Seventy Weeks
What They're About

Daniel 8 has the most difficult Hebrew, but Daniel 9 has the most controversy. I'm sure you've heard a number of theories about what the seventy weeks mean. I don't want to spend a lot of time on those speculations, because I want to talk about what this prophecy says, not what it doesn't say. To avoid getting stuck debunking somebody else's view, I'm going to spend some time with the Hebrew again. Please don't get mad me. I'm not trying to make this hard. I'm just trying to get it right.

In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made melek over the kingdom of the Chaldeans, I observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem — seventy years. (9:1-2)

Darius let Daniel out of the lions' den, and now the prophet's studying Jeremiah 25.(1) The math is simple. Daniel came to Babylon in 605 BC. Cyrus the Great conquered it in October of 539 BC.(2) Using inclusive counting, the Jews would be due to head back to Palestine in 536 BC.(3) That's only a couple of years off, and Daniel's worried.

God sent the Jews to Babylon because they broke the covenant. Have they done something to keep them in Babylon, or will God be ready to send them home? So Daniel gave his attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes (9:3).

Sackcloth and ashes are a way of coming to God in an attitude of complete humility and dependence. It's as if the prophet says, “I don't have anything. I don't even have proper clothes. Everything is up to You. I'm ready to do everything You say. Do whatever you want with me.”

Daniel's prayer is a marvelous example for all of us. Take a little time to see how this man of God, who doesn't have anything bad ever said about him, comes before his Lord. In particular, notice two key issues. First, Israel broke the covenant, putting a stain on God’s reputation. Second, God’s reputation — his name — is actually what’s at stake. If God doesn’t return the Jews to Judea, the pagan world will see Him as a minor god who doesn’t really have the power to do what He promises.

I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, “Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly, and rebelled, even turning aside from Thy commandments and ordinances. Moreover, we have not listened to Thy servants the prophets, who spoke in Thy name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and all the people of the land.

"Righteousness belongs to Thee, O Lord, but to us open shame, as it is this day — to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which Thou hast driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against Thee. Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against Thee.

"To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him; nor have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His teachings which He set before us through His servants the prophets. Indeed all Israel has transgressed Thy law and turned aside, not obeying Thy voice; so the curse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against Him.(4)

"Thus He has confirmed His words which He had spoken against us and against our rulers who ruled us, to bring on us great calamity; for under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what was done to Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come on us; yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Thy truth. Therefore, the Lord has kept the calamity in store and brought it on us; for the Lord our God is righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice.

"And now, O Lord our God, who hast brought Thy people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and hast made a name for Thyself, as it is this day — we have sinned, we have been wicked. O Lord, in accordance with all Thy righteous acts, let now Thine anger and Thy wrath turn away from Thy city Jerusalem, Thy holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Thy people have become a reproach to all those around us.

"So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Thy servant and to his supplications, and for Thy sake, O Lord, let Thy face shine on Thy desolate sanctuary.  O my God, incline Thine ear and hear! Open Thine eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by Thy name; for we are not presenting our supplications before Thee on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Thy great compassion. O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Thine own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name." (9:4-19)

Daniel's main thoughts are:

• You keep the covenant. We are wicked and rebellious.
• You are righteous. We are shameful.
• You can forgive. We have been punished for our rebellion the way Torah promised.
• You confirmed what You said in Torah by punishing the Jews for rebellion in a way that's greater than any in history.
• You made a name for Yourself by bringing Israel out of Egypt. Now, take away our penalty, because our exile in Babylon makes You look bad.
• Hear our prayer! Have compassion on us. Do it because “Israel” and “Jerusalem” carry your name. Your reputation is at stake.

This is a pretty simple set of facts. God did what He said He would do to the Jews, but it's a black eye for God for His people to be prisoners in a foreign land. So Daniel pleads with God for covenant restoration. It's the same theme we've seen all through the book.

One crucially important Hebrew concept shows up in Daniel's prayer. Verses 11 and 12 explicitly say that the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC came because the Jews rebelled against the covenant.(5) Yes, Nebuchadnezzar did the deed, but he was acting as “God's servant” (Jer 25:9). In the Jewish mind, the Jews destroyed Jerusalem by their covenant-breaking.

As soon as Daniel started praying, Gabriel was sent to give him insight with understanding so he'd understand the mareh (9:20-23). You've noticed that I didn't translate mareh. I want to emphasize which revelation Daniel’s supposed to understand.

In chapter 8 there were two words that were translated “vision.” One word refers to the symbolic part with the ram and the goat. The other part is the mareh of the 2,300 evenings and mornings (8:26). That was the part that made Daniel sick because he didn't understand it. Gabriel's emphasis that it was true didn't help.

