“And he/they will make a covenant to prevail (‘will confirm covenant') with many for one seven, and in the midst of the seven they will cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, and even to the consummation, and that determined, will wrath be poured out on the desolator.”
It should be noted that there is no clear indication here of any break between the sixty nine sevens and the seventieth seven. The natural interpretation if we were not trying to fit it into history would be that the seventieth seven follows on immediately after the sixty ninth seven.
It will be observed immediately that it is suggested that the singular verbs could be translated in the plural. And the reason that this is has been done is because the obvious antecedent to the he/they is ‘the people of the coming prince', for they are the subject of the previous sentence. This is because the word for ‘people' is a collective singular noun and therefore requires a singular Hebrew verb, although in English we translate as a plural. The translation is therefore a correct rendering of the Hebrew if the people are being referred to.
Many see the subject of the verbs as being ‘the coming prince' of Daniel 9:26 or the ‘anointed one, the prince' of Daniel 9:25. Both are possible. But neither are grammatically the most likely. Indeed the genitive ‘of the prince' is extremely unlikely as an antecedent, for the emphasis of the phrase is on the people and the prince is only an identifying factor, and it is extremely unusual in Hebrew for the subject of a verb to indicate a previous genitive. On the other hand the mention of the ‘other' prince is too far away really to be an antecedent, and besides, as the ‘other' prince has been cut off, the idea of him confirming a covenant could only be derived from elsewhere. Neither is a totally insuperable objection but they do make either interpretation extremely unlikely. An alternative suggestion is that the initial ‘he' is referring to God. The sudden introduction of God as ‘he' without any other identification is something that occurs elsewhere in the Old Testament. But the undeniable fact is that Hebrew verbs with no subject usually look back to the subject of the previous sentence. And as that makes complete sense in this case we can see no reason why should we look elsewhere, especially as ‘the covenant' in Daniel always means the holy covenant.
What is to take place here is within the final ‘seven', that final period of God's divinely perfect activity of unknown duration which will bring His final purposes to pass.
The people of the prince who has been cut off, will at some stage recognise their rebellion for what it was and, realising that they have by their actions breached their holy covenant, will come to renew it before God, (as many such as Paul did) including within that renewal the ‘many' who had not breached it, the true Israel of God, Gods true people. The word ‘many' is regularly used by Daniel when referring to people of an uncertain number and identity (Daniel 8:25; Daniel 11:14; Daniel 11:18; Daniel 11:26; Daniel 11:33-34; Daniel 11:39; Daniel 11:41; Daniel 11:44; Daniel 12:3-4; Daniel 12:10, compare also its use in Isaiah 53:11). This is a picture of the widespread conversion of Jews to their Messiah, to Christ, and of their rapprochement with the true people of God, something which did happen in the early days of the church prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Such a conversion is seen as having taken place in the early Chapter s of Acts when large numbers of Jews responded to the preaching of the Apostles and the followers of Jesus, and it continued as the message went out into the wider world, with many Jewish Christians (including Paul) preaching the Gospel in the synagogues around the know world.
This period may be seen as immediately following the cutting off of the prince, as ‘the many' of His followers are joined by large numbers of other repentant Jews in the confirming of God's covenant through Christ, resulting in the new Israel, and then in the bringing in to the new Israel of the Gentiles who are converted to Christ (Romans 11:17-20; Galatians 3:29; Galatians 6:16; Ephesians 2:12; Ephesians 2:19-22).
The ceasing of true worship in the midst of the seven may then be seen as referring back to the reference to the destruction of the sanctuary, or alternatively it may refer to apostasies that will occur as a result of persecutions, such as those referred to in the letter to the Hebrews.
It should be noted in this regard that Daniel 9:26 a and 27 can be seen as parallel. Each commences at the time when the anointed prince is cut off, and each goes up to ‘the end'. Thus we may see in them two reactions of ‘the people of the Prince'. The one the reaction of those who rejected Him, and continued to do so, the other the reaction of those who after His death (and resurrection) responded to him. The whole of Israel rarely acted as one.
But some consider it the more natural reading to see Daniel 9:27 as following the destruction of Jerusalem and the sanctuary. That would not, however, require a ‘gap' for the destruction of city and sanctuary could well be directly connected with the cutting off of the prince, and be seen as occurring within the sixty ninth ‘seven'. Nevertheless they try to argue that this must be seen as occurring towards ‘the end', when a great turning back of Israel to God through Christ is to be expected (Joel 2:15-17; Joel 2:32; Zechariah 8:21-23; Romans 11:23; Romans 11:26-32). This is especially the case for those who wish to treat the ‘sevens' as years (in order to make the years fit). On this basis it would refer to a wholesale conversion in the end days. But the interpretation has to be ‘read in'. it is not a natural interpretation of the passage.
