Bible readers know the feeling of coming across a challenging verse. While we wish the meaning of everything in Scripture was equally clear, we know there are verses that interpreters classify as difficult to understand. Sometimes there are even whole paragraphs that challenge us. One such paragraph is Daniel 9:24–27. Those four verses are among the most difficult to interpret in the entire Bible. But thinking about them is worth it, because they are an angelic prophecy about the good news of future atonement by a strong covenant.
An Answer to Prayer
The angel Gabriel came to Daniel with words of insight about the future (Dan. 9:21–22). But the angel’s appearance was not arbitrary. It was in response to Daniel’s activity of confession and prayer (Dan. 9:20–21). Most of chapter 9 was Daniel’s bold prayer about the shameful deeds of the Israelites, about the need for great mercy and pardon for those transgressions, and about the hope of restoration to the promised land and holy city. The Israelites had sinned grievously, and the Lord was righteous when he sent them into exile and captivity.
Daniel’s prayer was from Daniel 9:3 to 9:19. The historical context for his prayer was the change in political administrations (Dan. 9:1–2). The Babylonian captors had fallen to the Medo-Persians in 539 BC. The timing signaled that Israel’s exile and captivity in Babylon was finally coming to a close. Daniel had been reading in the book of Jeremiah about the end of Jerusalem’s desolations after a seventy-year judgment (Dan. 9:2; see Jer. 25:1–14). Given the political upheaval in Babylon’s fall to Persia, Daniel knew he was living in the time when God would once again turn his face toward the covenant people and would hear their pleas for mercy and restoration. So Daniel prayed, “O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name” (Dan. 9:19).
An Even Better Restoration
The angel Gabriel came to Daniel with information about the future, but this information was regarding the distant future—far after Daniel’s days. While Daniel had prayed for the pardon and near-restoration that would bring an end to exile and captivity, a political and geographical realignment would not address the deepest issue. The deepest issue for the Israelites—and for Gentiles—was the problem of sin. The greatest need, therefore, was atonement.
The promise of atonement was precisely the subject of Gabriel’s news. The angel told Daniel,
Seventy weeks [or seventy sevens] are decreed about your people and your holy city,
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 (Dan. 9:24).
We need to notice that Daniel had been reading about a period of “seventy years” (Dan. 9:1), and now Gabriel announces a period of “seventy” weeks/sevens (Dan. 9:24). The former period of “seventy” led to restoration, and the latter period of “seventy” would lead to an even better restoration. Gabriel’s words about “seventy sevens” draw upon Leviticus 25, which teaches about the Year of Jubilee. The Lord told Moses, “You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. . . . That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you” (Lev. 25:8, 11).
Given the background of Leviticus 25:8 to Gabriel’s words in Daniel 9:24, we can see that Gabriel is promising an extraordinary time of liberation. This liberation is on a scale that surpasses anything in Israel’s history. While Leviticus 25 spoke of a jubilee after seven sevens, Gabriel spoke about a liberation after seventy sevens. The year of Jubilee in Leviticus (which occurred after forty nine years) was the year of the Lord’s favor. According to Gabriel, this grand and future Jubilee (which would occur after 490 years) would be a time of unprecedented favor—a tenfold Jubilee![1]
1. This is a mathematical observation. If seven sevens speak of 49 years, and seventy sevens speak of 490 years, then numbers are being multiplied by ten. 7 x 10 = 70. And 49 x 10 = 490.
Daniel had prayed for forgiveness and for God’s wrath to be turned away (Dan. 9:9, 16–19). Gabriel’s response is that God would answer that prayer even better than Daniel had prayed. God would deal with his people’s sin. He would bring in righteousness and atonement (Dan. 9:24). And God would accomplish this great act through the work of an anointed one.
An Anointed One to be Cut Off
The reference to “an anointed one” (Dan. 9:25) is in the context of a prophesied atonement (Dan. 9:24). The phrase “anointed one” is the word for Messiah, the promised king from David’s line who would reign forever (2 Sam. 7:12–13). Other prophets foretold that such a king would come, and Daniel reported the same expectation in his book.
