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.
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city - "seventy weeks," namely, of years; literally, 70 sevens; 70 heptads or hebdomads; 490 years; expressed in a form of 'concealed definiteness' (Hengstenberg), a usual way with the prophets. The Babylonian captivity is a turning point in the history of the kingdom of God. It terminated the free Old Testament theocracy. Up to that time Israel, though oppressed at times, was, as a rule, free. From the Babylonian captivity, the theocracy never recovered its full freedom down to its entire suspension by Rome: and this period of Israel's subjection to the Gentiles is to continue until the millennium (Revelation 20:1-15), when Israel shall be restored as head of the New Testament theocracy, which will embrace the whole earth. The free theocracy ceased in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar and the fourth of Jehoiakim: the year of the world 3338, the point at which the 70 years of the captivity begin.
Heretofore Israel had a right, if subjugated by a foreign king, to shake off the yoke, as an unlawful one, at the first opportunity (Judges 4:1-24; Judges 5:1-31; 2 Kings 18:7), "The Lord was with him (Hezekiah), and he prospered wheresoever he went forth; and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not"). But the prophets (Jeremiah 27:9-11) declared it to be God's will that they should submit to Babylon, "The nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the Lord; and they shall till it, and dwell therein." Hence, every effort of Jehoiakim, Jeconiah, and Zedekiah to rebel was vain. The period of the world-times, and of Israel's depression, from the Babylonian captivity to the millennium, though abounding more in afflictions (e.g., the two destructions of Jerusalem, Antiochus' persecution, and those which Christians suffered), contains all that was good in the preceding ones, summed up in Christ, but in a way visible only to the eye of faith. Since He came as a servant, He chose for His appearing the period darkest of all as to His people's temporal state. Always fresh persecutors have been using, whose end is destruction, and so it shall be with the last enemy, Antichrist. As the Davidic epoch is the point of the covenant-people's highest glory, so the captivity is that of their lowest humiliation.
Accordingly, the people's sufferings are reflected in the picture of the suffering Messiah. He is no longer represented as the theocratic King, the Antitype of David, but as the Servant of God and Son of man; at the same time the cross being the way to glory (cf. Daniel 9:1-27 with Daniel 2:34-35; Daniel 2:44, and Daniel 12:7); In the second and seventh chapters Christ's first coming is not noticed (except that His lowliness at His first coming is implied in the fact that His kingdom, which ultimately, after breaking the image, became a mountain filling the whole earth, was at first but a "stone," possibly lying neglected on the earth); because Daniel's object was to prophesy to his nation as to the whole period from the destruction to the reestablishment of Israel; but this ninth chapter minutely predicts Christ's first coming, and its effects on the covenant-people.
The 70 weeks date 13 years before the rebuilding of Jerusalem; for then the re-establishment of the theocracy began-namely, at the return of Ezra to Jerusalem, 457 BC So Jeremiah's 70 years of the captivity begin 606 BC, 18 years before the destruction of Jerusalem; for then Judah ceased to exist as an independent theocracy, having fallen under the sway of Babylon. Two periods are marked in Ezra:
(1) The return from the captivity under Jeshua and Zerubbabel, and rebuilding of the temple, which was the first anxiety of the theocratic nation.
(2) The return of Ezra (who was regarded by the Jews as a second Moses) from Persia to Jerusalem, the restoration of the city, the nationality, and the law, Artaxerxes, in the seventh year of his reign, gave him the commission which virtually included permission to rebuild the city.