This idyllic final ‘seven' will be interrupted, for in the midst of the ‘seven' the sacrifices and oblations will be caused to cease. In context this should probably be seen as another way of indicating the destruction of the Temple already mentioned in the previous verse. This was a blow to both unbelieving Jews and to believing Christian Jews who still engaged in Temple worship. Alternately it can be seen as indicating that, after the renewal of the covenant, many will again turn away from Christ, probably as a result of the activities of persecutors, and possibly following some proscription of Jewish Christians (or all Christians) by the powers that be, and especially finally by the horn, the small one, of chapter 7 who is to ‘wear out the saints of the Most High' (Daniel 7:25 compare Revelation 11). Thus they will cease to worship and honour God, and will renege on their commitment to Christ. They will cease to honour His sacrifice on their behalf. They will ‘cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease', not literally, for there will be no literal sacrifices (no new temple has been posited), but the spiritual sacrifices of worship, praise and thanksgiving through Christ's own sacrifice of Himself (Romans 12:1; Heb 13:15; 1 Peter 2:5; Mark 12:33). Given a further chance they will have once again failed. Either way desolation is to follow, something which has occurred regularly throughout subsequent history.
(It must always, however, be recognised that throughout all these failures of Israel there have always been a remnant who have carried on the purposes of God. God has never been left without a witness. And it was this remnant which became the new true Israel and which Jesus used for the spreading of the Gospel incorporating into it converted Gentiles who thus themselves became part of the true Israel. Thus were God's promises for Israel fulfilled even when Israel as a whole failed).
‘And on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate.' ‘Abominations' regularly refers to idolatry and ungodliness. Thus the reference here may be to the Roman armies who continued to wreak desolation throughout Palestine. Or it may signify persecution wrought by idolatrous emperors against the people of God. Thus desolation is a keynote of what follows the cutting off of the Messiah, and the destruction of the Temple, and it will especially affect Palestine. Such desolations certainly resulted in Palestine later becoming bereft of Jews. But they tie in with Jesus' warning of what the future held for the world (‘wars and rumours of wars'). And this will go on until the final consummation determined by God, at which point judgment will be poured out on the desolator (see Daniel 12:1-3; Revelation 19:11-21).
‘The wing of abomination.' The thought of the singular ‘wing' may be that false religion can only offer half of what it pretends. It flies with one wing, and is therefore deficient and lacking. It, as it were limps, along. (This is a vision so that the question of whether it is possible to fly with one wing is irrelevant, and anyway it could be argued that it flies like an injured bird). There may here be a deliberate contrast with the One Who carries His people on eagles' wings, on two wings (Exodus 19:4; Deuteronomy 32:11). Others refer it to the wing of the temple, as an indication that the desolator is parodying the temple, or indeed replaces the Temple. The singular may, however, just be similar to our use when we speak of ‘a bird on the wing'.
Some see the seventieth seven as referring to the time when Christ was on earth, with the renewing of the covenant then taking place through the ministry of Jesus, and the ceasing of sacrifices and offerings coming about through His death. This is then followed by an indeterminate period, the final part of God's plans of unknown duration, in which the people of God have to face the tribulations ahead until God's final judgment. The problem with this interpretation in my view is that it here treats the cessation of sacrifice and offering as a good thing, whereas elsewhere in Daniel it is a bad thing (Daniel 8:11-12; Daniel 12:10-11). Nor does it lead up to the final consummation.
‘And even to the consummation (or ‘full end'), and that determined, will wrath be poured out on the desolator.
Finally the troubles must cease, for the full end is coming as determined by God, and then wrath will be poured out on the desolator. We are left to recognise that the consummation indicates the great blessings of Daniel 9:24 will become true for God's own people. For the final destruction of evil coincides with the triumph of the people of God. Both are sides of the same coin, and the latter was the central purpose of the vision.
Note. Could There Be a Break Between the Sixty Nine Sevens and the Seventieth Seven?
The fact of such a gap has been seen by some as suggested by the phrase ‘to the end'. Elsewhere in Daniel we have examples of history foretold and then of a sudden jump to ‘the end'. Contrast Daniel 11:29-35 with Daniel 11:36-45. In chapter 11 the contrast between those two sections is so remarkable that two different periods of activity appear to be in mind, and the latter takes us on to ‘the time of the end'. This phenomenon is found in all the prophets. Regularly there is a gap between the near fulfilment and the far fulfilment.
Compare and contrast also the ‘small horn' (a small horn is an indication of a horn that is starting to grow) of the third empire in Daniel 8:20-26 with that of the fourth empire in Daniel 7:20-25 where the contrasts are far more than the similarities. The former deals with Antiochus' persecutions, the latter with the time of the end. But there is no real reason for seeing a gap here in chapter 9, which reads like a continuous sequence, while ‘to the end' would seem to indicate what it says, something that will occur to the very end, not something which will be followed by a further ‘seven'.
Certainly, if the seventy sevens is taken to mean seventy sevens of years (on no really satisfactory grounds, for in context the seventy ‘sevens' are contrasted with Jeremiah's seventy ‘years') then there must be a gap, for the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple did not take place within seven years of the death of Christ. This would, of course, depend on what the ‘seventieth seven' means. If it is ‘a divinely perfect time of unknown length', as we believe, then all that is described in Daniel 9:26-27 can be encompassed in that ‘seven'. It simple represents ‘the end of the ages' which began at the time of Christ's death (1 Corinthians 10:11; Hebrews 9:26; 1 Peter 1:20; 1 Peter 4:7). When we are dealing with God time is irrelevant. To him a thousand years, or even ten thousand, could be accomplished within a ‘seven', His final perfect activity.
