[Sidenote: B.C. 538-7.]
1. In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of
the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;
--by Cyrus.
2. In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books
the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to
Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in
the desolations of Jerusalem.
--"For thus saith the Lord, that after 70 years be
accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my
good word toward you, in causing you to return to this
place." Jeremiah XXIX. 10.
3. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and
supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
4. And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and
said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and
mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;
5. We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done
wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and
from thy judgments:
6. Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which
spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to
all the people of the land.
7. O Lord, righteousness _belongeth_ unto thee, but unto us confusion
of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, _that are_ near, and _that are_
far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them,
because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
8. O Lord, to us _belongeth_ confusion of face, to our kings, to our
princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
9. To the Lord our God _belong_ mercies and forgivenesses, though we
have rebelled against him;
10. Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in
his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
11. Yea, all Israel have trangressed thy law, even by departing, that
they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us,
and the oath that _is_ written in the law of Moses the servant of
God, because we have sinned against him.
12. And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and
against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil:
for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon
Jerusalem.
13. As _it is_ written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come
upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we
might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.
14. Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it
upon us: for the LORD our God _is_ righteous in all his works which
he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.
15. And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out
of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown,
as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
16. O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let
thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy
holy mountain: because of our sins, and for the iniquities of our
fathers, Jerusalem and thy people _are become_ a reproach to all
_that are_ about us.
17. Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his
supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is
desolate, for the Lord's sake.
18. O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and
behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name:
for we do not present our supplications before thee for our
righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.
19. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not,
for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called
by thy name.
20. And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and
the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before
the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;
21. Yea, whiles I _was_ speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel,
whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning,
--Daniel VIII. 16--
being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening
oblation.
22. And he informed _me_, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel,
I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.
23. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came
forth, and I am come to shew _thee_; for thou _art_ greatly beloved:
therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.
The next four verses should be read as a whole. The burden
of their message is the date of Messiah's sacrifice, the
time when he would "be cut off, but not for himself."
An event of supreme moment to the entire human race. In
making this revelation the heavenly visitor took the
Sabbatic period of 7 years as his standard of time. The
Greeks had a system of Olympiads, each 4 years in length.
In our day the standard measure is one year. We must
therefore lay aside our ordinary line of thought and in
reading the next 4 verses we must accustom ourselves to
thinking in PERIODS OF 7 YEARS EACH and remember that
whenever an event took place it happened in some period
7 years in length. So that when the angel spoke of "the
going forth of the commandment" he pointed to a Sabbatic
period of 7 years, not to a certain day, hour, or minute
of a given year, but to a group of 7 years as a whole,
in a word to a certain "week," when therefore, he spoke
of more "weeks" to follow the additional ones came in
regular succession and the sum of the series must of
necessity equal the full time revealed. The starting point
was plainly the river Ahava and the time of their Exodus
from Persia was just 2 days prior to the Passover of
B.C. 458--see NOTE E. The first "week" therefore ended
in B.C. 451, the second "week" in B.C. 444, the third
in 437 and so on, until the end of the eighth week in
B.C. 402. Up to that time the Jews were favored by
the Persian government, but Persia lost her power and
influence at the battle of Cunaxa in B.C. 401. Then
followed 62 Sabbatic periods, or 434 years, ending with
the Passover of A.D. 33 at which time Messiah was cut
off. The three periods, 1 week plus 7 weeks plus 62 weeks
make a total of "70 weeks" and prove the accuracy of the
heavenly prediction.
24. 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.
25. Know therefore and understand, _that_ from the
--week of the--
going forth of the commandment
--of Artaxerxes--
to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince _shall be_
7 weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built
again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
--How troublous is told by Nehemiah where he says: "we
returned all of us to the wall, every one unto his work.
And it came to pass from that time forth, the half of my
servants wrought in the work and the other half of them
held both the spears, the shields, and the bows and the
coats of mail."
26. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but
not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come
--the Romans under Petronius in A.D. 40 and under Titus in
A.D. 66--
shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof _shall
be_ with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are
determined.
--or, "it shall be cut off by desolations." Josephus says
that 1,100,000 perished in the siege and 97,000 were
carried away captive.
27. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in
the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation
to cease,
--This "one week" was divided into 2 parts of 3½ years
each. The first half covered the Ministry of the Messiah
and therefore was embraced within the 70 weeks. The last
half extended beyond the 70 weeks and ended in A.D. 36.
It was a period of remarkable growth in the infant church;
Pilate however ceased to be procurator in A.D. 36 and
the persecution described in the VIIIth chapter of Acts
immediately set in.--
and for the overspreading of abomination he shall make _it_ desolate,
--or, "upon the battlements shall be the idols of the
desolator." see also Matt. XXIV. 15.--
even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon
the desolate.
--Jerusalem was taken by the Romans on the 2nd of Sept.
A.D. 70. Then the prophecy of Ezekiel was fulfilled:--"I
will scatter thee among the heathen and disperse thee in
the countries."
REMARKS. To understand what follows, all divisions of
chapter and verse should be obliterated, from this point
to the end of the book. The subject matter should be taken
as descriptive of what Daniel saw and heard "by the side
of the great river, which is Hiddekel" "in the third year
of Cyrus, king of Persia." The description reminds us
forcibly of the experiences of the apostle John and the
apostle Paul. The vision had a twofold object: first, to
reveal "what shall befall thy people in the latter days,"
and second, to give additional information concerning
Messiah's kingdom said to be distant "many days." The
entire eleventh chapter from verse 2 to the end is devoted
to the days following Nehemiah's rule. In the first four
verses of Chapter XII. we catch a glimpse of the coming
kingdom, also the destruction of Jerusalem, while verses
5 to 13 set forth the coming of the Holy Spirit.
More than 200 years prior to Daniel's day, the prophet
Joel had pointed to the same great event when he
said:--"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will
pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams,
your young men shall see visions; And also upon the
servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour
out my Spirit." Joel II. 28, also Acts II. 17.