The Book of Daniel Unlocked

by W. S. Auchincloss

CHAPTER IX. [Hebrew.]

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.