Understanding the Seventy Weeks of Daniel Until Messiah the Prince Comes (Daniel 9:24-25)

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Daniel 9:24-25 loosely reads, “Seventy weeks are determined for your people and your holy city…from the going forth of the command to rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be sixty-nine weeks” or 483 years. The seventy weeks of Daniel contain one of the most remarkable prophecies in Scripture, identifying the day Jesus made His triumphal entry: April 6, 32AD. Read the notes or listen to the teaching!

The prophet Jeremiah warned the Jews that the Babylonians would conquer them if they didn’t repent. The Jews didn’t repent, so Babylon conquered the Jews and brought them into exile in Babylon.

Jeremiah 25:11 This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 12 Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste.

The land is Judah. After God used the Babylonians to punish the Jews for their wickedness, He punished the Babylonians for their wickedness when the Medes and Persians conquered them under King Cyrus, who then allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem in three waves. We read about this in Ezra and Nehemiah.

Jeremiah 29:10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.

Jeremiah was writing from Jerusalem, so “this place” is Jerusalem.

Why Seventy Years in Exile?

We get the answer in 2 Chronicles 36. Here’s the context: The Jews were supposed to let the land rest every seventh year. In other words, the land was supposed to receive its own Sabbath. The Jews were supposed to walk by faith and trust God to provide enough in the sixth year to last them through the seventh year. But there’s no record of the Jews ever doing this once in 490 years. For 490 years, the land missed seventy Sabbath years. So, God removed the Jews from the land for seventy years so it could experience the rest it was supposed to have:

2 Chronicles 36:20 He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, 21 to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

This refers to Jeremiah’s prophecy, which we read in Jeremiah 25:11-12 and Jeremiah 29:10, that the Jews would be in exile for seventy years.

Background to the Seventy Weeks of Daniel

Daniel is one of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. He read the prophet Jeremiah’s writings and learned the Jews were going to be in exile for 70 years. The authors of the Scriptures set an excellent example for us by reading each other’s writings. We also have an example in the New Testament when Peter read Paul’s writings and said they could be hard to understand:

2 Peter 3:16 There are some things in [Pauls’ writings] that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

Daniel was reading the Book of Jeremiah:

Daniel 9:2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.

The NIV uses “Scriptures” instead of “books” when referring to Jeremiah’s writings, which are part of the Scriptures.

Daniel understood from Jeremiah’s writings that the Jews would be in exile in Babylon for seventy years, allowing Jerusalem to be desolate during that time.

The Bible Is Meant to Be Taken Literally When Appropriate

We can learn an essential lesson from Daniel’s understanding of Jeremiah’s writings: the Bible is meant to be taken literally when appropriate. Daniel interpreted Jeremiah’s writings literally. He understood seventy years as seventy years. I’m pointing this out to lay the groundwork for how we will interpret Daniel’s Seventy Weeks. We will view them as literal years.

Daniel is thinking about these 70 years they’ll be in Babylon and:

Daniel 9:20 While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God, 21 while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice.

The “holy hill of my God” refers to Jerusalem. Daniel said a man, but he meant the angel Gabriel. Daniel is referring to Gabriel visiting him in the previous chapter.

Daniel is praying, and he’s probably thinking something like, “There are seventy years that my people, the Jews, will be in Babylon, away from our holy city, Jerusalem, and when these seventy years are over, we will go back to Jerusalem, and that will be it. The land will have enjoyed its rest, and we will have made up for our disobedience.” But then Gabriel comes to Daniel and says, “No, Daniel, it’s not just about these 70 years for your people and your holy city. It’s about seventy-sevens, or 490 years, for your people and your holy city. It’s almost like the Jews disobeyed God for 490 years, and He added another 490 years to their history to wait Until Messiah the Prince came.

Had the Jews been obedient during those 490 years, would they have received their Messiah 490 years earlier? I don’t think anyone can answer that.

Plus, it gets even more complicated because when the Jews did receive their Messiah, they crucified Him. And that’s part of the prophecy in verse 26, which says the Messiah “shall be cut off, but not for himself.”

The Bible Is Meant to Be Understood

There’s quite a bit about understanding in this chapter:

Daniel 9:2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.

