own interests
at the expense of the others; alliances, too, being formed
to maintain “the balance of power.” But in the coming day
God will put it “in their hearts to fulll His will, and to
agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast” (Rev. 17:17).
Little does the world now guess that all is moving on to
the accomplishment of God’s will clearly foretold in the
prophetic word!
It is this coming prince, the head of the Roman empire,
that is spoken of in the last verse of our chapter. “And he
shall conrm a covenant with the many for one week.”
For thus should the verse be read. Here, then, is the last
of the seventy weeks. It has not yet commenced. No clear
or intelligent interpretation of this prophecy can be given
unless this point be seized. Moreover, it is not until this
last week begins that prophetic time will be counted again.
Ever since the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ “times and
seasons” have remained unreckoned; these have to do with
the earth and God’s dealings with His earthly people, Israel.
e church period is outside these times and seasons, and
3 at is, the little horn of Daniel 7. e little horn of Daniel 8
is a dierent personage altogether.
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
23
hence all attempts to calculate the date of Christ’s return
by reference to the 1260 days must end in failure.
Another line of things followed upon the death and
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in answer to the
question of the disciples, “Wilt thou at this time restore
again the kingdom to Israel?” the risen Lord says “It is not
for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father
hath put in His own power [or authority]. But ye shall
receive power,
4
after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you”
(Acts 1:6-8).
is is the period, not of the kingdom for Israel, but
of the Holy Spirit’s testimony to an earth-rejected but
gloried Christ; this is the time for the calling out of the
church, composed of all, whether Jew or Gentile, who
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth.
But the Jews will be restored to Palestine — they have
of late been going back in large numbers — yet sad to
say, their return will be in unbelief, and then for political
reasons they will enter into a covenant with the chief of the
Roman empire. Whether this will take place immediately
upon the removal of the church at the coming of the Lord
we do not undertake to say, but at any rate, it would seem
to us the time will not be long.
is covenant will be made with “the many,” that is,
the majority; the remnant will not join in it, they will
suer at the hands of the ungodly nation, and the Psalms
are lled with the expressions, prophetically given, that
will be suitable to them in those days of oppression and
persecution.
4 is is a dierent word from the one in the previous verse; it
signies might or force — dynamis.
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
24
When the Roman prince conrms this covenant for one
week, the Jews will imagine that he is their friend, but “in
the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrice and the
oblation to cease.” rough his means their whole national
system will have been restored, and even, it appears, their
religious ceremonial. But in the midst of the week all this
will cease, and a period of most awful tribulation will
follow. “e great tribulation” will take place during the
last half of this week, it will last for three and a half years,
or as elsewhere said, 1260 days.
Some may ask, Is this prince not the Antichrist? We do
not think he is. e Antichrist will be reigning in Jerusalem
as the false king of the Jews; he will no doubt be in league
with this Roman prince, and it will be through his means
that the covenant will be made. But it is of importance
to distinguish between the three great instruments of
wickedness and opposition to God and His people at the
time of the end. ey are all alluded to in this last verse. ey
are the Roman prince, the Antichrist, and the Assyrian.
No doubt all our readers are aware that since the time
of the Babylonish captivity the Jewish nation has never
fallen into idolatry. ey are suering now for a greater
crime, even the murder of their Messiah; but since
Nebuchadnezzar carried them away they have never fallen
into the sin of idolatry. According to the parable of our
Lord, the unclean spirit of idolatry departed from them
as a nation, and has never found a place amongst them
since, though their condition be but “empty, swept, and
garnished,” in other words outwardly orthodox, though it
be but a form without reality or power. But at the end this
spirit of idolatry will return to them in sevenfold degree
and their last state will be worse than their rst (Matt.
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
25
12:43-46). is will be when the Antichrist or man of sin
will be worshipped as God in the temple once more rebuilt
(2ess. 2).
It is to this that the somewhat obscure expression
refers, “the overspreading of abominations.” Let us here
give this verse in a slightly altered form, which will help
to an understanding of the passage; it is a translation
which all scholars will appreciate: “And he shall conrm
a covenant with the many for one week: and in the midst
of the week he shall cause the sacrice and the oblation to
cease, and on account of the overspreading [or protection]
of abominations there shall be a desolator, and that
determined shall be poured upon the desolate” (Dan. 9:27).
e “overspreading of abominations” evidently refers to
the idolatry under Antichrist, and “the desolator” appears
to be an allusion to the Assyrian; Jerusalem herself is “the
desolate.”
