“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” (Dan. 9:24).

The prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, recorded in Daniel 9:24-27, has always been an important portion to students of the Scriptures. The views which men take in regard to this passage are legions. But in our generation there is renewed interest in this section of the Word due to events in the Middle East. An exposition of these verses are sorely needed in our generation.

The Prophet Daniel had spent a long time in prayer, confession, and entreaty for his nation and the city of Jerusalem, which was at that time in ruin (Dan. 9:3-20). By reading the Prophet Jeremiah (Ch. 25:8-14; 29:10) he understood the Babylonian Captivity would last seventy years (Dan. 9:1-2). The Jews were to remain in Babylon seventy years to repay for the seventy sabbatical years they stole from Jehovah (II Chron. 36:19-21).

Daniel was carried captive to Babylon in 605 B.C. The events of the ninth chapter happened in the first year of Darius the Mede (Dan. 9:1). This would have been about 535 B.C. The prophet knew he was near the end of the Babylonian Captivity. Soon his people would return to their homeland (Ezra 1:1-4; Zech. 1:12-17). It seems that Daniel believed the final restoration of his nation was about to be accomplished and the full covenant blessings realized. But on this point he was mistaken as seen from the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks given by the angel Gabriel.

The angel came to interrupt Daniel’s prayer to give one of the most important prophecies in the Bible. Gabriel came to inform the prophetic statesman of what God had decreed before Israel enjoyed permanent restoration in her homeland. In the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks the angel related that Israel’s seventy years in Babylon was a type of a longer dispersion which would last seven times as long.