The ESV says “perceived,” but the NKJV, NIV, and Amplified read “understood.” Daniel means he understood the exile would be seventy years long.

Daniel 9:22 He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, “O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding. 23 At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore consider the word and understand the vision.

Daniel says Gabriel helped him understand, then Gabriel told Daniel he would help him understand, and finally, Gabriel told Daniel to understand.

Daniel 9:25 Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks.

The Bible is meant to be understood. This is personal to me because I spent my life growing up believing nobody can understand the Bible. I thought it was full of taboo, esoteric writings that only made sense to smart, spiritual people. I needed religious leaders, such as priests and the Pope, to tell me what it said because there was no way I could ever understand it myself. Even today, people think they can’t understand the Bible, which is tragic because:

John 16:13 Jesus said, “When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

So Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to help us understand the Bible. Why would God give us the Bible but not the ability to understand it?

The Importance of the Seventy Weeks of Daniel

Gabriel seems like a messenger angel. In Scripture, he visits Daniel, Zacharias to announce John the Baptist’s birth, and Mary to announce Jesus’ birth. He seems involved with delivering critical messages, which is what’s happening here. Gabriel stressed that Daniel needed to pay attention because what he was about to tell him was very important.

The Bible doesn’t use bold, underlining, or italics, so God repeats Himself when He wants us to get something. But the other thing He does is talk to us like we talk to our children: “Listen carefully. Concentrate. Pay attention so you can understand,” which is what He says in verses 22, 23, and 25.

The Seventy Weeks of Daniel is the most amazing and essential prophetic passage in the bible. It’s known as the backbone of Bible prophecy. The Bible is about Jesus, and this prophecy predicts the day of His coming as the Christ or Messiah.

• A.J. McClain said, “Probably no single prophetic utterance is more crucial in the fields of Biblical Interpretation, Apologetics, and Eschatology than the seventy weeks of Daniel in 9:24-27.”
• Isaac Newton said, “We could stake the truth of Christianity on the seventy weeks of Daniel.”

Understanding the Seventy Weeks of Daniel

Daniel 9:24a “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city,

The Hebrew word for weeks is šāḇûaʿ, and it means seven like our word dozen means 12, so it’s saying 70 sevens. Daniel’s people would be the Jews, and Daniel’s holy city would be Jerusalem. So, this is not a prophecy primarily for Gentiles or the church. The only way Bible prophecy makes sense is by understanding God has a separate and distinct plan for the Jews and the church.

If you’re familiar with the book of Daniel, you know that it’s been filled with amazing prophecies up to this point, but they’ve all been related to Gentile nations like Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Think of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue in chapter 2, the beasts in chapter 7, and the ram and goat in chapter 8. But now Daniel is told he’s getting a prophecy for the Jews.

So we’ve got 70 sevens, or 490, and we know it’s 490 years instead of 490 days because everything associated with this prophecy didn’t happen in 490 days.

There are times in the Old Testament when the word for weeks is used for a week of years instead of a week of days. For example, when Jacob had to work for Laban to marry Rachel:

Genesis 29:27 Laban said, “Fulfill her week, and we will give you this one also for the service which you will serve with me still another seven years. 28 Then Jacob did so and fulfilled her week.”

Jacob probably wished it’d been a week of days, but it was a week of years. It sounds strange for us to think of weeks of years, but the Jewish calendar was based on weeks or sevens:

• Exodus 16:23 – Every 7 days, they enjoyed a Sabbath day of rest.
• Leviticus 25:1-7 – Every seventh year, the land was supposed to experience a Sabbath year of rest. So they were supposed to work the land for 6 years, then leave it alone in the seventh year.
• Leviticus 25:8-13 – After every 7 weeks of years, or after 7 times 7 years, or after 49 years, or every fiftieth year, they enjoyed an extraordinary year called the Year of Jubilee.

Six Things Accomplished By the End of the Seventy Weeks of Daniel

The rest of Daniel 9:24:

Daniel 9:24b to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.