In order to ensure themselves against this “king of the
north,” or Assyrian, the apostate nation will seek protection
at the hands of the Roman prince and Antichrist, who will
then be working hand in hand — a protection which they
should have sought from God alone. ey will say, “We
have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at
agreement; when the overowing scourge [i.e. the king of
the north] shall pass through, it shall not come unto us”
(Isa. 28:15).
But this their covenant will not avail them in the day of
their calamity; nay, on this very account will the desolator
be sent upon them — as the rod of Jehovah’s anger (Isa.
10:5).
How blessed it will be for the tried and persecuted
remnant in that day to prove that Jehovah Himself has
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
26
laid for them in Zion, the city of their tribulation, “for a
foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a
sure foundation” (Isa. 28:16)! Who this precious corner
stone is, we, Christians, well know, even Jesus Christ, who
is to us who believe, meanwhile, God’s preciousness (1Pet.
2).
After Two Days
(Hos. 5-6)
Everything points to the near return of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We cannot and we would not x any date, but we
feel sure “the time is near.”
We have noticed the parenthesis between the 69th and
70th weeks; so far as Israel is concerned, it is the Loammi
period of their history. It is the time of Israel’s fall, but
“through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles” (Rom.
11:11).
eir present condition is the result of their rejection
of Messiah.
“For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers,
because they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the
prophets which are read every Sabbath day, they have
fullled them in condemning Him. And though they
found no cause of death in Him, yet desired they Pilate
that He should be slain” (Acts 13:27-28).
It may indeed be said of Israel today, in a far more real
sense than even in their historic past (2Chron. 15:3), “Now
for a long season Israel hath been without the true God,
and without a teaching priest, and without law.”
When Jesus of Nazareth — Emmanuel — God with
us — came unto His own they would not receive Him;
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
27
they would “not frame their doings to turn unto their God”
(Hos. 5:4), therefore “He hath withdrawn Himself from
them.”
But the parenthesis of God’s present dealing in grace
towards the Gentiles is rapidly drawing to a close. God has
not withdrawn Himself from Israel forever. ey rejected
their Messiah when He came as the Son of God ready to
bless and to save. He has in consequence become to them
“as a lion, and as a young lion”; He has, so to speak, torn and
gone away (Hos. 5:14).
“I will go and return to My place, till they acknowledge
their oense, and seek My face: in their aiction they will
seek Me early” (Hos. 5:15).
Here, then, we learn the conditions laid down
by Jehovah — repentance and confession, “till they
acknowledge their oense,” or “till they declare themselves
guilty.”
e next verse shows us where He has gone. He has
gone to His place — the place from whence He came.
He came from God, and has gone back to God. It tells us
also how long He will leave them to themselves, reaping
the fruit of their own folly, without interfering on their
behalf — “I will go.”
How hard it is for them as a nation to own their guilt!
Waves of trouble have swept over them since that fatal
day when they cried, “Crucify Him,” and “His blood be
on us and on our children.” But presently their aiction
will become so severe that, like Joseph’s brethren, they will
say — “We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in
that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us,
and we would not hear; therefore is this tribulation come
upon us” (Gen. 42:21-22).
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
28
en they will in deep contrition seek Jehovah’s face.
ey will take them words, and turn to the Lord and
say unto Him — “Take away all iniquity and receive us
graciously” (Hos. 14:2).
And oh! how speedily will they nd Jehovah’s
forgiveness. “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for
He hath torn, and He will heal us: He hath smitten, and
He will bind us up” (Hos. 6:1).
But now follows a most remarkable and suggestive
prophetic utterance. “After two days will He revive us: in
the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His
sight” (Hos. 6:2).
ese words cannot be taken in a literal sense. ese
days cannot be days of twenty-four hours; they must be
understood in a gurative manner. And when we remember
that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and also
that the day of Israel’s future restoration and blessing will
be the millennial day of Christ’s glorious reign (the second
circle in our diagram), is it not a striking and thrilling
thought that just about two thousand years have passed
since Calvary, when Israel cried, “Crucify Him”?
e parenthesis of grace to the Gentiles is nearing its
close. e 70th week is nearing its accomplishment. In the
last half of that week the time of great tribulation will take
place. en will be Israel’s cry of repentance and confession.
en will be “the third day” of their national resurrection,
when they “shall live in His sight.”
A. H. Burton
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Notes on the Book of Daniel #4905
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BibleTruthPublishers.com