Seventy weeks have been cut off for your people and your holy city (9:24). I can hear you now. The word is “decreed,” not “cut off!” Every English translation uses “decreed” or “determined.” And you're right. The word does mean “firmly decided.” But if we just translate it that way and go on, we miss something important.

The actual word is nehtak.(6) This is the only place it's used in the Bible. In other ancient Hebrew writing it means to “amputate” or “cut off.” This is the form of “cutting” in Genesis 15, where Abraham “cut the sacrifices in two,” and it makes us think of the covenant.(7) The second point is also important. Gabriel uses it to allow Daniel to make sense of the 2,300 evenings and mornings.

Because the seventy weeks are cut off, they have to be cut from something. Since this is an explanation of the 2,300 evenings and mornings (remember verse 23), the seventy weeks are cut off from them. This means they're cut off from the beginning of the 2,300 evenings and mornings. It also means that they're a single block of time.(8) But this creates a problem.

Weeks aren't evenings and mornings. We have to have both periods in the same units to cut one off from the other. And this brings us to a general principle. When the Bible talks about ordinary time, it uses ordinary expressions like “X years, Y months, and Z days.” But symbolic prophecy is focused on the time of the end (8:17) and uses oddball expressions of time. These are symbolic and point to longer periods of time. They may also be used to make us think of the covenant like the evenings and mornings did.

The seventy weeks point to Jesus' arrival (9:25), so we know they are weeks of years.(9) This is straight out of Leviticus 25 where the seven-day week is used as a pattern for years. The weekly Sabbath is the pattern for the sabbatical year. After seven sabbaths of years there is a Jubilee year. Seventy weeks make up ten Jubilees. This makes the seventy weeks another covenant flag.

Now that we know the seventy weeks are weeks of years, we can figure out the evenings and mornings. Weeks are made up of days, and a day is made up of an evening and a morning.(10) So we have 490 days (70 weeks) cut off from 2,300 days (evenings and mornings). And since the 490 days are actually 490 years, the 2,300 days are 2,300 years.

Both periods have to start at the same time, because if they don’t begin at the same time, we’ll have no way to identify the start of the 2,300 days, since the Bible doesn’t say anything else about them. Remember that all the figuring we're doing would be natural for Daniel, since it's all part of the way he thought. Now we're ready to go through the prophecy.

The seventy weeks aren't there just to give us a starting place for the 2,300 days. The Jews get a list of six things they have to do during that time. They have to:

• finish the transgression
• make an end of sin
• make atonement for guilt
• bring in everlasting righteousness
• seal up vision and prophet
• and anoint the most holy. (9:24, lit.)(11)

I want to reinforce something I said in the last paragraph. These are six tasks the Jews have to do. They aren't blessings. They aren't prophecies. To figure out why, let's compare the structure of the verse with a common situation.

Mother tells Johnny he has thirty minutes to clean up his room. This implies that in half an hour she'll check on him. If his room is still a mess, he won't get any supper. In other words, Johnny has thirty minutes of probation. If he fails his probation, he'll be penalized.

The Jews are in the same situation. They've been punished with seventy years of exile because they broke the covenant. Now they're getting one last chance to get it right. To make this crystal clear, let me paraphrase the verse. Your people are being given seventy weeks of years to do the six things in this list.

Transgression, sin, and guilt are the three categories of sin in Torah. Sin is unintentional “slip and fall” that is against Torah. Guilt is more deliberate. Transgression is outright rebellion. To finish the transgression, make an end of sin, and make atonement for guilt adds up to bringing the Jews fully back into compliance with the covenant. During the seventy years the Jews were in Babylon, the land of Judea “kept Sabbath,” because the land Sabbaths were one part of the broken covenant (2 Chron 36:20–21). With that over, the Jews get one more chance. Nobody can say God isn't patient.

If the Jews follow God's plan, they'll anoint the most holy, the Temple.(12) They’ll seal up vision and prophet. That is, they'll bring God's plan to its prophetic conclusion. And at the end, the Messiah can come, bringing in everlasting righteousness as a conclusion to their faithfulness.

God treated the Jews as His “firstborn,” giving them the special birthright blessings (Exod 4:22). He put them in the Promised Land. He gave them prophets to help them along. And when that wasn't enough, he helped them with miracles. He chastised them (cf. Deut 32) with exile. So when the seventy weeks ends, it'll be time to see whether they have kept the covenant. If they haven't, He’ll remove their birthright blessing.