There are six things listed that are broken into two groups:

• The first group of three is negative and relates to sin:
  1. Finish the transgression
  2. Make an end of sins
  3. Make reconciliation for iniquity
• The 2nd group of three is positive and relates to righteousness:
  1. Bring in everlasting righteousness
  2. Seal up vision and prophecy
  3. Anoint the Most Holy [Place]

These six things will mostly be accomplished during the 70th week, which is discussed in verse 27. So, we’ll skip covering them now and come back to them when we discuss the seventieth week in verse twenty-seven.

Restoring and Building Jerusalem

Daniel 9:25 Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.

Some Bibles say “Messiah” instead of “anointed one” because Messiah means anointed one. So, Jesus is clearly in view. When it says “with squares,” it means with an open square or city square because it refers to the inside of the city. When it says “moat,” he refers to the outside or wall of the city. So this is prophesying the inside and outside of Jerusalem being rebuilt, which is a way to refer to the entire city’s restoration.

When Daniel received this prophecy in Babylon, Jerusalem was desolate. But it will be rebuilt “in a troubled time.” If you’re familiar with the book of Nehemiah, you know that’s an excellent way to describe what it was like when Jerusalem was being rebuilt.

Messiah the Prince Comes after Sixty-Nine Weeks

Usually, I like the ESV, but for whatever reason, it is just about the only version that makes it sound like the Messiah comes after seven weeks or 49 years versus the Messiah coming after seven weeks and sixty-two weeks or after sixty-nine weeks or 483 years. For example:

• The NKJV says, “there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.”
• The NIV says, “there will be seven sevens and sixty-two sevens.”
• The NASB says, “there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.”
• The Amplified says, “there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.”

For whatever reason, the ESV makes it sound like the Messiah comes after seven weeks or 49 years rather than seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, sixty-nine weeks, or 483 years. There’s a vast difference between prophesying that the Messiah is coming in forty-nine years and 483 years. So, it is essential to understand that the verses prophesy that the Messiah will come 483 years after the command to restore and build Jerusalem.

Four Possible Dates of the Decree to Restore and Build Jerusalem

The sixty-nine weeks, or 483 years, begin with the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, a critical date. There are three possibilities, and we will briefly consider each one.

The First Possible Decree in 538 BC

Ezra 1:1-4 permitting the 1st wave of Jewish exiles to return and rebuild the temple:

Ezra 1:1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: 2 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israelhe is the God who is in Jerusalem. 4 And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”

The problem with this decree is it only relates to rebuilding the temple and not Jerusalem itself.

The Second Possible Decree in 517 BC

Ezra 6:6-12 permitting Zerubbabel to rebuild the temple:

Ezra 6:6 “Now therefore, Tattenai, governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and your associates the governors who are in the province Beyond the River, keep away. 7 Let the work on this house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site. 8 Moreover, I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of this house of God. The cost is to be paid to these men in full and without delay from the royal revenue, the tribute of the province from Beyond the River. 9 And whatever is neededbulls, rams, or sheep for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, or oil, as the priests at Jerusalem requirelet that be given to them day by day without fail, 10 that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons. 11 Also I make a decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill. 12 May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who shall put out a hand to alter this, or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem. I Darius make a decree; let it be done with all diligence.”

Again, this decree only relates to the temple and not Jerusalem itself.

The Third Possible Decree

Ezra 7:12-23 permitting the 2nd wave of Jewish exiles to return and rebuild the temple:

Ezra 7:12 “Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven. Peace. And now 13 I make a decree that anyone of the people of Israel or their priests or Levites in my kingdom, who freely offers to go to Jerusalem, may go with you. 14 For you are sent by the king and his seven counselors to make inquiries about Judah and Jerusalem according to the Law of your God, which is in your hand, 15 and also to carry the silver and gold that the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem, 16 with all the silver and gold that you shall find in the whole province of Babylonia, and with the freewill offerings of the people and the priests, vowed willingly for the house of their God that is in Jerusalem. 17 With this money, then, you shall with all diligence buy bulls, rams, and lambs, with their grain offerings and their drink offerings, and you shall offer them on the altar of the house of your God that is in Jerusalem. 18 Whatever seems good to you and your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and gold, you may do, according to the will of your God. 19 The vessels that have been given you for the service of the house of your God, you shall deliver before the God of Jerusalem. 20 And whatever else is required for the house of your God, which it falls to you to provide, you may provide it out of the king’s treasury. 21 “And I, Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers in the province Beyond the River: Whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven, requires of you, let it be done with all diligence, 22 up to 100 talents of silver, 100 cors of wheat, 100 baths of wine, 100 baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much. 23 Whatever is decreed by the God of heaven, let it be done in full for the house of the God of heaven, lest his wrath be against the realm of the king and his sons.

