70 WEEKS OF DANIEL PART I

This great prophecy pertaining to Daniel’s people and the City of Jerusalem is linked with a time period of “Seventy Weeks.” Bible students recognize that these Seventy Weeks or 490 days are symbolic of years--each day representing a year--that is, 490years.

In Daniel Chapter 9, one of the most important prophecies of the Old Testament is contained. The prophecy as a whole is presented in verse 24. The first Sixty-Nine Weeks is described in verse 25. The event between the Sixty-Nine Weeks and the Seventieth Week are detailed in verse 26. The final period of the Seventieth Week is described in verse 27.

Daniel in chapter 9, having learned from the Sacred Book of Jeremiah’s prophecy of the doom of seventy years desolation for the Holy City, a term that was now naturally drawing to an end, sets himself to pray for the forgiveness of his people’s sin and the promised deliverance. The angel Gabriel appears to him, and interprets the years as (weeks), with details of the distant future and of the crowning age of Divine purpose.

Now comes the interpretation of Jeremiah’s prophecy regarding the seventy years. Seventy Weeks; 490 years, are assigned as the time for the ushering in of the new age of peace and the Consecration of the Holy Place. From the day when Jeremiah announced the future restoration of Jerusalem, was the date of the formal close of the Exile by the decree Cyrus the Great. The Seventy Times Seven is, therefore, 490 years, with the beginning at the time of “The Commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem” found in verse 25 and the culmination 490 years later in verse 27. Before detailing the events to be found in the first 483 years (69 times 7), the events between the Sixty-Ninth and the Seventieth Week, and the final Seven Years, Daniel gives the overall picture in verse 24.