Page 250 - Daniel

Word of the Lord from the prophets (Jer. 29:17–19) and to give their
land sabbatical rests (2 Chron. 36:21). God had stated that Israel,
because of her disobedience, would be removed from her land and
scattered among the Gentiles until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths
5
(Lev. 26:33–35).” So the length of time for the captivity related to the
land as much as it did to the city or the temple.
Although it is preferred to consider Daniel 9:2 as the period 605–539

B.C., Anderson may be right in distinguishing the period of Israel’s
captivity from that of Jerusalem’s desolation. Zechariah 1:12 refers to
God’s destruction of the cities of Judah for seventy years, which may
extend to the time when the temple was rebuilt. This is brought out in
Zechariah 1:16: “Therefore, thus says the LORD, I have returned to

Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be built in it, declares the LORD of
hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.” It is
most significant that the return took place approximately seventy years

after Jerusalem’s capture in 605 B.C., and the restoration of the temple
(515 B.C.) took place approximately seventy years after its destruction
(586 B.C.), the latter period being about twenty years later than the

former. In both cases, however, the fulfillment does not have the
meticulous accuracy of falling on the very day, as Anderson attempts to
prove. It seems to be an approximate number as one would expect by a

round number of seventy. Hence, the period between 605 B.C. and 538 B.C.
would be approximately sixty-seven years; and the rededication of the
temple in March of 515 B.C. would be less than seventy-one years from

the destruction of the temple in August of 586 B.C.
What is intended, accordingly, in the statement in Daniel 9:2 is that

Daniel realized that the time was approaching when the children of
Israel could return. The seventy years of the captivity were about ended.
Once the children of Israel were back in the land, they were
providentially hindered in fulfilling the rebuilding of the temple until
seventy years after the destruction of the temple had also elapsed.

Several principles emerge from Daniel’s reference to Jeremiah’s
prophecy. First, Daniel took the seventy years literally and believed that
there would be a literal fulfillment. Even though Daniel was fully
acquainted with the symbolic form of revelation that God sometimes