Furthermore, here in chapter 9 Daniel sums up what follows the cutting off of the Messiah by ‘their end will be with a flood'. Whose end? Why, surely the people of the coming Prince (a singular noun in Hebrew followed by a singular verb). They will be destroyed by a flood of invaders (compare Daniel 11:22). And the phrase that follows, ‘and even to the end shall be war, desolations are determined' is an indefinite and vague phrase that can cover many situations. Mankind will continue to face suffering and hardship because they are the result of their own sin.
That such a history would be theirs is actually confirmed by Jesus in Luke 21:24 where He speaks of the coming in of the invaders, the times of the Gentiles, and the terrible and long exile of the Jewish people (described in Matthew as included in the ‘great tribulation' which they would suffer under the invasion of Titus and the mad antics of their own fanatical leaders), which would commence with the destruction of the city and the sanctuary, when ‘the times of the Gentiles' would begin. Thus the ‘seventy sevens which are determined upon your people' (Daniel 9:24) could possibly be seen as suspended, but there are no grounds in the text for suggesting it.
The idea of a gap in the history of the Jews may also be seen as suggested by Paul in Romans 11:15-24. Indeed that is exactly his argument. He is dealing with the problem of God turning away from His people and setting them aside and answers it along two lines.
1) That not all Jews have been rejected. An examination of the past reveals that God has always chosen out some and rejected others. Thus this position is no different.
2) That the temporary rejection of the nation as a whole is in order that God might bless the Gentiles, but there is the suggestion that when this purpose is accomplished the Jewish nation itself may expect a new final offer of deliverance (Daniel 9:25-27).
Given this fact Paul clearly saw a period when the unbelieving part of the Jewish nation would be put into the background, followed in the end by a great work of God among that people as they come in response to Christ. There can in fact be no future for the Israel away from Christ. It is only when they respond to Him and are grafted back into the olive tree that they can be saved and begin again to fulfil God's purpose. This situation could be seen as confirmed in the seventieth seven.
But while we agree that such a gap is ‘possible', (anything is possible with interpreters) it is really taking what Paul is saying too far, for he nowhere connects it with prophetic interpretation, and such a gap is not obvious from this passage. Furthermore Paul is not indicating a gap, he is indicating the individual response to Christ of both Jews and Gentiles to make up the sum total of the elect, and the continuation of Israel. It therefore seems far more realistic to see the seventieth seven as immediately following the sixty ninth, and therefore as including all that will then happen from the end of the sixty ninth seven until the end of time. It then encompasses within it conversion, apostasy and tribulation, and all the continual experience of the people of God, the true Israel, as well as the destruction of Jerusalem because of the unbelief of those who continually reject Him. Taken in this way it ties in with the apocalyptic message of Jesus in Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21, which also have in mind the death of Christ, people responding to the covenant who will be persecuted, the destruction of the Temple, and continuing desolations.
Note. Is This the Period of the Great Tribulation?
We ask this question because of the use made of this passage by many, not because there is anything in the passage to suggest it. It is this popular usage that makes it a violable question.
Firstly, however, we must question the phrase ‘the Great Tribulation'. It is the invention of Bible students not of the Bible. The Bible does speak of ‘great tribulation' which would come on parts of the church in the time of the Apostle John (Revelation 2:22), and ‘great tribulation' which the Jews would face when Titus destroyed Jerusalem (which could be avoided by fleeing to the mountains, thus it is a tribulation limited to the Jews) with its aftermath in the dispersion of the Jews to face tribulation through the centuries (Matthew 24:21; Luke 21:24). There is also a mention of great tribulation which the people of God would suffer through the ages (Revelation 7:14), possibly referring back to the great tribulation of Revelation 2:22, but never is there mention of a period called ‘the Great Tribulation'.
Secondly we should note that here in Daniel war and desolations are promised right from the time of the destruction of Jerusalem (Daniel 9:26), so that what is described in Daniel 9:27 is not unusual. Certainly Daniel 9:27 may be seen as suggesting that the people of God will be persecuted so that some turn aside from the covenant, but if it is to be restricted to a seven year period at the end of time that might be limited to Palestine, and anyway the people of God are persecuted in all ages, and never more so than in parts of the world today, especially in Muslim countries. We must not over-exaggerate the picture.
Thirdly we should note that while at the end there will be ‘a time of trouble such as never was' (Daniel 12:1) that is nowhere limited to seven years, and its geographical extent we do not know. It is mainly connected with the Jews.
So this modern huge emphasis by some on a seven year tribulation period cannot be obtained from Daniel. Nor, we believe, can it be found in Revelation (see our commentary on Revelation). That is not to deny that at the end there will be great troubles and persecution. Such have always been the lot of Christians and it is very likely that they will intensify as Satan realises that his time is short. It is only to reject the idea that it can be summed up in a seven year period on the basis of this passage.
End of note.