Daniel 9

In Short

The angel Gabriel tells to Daniel that 70 weeks, periods of 7 years, totaling 490 years, would expire from the moment that a decree would be given to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until things that are all related to the second coming of Jesus. The decree was given in the year 458/7 BC and 69 x 7 years later, Jesus was baptized in 27 AD, as the prophecy told: '69 weekst until Messiah'. After those 69 weeks Messiah would be 'cut off' - the crucifixion. The Roman legions destroying city and temple are seen in 'the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary'. This 'coming prince' is at the center of the last verse of the chapter, which is about the 70th and last 'week'. He would make the covenant heavy for many for one week. We estimate this last week to have started on December 29, with the present Netanyahu regime. At the midpoint of this 'week', so after 3.5 years, he would halt religious observances. Then, 'the overspreading of abominations' would reach its peak. It is 'the extremity' or 'the defense' of the most heinous of acts: genocide, lawlessness, deception amounting to desecrating the third most holy place in Islam. Together, this will bring desolation. Here we have WWIII, being ignited in Jerusalem, setting the whole Middle East on fire and thereby the world. Connecting this verse with the end of Daniel 11, Jerusalem and all cities of Israel will be flattened by Iran's rockets. For the greater part Israel will remain desolate till the return of Jesus, which will bring new devastation - 'that determined shall be poured upon the desolate'. All of this destruction will end in the positive things with which the prophecy starts in verse 24 - under which the bringing of eternal righteousness.

Where the prophecies of Daniel 7 and 8 primarily concern the empires, the prophecy of the 70 weeks (periods of 7 years) totaling 490 years, primarily concerns the people of Israel as stated by Gabriel, the angel that brings Daniel the prophecy: 'Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city' (Daniel 9:24).

The start of the 70 weeks is 'the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem'. Restoration is a political/judicial change while the rebuilding is physical. The only commandment by a Persian king containing both elements is the order given in 458/457 BC by Artaxerxes. From there, during 7 'weeks' it would be rebuilt and it would stay rebuilt during 62 'weeks'. So in total 69 periods of 7 years would pass, 483 years, and then Messiah, the Prince would come. Adding 483 years to 457 BC brings us to 27 AD (the year 0 doesn't exist, so one jumps from 1 BC directly to 1 AD, skipping one year). In 27 AD, Jesus was baptized, as we argue here. 

Verse 26 - 'And after 62 weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. '

At the end of the 7 + 62 weeks Messiah the Prince was baptized, entering his mission among his people. But 'after' the 7+62 weeks, He would be rejected by his own people and be crucified. 'Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself'. In Hebrew the text literally says: 'to be nothing or not exist; a nonentity'. That was indeed the place and the status that the Creator of the universe was given by his people. What else could this bring than utter destruction? Therefore the text goes on to say: 'and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary...' This clearly is the destruction upon the city of Jerusalem and the temple, which was also foretold by Jesus in Luke 19:43,44 and Luke 21:6 and which has come in the year 70 AD. Verse 26 has a strange ending, literally stating: 'end flood unto end war, desolations, determined.' The two times stating of 'end seems to point to the Endtime that would be full of destruction. The word for 'flood' also bears the meaning of 'outrageous', 'overflowing'. The word 'desolations' bears the meaning of 'stupefying', 'appalling' things. We therefore would paraphrase the last part of verse 26 as: 'until the end unprecedented events will take place, surpassing everything ever experienced in history, until the end, events consisting of war and the most stupefying and appalling things imaginable will occur, which are fully determined to happen.'

Verse 27 - 'And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate'

In the last verse 27, some details are given concerning the last week, the last 7 years before 'the end': 'And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week'. The last part of verse 26 therefore runs parallel to verse 27. Both the last part of verse 26 and verse 27 concern the 70th week of Daniel, which is still future. The coming of Messiah, the Prince, broke the sequence of 70 weeks in two, the first 69 weeks and the last, the 70th week, which shifted almost 2000 years to the future (more exact 2022 - 27 = 1995 years = 3 x 5 x 7 x 19, where 19 = 12 + 7 two numbers of completeness). As already stated, we consider this 70th week of 7 years to have started in december 2022 with the extreme right Netanyahu government. Many Christians have expected that the rapture of the church would occur before the start of Daniel's last week of 7 years but that is nowhere stated in Bible prophecy. 'The hour of temptation' mentioned by Jesus in Revelation 3:10 from which the church would be kept, very probably is the sequence of events starting with the opening of the seals, in Revelation 6. There are valid arguments for the red horse of the second seal being the 'abomination of desolation' at the midst of 'the week', 3.5 years before Jesus' return. If so, then the rapture would take place shortly before the last 3.5 years and not before the last 7 years.

