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The Seventy Weeks
Chapter 9

“ Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish
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transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring
in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to
anoint the Most Holy Place” (Daniel 9:24).
In this decree God is putting an end to transgression by the sacrifice
of Christ. He is making an end of sin and making reconciliation for
iniquity. The eternal righteousness comes to God’s people after
centuries of apostasy. The vision is sealed up because no more
revelation is needed after Christ and through him will come the
fulfillment of the blessings of God to Israel. The anointing of the Most Holy
Place is the consecration of the future temple in Jerusalem.

“ Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild
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Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and
sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble”
(Daniel 9:25).

The captivity of the Jews was drawing to a close and had lasted for seventy years.
The angel tells Daniel that it will be “70 weeks” until the coming of the
Messiah. This “70 weeks” is generally understood to mean 70 weeks of
years, that is, 70 sevens of years or 490 years. The angel was telling
Daniel that even though the captivity lasted 70 years, the coming of
the Messiah would be 7 times that long.

This prophecy accords with world history. Artaxerxes decree to rebuild
Jerusalem occurred in 445 B.C. The “seven weeks” or 49 years covered
the rebuilding of the city under Nehemiah and the close of the Old
Testament under the ministry of Malachi. Then there were “62 weeks”
or 434 years until the Messiah (Jesus Christ). This was fulfilled in the
triumphant entry of Christ into Jerusalem on 9 Nisan, A.D. 30. The final
seven years or seventieth week is the seven-year reign of the Antichrist.

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“ After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing.
The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will
come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed”
(Daniel 9:26).

When the Bible says the Anointed One was “cut off” after 69 weeks it refers to the death of
Christ. The “people of the ruler” who came and “destroyed the city and the sanctuary” were
the Roman legions under Titus in A.D. 70.

“ He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will
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put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that
causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him” (Daniel 9:27).
The angel then moves to the final seven weeks and the rule of the Antichrist.

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