This decree was afterward confirmed to and carried out by Nehemiah in the twentieth year (Ezra 9:9; Ezra 7:11, etc.); Daniel 9:25, "from the going forth of the commandment to build Jerusalem," proves that the second of the two periods is referred to. The words in Daniel 9:24 are not, 'determined upon the holy city,' but "upon thy people and thy holy city;" thus, the restoration of the religions national polity and the law (the inner work, fulfilled by Ezra the priest), and the rebuilding of the houses and walls (the outer work of Nehemiah, the governor) are both included in Daniel 9:25, "from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem." "Jerusalem" represents both the city, the body, and the congregation, the soul of the state. Compare Psalms 46:1-11; Psalms 48:1-14; Psalms 87:1-7. The starting-point of the 70 weeks dated from 81 years after Daniel received the prophecy: the object being not to fix for him definitely the time, but for the Church: the prophecy taught him that the Messianic redemption, which he thought near, was separated from him by at least a half millennium. Expectation was sufficiently kept alive by the general conception of the time; not only the Jews, but many Gentiles, looked for some great Lord of the earth to spring from Judes at the very time, (Tacitus, 'Histories,' Daniel 9:13; Suetonius, 'Vespasian,' 4:) Ezra's placing of Daniel in the canon immediately before his own book and Nehemiah's, was perhaps owing to his feeling that he himself brought about the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecy, (Daniel 9:1-27.) (Auberlen.)
Determined - literally, cut out, namely, from the whole course of time, for God to deal in a particular manner with Jerusalem.
Thy ... thy. Daniel had in his prayer often spoken of Israel as "thy people, thy holy city;" but Gabriel, in reply, Thy ... thy. Daniel had in his prayer often spoken of Israel as "thy people, thy holy city;" but Gabriel, in reply, speaks of them as Daniel's ("thy ... thy") people and city, God thus intimating that until the "everlasting righteousness" should be brought in by Messiah, He could not fully own them as His (Tregelles). Compare Exodus 32:7. Rather, as God is wishing to console Daniel and the godly Jews, what is meant by "thy ... thy" is 'the people whom thou art so anxious praying for;' such weight does God give to the intercessions of the righteous (James 5:16-18, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much").
To finish the transgression - literally, to shut up; to remove from God's sight - i:e., abolish (Psalms 51:9, "Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities") х lªkalee' (H3607), from kaala' (H3607), to shut] (Lengkerke). Buxtorf takes it, as margin, 'to restrain,' or 'prevent the transgression.' Others (Gesenius) take the word from [kaalaah] to consummate, 'until the people's transgression is consummated.' The English version is better. From Israel's sin the prophet passes to the more widely extending sin of mankind, which Messiah came to do away with. The 70 years' exile was a punishment, but not an atonement, for the sin of the people: this would come only after 70 prophetic weeks through Messiah.
Make an end of, х chateem (H2856)]. The Hebrew common text reading, 'to seal' - i:e., to hide out of sight (from the custom of sealing up things to be concealed, cf. Job 9:7), is better supported. The English version follows the marginal reading [haateem, from taamam (H8552), to end or complete].
Make reconciliation for - literally, to cover, to overlay [as with pitch, Genesis 6:14, kaapar (H3722)]. Compare Psalms 32:1.
And to bring in everlasting righteousness - namely, the restoration of the normal state between God and man (Jeremiah 23:5-6); to continue eternally (Hebrews 9:12; Revelation 14:6).
To seal up the vision and prophecy - literally, prophet. To give the seal of confirmation to the prophet and his vision, by the fulfillment.
And to anoint the Most Holy - primarily, to "anoint," or to consecrate after its pollution by Antiochus, "the Most Holy" place: but mainly Messiah, the antitype to the Most Holy place, His body being "the temple," "the sanctuary, and the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man" (Hebrews 8:2; John 2:19-22). The propitiatory in the temple (the same Greek word х hilasteerion (G2435)] expresses the mercy-seat and propitiation, Romans 3:25), which the Jews looked for at the restoration from Babylon, shall have its true realization only in Messiah ("Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare righteousness for the forgiveness of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God"). For it is only when sin is "made an end of," Gods presence can be perfectly manifested as our reconciled Father and God. As to "anoint," cf. Exodus 40:9; Exodus 40:34. Messiah was anointed with the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:27; Acts 10:38). So hereafter, God-Messiah will "anoint" or consecrate with His presence the holy place at Jerusalem after its pollution by Antichrist, of which the feast of dedication after the pollution by Antiochus was a type (Jeremiah 3:16-17; Ezekiel 37:27-28).