Page 65 - 09 The Seventy Weeks

DANIEL AND THE REVELATION-Uriah Smith

~The Response of History to the Voice of Prophecy~

Chapter 9 – The Seventy Weeks
blazing orbs of light, cluster round to set

their seal to the prophecy, and make it sure.

It is thus evident that the decree to Ezra in the

seventh of Artaxerxes, B. C. 457, is the point

from which to date the seventy weeks. That

was the going forth of the decree in the sense

of the prophecy. The two previous decrees

were preparatory and preliminary to this; and

indeed they are regarded by Ezra as parts of it,

the three being taken as one great whole. For

in Ezra 6:14, we read: “And they builded, and

finished it, according to the commandment of

the God of Israel, and according to the

commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and

Artaxerxes, king of Persia.” It will be noticed

that the decrees of these three kings are

spoken of as one, — “the commandment”

[margin, “decree,” singular number] of Cyrus