Verses 24 through 27 of chapter 9 are the most precious portion in the book of Daniel. The seventy weeks in these verses are the key to understanding all the prophecies in the Bible. Daniel’s vision was in the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, who was king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans in about 538 B.C. (v. 1). When Daniel “understood by means of the Scriptures the number of the years, which came as the word of Jehovah to Jeremiah the prophet, for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, that is, seventy years” (v. 2), he prayed and confessed his own sins and the sins of the kings, the chief men, and the fathers of Israel, and of all the people of Israel (vv. 3-15, 20). In his prayer Daniel also supplicated for the city of God—Jerusalem, the holy mountain of God—and the people of God (vv. 16-17, 19, 20b).
In his desperate prayer Daniel requested that God recover the Holy Land, send His people back, and rebuild the holy city (vv. 15-19). God answered him by giving him a vision through the angel Gabriel of the seventy weeks (vv. 20-27). This answer exceeded Daniel’s request.
The purpose of the seventy weeks is “to close the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make propitiation for iniquity, and to bring in the righteousness of the ages, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the Holy of Holies” (v. 24). Under human government in the old creation, transgression, sins, and iniquity prevail. When Christ comes at the time appointed to crush human government, transgression will be closed, sins will be ended, and iniquity will be propitiated. Then the righteousness of the ages, the eternal righteousness, will be brought in. The coming kingdom age will be an age of divine righteousness, and in the new heaven and new earth righteousness will dwell (2 Pet. 3:13).
Daniel 9:24 also speaks of the second purpose of the seventy weeks—the sealing up of vision and prophet. After the seventy weeks everything will be accomplished and fulfilled. There will therefore be no need of visions or prophets. In the kingdom age there will be kings and priests but no prophets.
The last aspect of the purpose of the seventy weeks is to anoint the Holy of Holies. At the time of Daniel’s prayer, the Holy of Holies was contaminated, defiled, and devastated. But when the apportioned time comes, the Holy of Holies will be properly anointed. This means that the service to God will be recovered. What a prophecy!
Daniel 9:24-27 gives the sections of the seventy weeks. Verse 24 says, “Seventy weeks are apportioned for your people and for your holy city, to close the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make propitiation for iniquity, and to bring in the righteousness of the ages, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the Holy of Holies.” Your people refers to the children of Israel, and your holy city refers to Jerusalem. According to biblical interpretation, in verses 24 through 27 one week does not refer to seven days but to seven years. If the seventy weeks were to refer to seventy times seven days, there would not be an appropriate explanation for this portion of the Word.
Verse 25 says, “Know therefore and comprehend: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the time of Messiah the Prince will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with street and trench, even in distressful times.” This verse mentions seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. Verse 26 continues, “After the sixty-two weeks Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing; and the people of the prince who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end of it will be with a flood, and even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.” The “cutting off” of Messiah indicates prophetically the crucifixion of Christ. The destruction of the city and the sanctuary refers to the destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem by the army of Titus, the prince of the Roman Empire, in A.D. 70.
Finally, verse 27 says, “He will make a firm covenant with the many for one week; and in the middle of the week he will cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease and will replace the sacrifice and the oblation with abominations of the desolator, even until the complete destruction that has been determined is poured out upon the desolator.” This is a prophecy concerning Antichrist making a firm covenant with the many for one week. In the middle of that week, that is, after three and a half years, Antichrist will cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. This means that he will stop the worship of God in the temple. The seventy weeks, composed of four hundred ninety years, is the time apportioned from the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king (Neh. 1:1; 2:1) to the end of this age.