This decree also deals with this decree also deals with the temple and not Jerusalem.

The Fourth (and Correct) Decree on March 14, 445 BC

Possible 4th decree: Nehemiah 2:4-6 permitting the 3rd wave of Jewish exiles to return and rebuild Jerusalem

Nehemiah 2:4 Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ graves, that I may rebuild it.” 6 And the king said to me (the queen sitting beside him), “How long will you be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time. 7 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah, 8 and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.

This is the decree for rebuilding the city of Jerusalem. King Artaxerxes even sent letters to governors in the region regarding the rebuilding. Because the Persians kept such good records, we know this was March 14, 445 BC. If you have a study Bible, he probably tells you that. So here’s what Daniel 9:25 is saying: “Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem [on March 14, 445 BC] until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks (or 69 weeks or 483 years).”

Why Seven Weeks and Sixty-Two Weeks Versus Sixty-Nine Weeks?

Why did Gabriel say “seven weeks and sixty-two weeks” instead of just sixty-nine weeks? When we want to meet with people in five days, we don’t say, “Let’s get together in one day and four days.”

Seven weeks or 49 years from 445 BC was 396 BC, which was an amazingly significant time: it was the end of Malachi’s ministry, which means:

• It was the close of the Old Testament canon
• It was the beginning of the 400 years of silence between the two testaments until John the Baptist came on the scene and announced the Messiah’s coming
• It marked the end of the prophetic voice of the Lord for four centuries

By this time, God had accomplished several things:

• He’d completed the Old Testament Scriptures
• He’d established His people in the land
• He’d allowed the rebuilding of the temple and the city of Jerusalem

That’s why Gabriel singled out seven weeks, or forty-nine years, after the decree in Nehemiah 2 rather than jumping ahead 483 years.

Why Add, “A Prince”?

Why did Gabriel say “to the coming of an anointed one, a prince,” versus simply “to the coming of an anointed one”? This is not a prophecy about Jesus’s birth. The sixty-nine weeks do not count to when the Messiah was born in Bethlehem. The prophecy is for when the Messiah is shown to be a prince. The Hebrew word for prince is nāḡîḏ.

The word occurs forty-four times in the Old Testament. Nine times, it is translated as Prince, but thirty-four times, it’s translated as ruler, captain, leader, governor, or noble. Adding the title “Prince” is essential because it lets us know we look to the day when Jesus came as the people’s Prince, Ruler, or Commander. We know that day will be 69 sevens or 483 years after March 14, 445 BC.

Why Can’t We Add 483 Years to March 14, 445 BC?

Adding 483 years to March 14, 445 BC would bring us to March 14, 38 AD when Jesus had been crucified for a few years. Several factors must be considered, such as Leap Years and Jews’ use of a 360-day calendar in Daniel’s day.

Two men wrote books going into amazing detail about this prophecy. First, Sir Robert Anderson wrote The Coming Prince: The Marvelous Prophecy of Daniel’s Seventy Weeks Concerning the Antichrist published in 1894. Second, Dr. Harold Hoehner, a professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, wrote Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ, published eighty-four years later in 1978. Although they approached it differently, they both arrived at the same number of days to add to March 14, 445 BC: 173,880 days, bringing us to April 6, 32AD.

The Seventy Weeks of Daniel Is a Time-Sensitive Prophecy

Jesus fulfilled over 350 prophecies, but one stands out from all the others: Daniel’s Seventy Weeks because it’s time-sensitive. For example, the Messiah was supposed to be born in Bethlehem, born of a virgin, come out of Egypt, and grow up in Nazareth.

These prophecies, and others, could happen at any time. But Daniel 9:25 had to be fulfilled on one specific day. So, interestingly, if Jesus isn’t the Messiah, we wouldn’t even be able to wait for the right Messiah. We would have to look back 2,000 years for someone else who came as the Messiah 69 weeks after March 14, 445 BC.