The timeline in Daniel 9:25–26 for this king is challenging, though. The seventy sevens are divided into three parts: seven sevens, sixty-two sevens, and one seven. The first division (Dan. 9:25, seven weeks/sevens) is a clear connection to the seven sevens of the Jubilee custom (Lev. 25:8). And after sixty-two sevens, “an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing” (Dan. 9:26a). Adding these references together, the anointed one’s work takes place after sixty-nine sevens—in other words, in the seventieth seven. This climactic time is in view when Gabriel says that the anointed one “shall make a strong covenant with many for one week” (Dan. 9:27a). The “one week” refers to the final seven of the seventy sevens.
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Figure A: The Three Major Time Divisions of Daniel 9:25–27 | ||
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Scripture |
Weeks |
Time Period |
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Dan. 9:25a 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. |
First seven weeks | The time period of seventy weeks encompasses Israel’s return from exile to the Messiah’s victory in the first-century Roman Empire |
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Dan. 9:25b Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. |
Sixty-two weeks | |
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Dan. 9:26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. Dan. 9:27 And he [=“the anointed one” from v. 26] shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.” |
Final week (with two halves) | |
Being “cut off” and having “nothing” in 9:26 parallels the actions of making a “strong covenant” and putting “an end to sacrifice and offering” in 9:27. Peter Gentry has rightly discerned an A-B-A’-B’ pattern in Daniel 9:26–27,[2] such that we should see 9:26a and 9:27a as matching, as well as 9:26b and 9:27b as matching. The anointed one who is cut off is the same figure who makes a strong covenant with the many, fulfilling the seventieth week that accomplishes atonement and brings in righteousness. Being “cut off” (Dan. 9:26a) sounds like judgment, just as saying that the Messiah “shall have nothing” (Dan. 9:26a) sounds like a covenant curse.
2. Peter J. Gentry, “Daniel’s Seventy Weeks and the New Exodus,” SBJT 14.1 (2010): 36.
God will accomplishment atonement for his people by raising up the anointed one—the Messiah—who will be judged in their place. He will pour out blessing for the guilty by bearing the curse of the law. Through his suffering and death, the Messiah will form a strong covenant (a new covenant) with many.
In Concert With the Prophets
Daniel 9:24–27 is good news for a sinful people, because it prophesies what Jesus would fulfill by his death on the cross. Jesus is the anointed one of 9:25 and 9:26. He was “cut off” in our place and formed a “strong covenant” with his body and blood (see Luke 22:19–20). He brought an end to the sacrificial system (Dan. 9:27a), thereby finishing atonement for our iniquities (Dan. 9:24).
If the seventieth seven was fulfilled by Christ’s substitutionary death,[3] then when did the count of the seventy sevens begin? Or are the 490 years figurative? I think the seventy sevens are symbolic for the time-period extending from Israel’s return from exile to the Messiah’s victory in the first-century Roman Empire.[4] Regardless of whether we take the seventy sevens to be literal years or figurative years, the focus in Gabriel’s message is on the Messiah’s atoning work.
3. It is beyond the scope of this article to address the prophesied events in Daniel 9:26b and 9:27b, which I take to be fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70. See my commentary on the book of Daniel in Volume 7 of Crossway’s ESV Expository Commentary series.
4. For an argument that the 490 years should be taken literally and should be understood as starting at a specific point in history, see Gentry, “Daniel’s Seventy Weeks and the New Exodus,” 34–36.
In fact, the prophecy in 9:24–27 is in sync with what the other prophetic books have told us. According to Isaiah 52–53, a suffering servant-king would bear the griefs and transgressions of sinners, thereby establishing peace (Isa. 52:13–53:12). According to Jeremiah 31, the day was coming when God would make a new covenant with his people and forgive all their sins (Jer. 31:31–34). According to Ezekiel 36, God would cleanse his sinful people and give them a new heart (Ezek. 36:25–27). Gabriel’s words in Daniel 9:24–27 are about the same reality. These prophetic books expect an extraordinary work of divine mercy whereby he brings cleansing and atonement to his people in a new and greater covenant.
Conclusion
Two thousand years ago, an anointed one was cut off and made a strong covenant. The substitutionary death of Jesus the Nazarene was the offering to end all offerings. He was our propitiation, satisfying the righteous judgment of God for all who would have refuge in him. Jesus had once told the synagogue in Nazareth that God’s Spirit had “anointed me” (Luke 4:18) and had sent him “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:19). Jesus knew he had come to bring the Jubilee that Gabriel had told Daniel about. Jesus came to liberate the captives from sin and Satan. He came to restore spiritual exiles. He came to make a new covenant so strong that no one could break it.