The 'he' refers back to the last person mentioned in verse 26 and it is not Messiah, as some preterist expositors want to have it. The 'he' refers to 'the prince that shall come' whose people would destroy the city and the sanctuary, the Roman legions attacking Jerusalem from 66 - 70AD. Out of Rome would, after almost 2000 years stand up a new 'prince', that would act in the last of the 70 weeks. How that is possible is explained in Daniel 7, which shows the fourth beast that came from the sea as having ten horns among which an 11th horn came up, which was different from the ten and became bigger than the ten. As we explained above, that 11th horn was the USA, which grew bigger than the ten nations of Europe. Europe's nations were all heirs of the Roman empire. But in the Endtime, the US would end up to become the only true heir, the hegemon that would control the whole world. The 'he' of Daniel 9:27 is nobody else than the president of the USA. There is ample numerical evidence for the USA being the beast out of the sea of the Endtime and for Donald J. Trump being the last president, fulfilling - at least partly - the role of the 'he'. Why partly? That is determined by the meaning of the 'many' in Daniel 9:27. The literal text of the first sentence is: 

'And he will make strong the covenant many one week'. Translators have chosen for a covenant 'with many' but one can also read 'for many', in which it is not just the covenant itself but also the 'making strong' of the covenant. Who are these 'many'? Here the context is important: 'Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city'. It is about 'the people of Daniel', the true Jews. The covenant would be 'made strong' relating to them. Within the context of 'stupefying events' of 'desolations', a covenant that is made strong or mighty does not seem a positive thing. Since 1917, there has been some sort of covenant, a deal, made with the most powerful man on earth, to create a 'homeland for the Jews', the so called 'Balfour declaration'. Since then the situation of the indigenous people of the land of Palestine has slowly but surely been turned into a living hell. Their land was invaded by militarized gangs with an almost limitless financial, judicial and diplomatic support, claiming to be the rightful owners of the land because of a 2000 year old lineage. Most of them were only partly Jewish, while the so called 'Arab Palestinians' had much purer Jewish blood in their veins. At the 1948 Nakba more than half of Palestinian land was violently taken from them, many Palestinians were brutally murdered and half of them had to flee into refugee camps, where they still remain until this day. Their situation aggravated in 1967, when the new 'owners' of the land, that was renamed into 'Israel', occupied the parts that still belonged to the Palestinians. In the decades that followed a policy of the harshest forms of apartheid and ethnic cleansing was pursued in order to slowly expel all Palestinians from their land. Each rightful Palestinian opposition against the occupation was labeled 'terrorism' and was met with disproportional violence. This is what we would call 'the covenant', that was made among powerful bankers, the Rothschild family, Western elites and Western institutions like the United Nations. The UN was important for two reasons: (1) The institution of the partition plan, which laid the groundwork for the establishment of the state of Israel and (2) The veneer of justice for the public eye, in order to give the impression that the rule of law would prevail in the end. The secret covenant however was much stronger than 'the rule of law' because it was backed by limitless financial sources.

This covenant would be made 'strong' or 'mighty' for many for one week, 7 years, which actually is coming to pass from december 2022, onward. With the most right wing cabinet the world had ever seen, the oppression of the Palestinian people grew much more intense. Former illegal settlers became part of the government and under their protection, settlers in the occupied territories started to destroy more and more homes while stealing the land. Then October 7, 2023 came and the apartheid and ethnic cleansing was turned into a downright genocide, bombing Palestinians in their homes, bombing hospitals, schools, universities, mosques and churches, destroying water facilities, energysources and blocking the entrance of food.

'And in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease'. If 'the week' indeed started in december 2022, then the midst of 'the week', will be 3.5 years after december 2022, being June 2026. 'The sacrifice and the oblation' are expressions from the ceremonial law of offerings in the tabernacle / temple. However, no temple service is in place yet. We expect no Jewish temple will be built before the return of Jesus, which Jesus Himself foretold in his last words to the Pharisees: 'Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' (Mathew 23:38,39) Here Jesus connects the acknowledgment of the Jews of Who He is with their house (the temple) no longer being desolate. Therefore the ceasing of the offerings at the midst of the 70th week does not apply to a Jewish temple. It applies to the sacred places that were build close to the temple precincts of old, the two Mosques. The Islam also has a ceremony of offerings, once a year. In 2026 those offerings will be brought from May 28 until May 30. That would be 1246 - 1248 days past December 29, 2022, which we perceive as the starting point of the 70th week - 12 days short of the 1260 days that are mentioned in the book of Revelation as indication of the second half of the week (Rev.11:3, Rev.12:6).

'And for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.'

If the US with Israel would desecrate one of the mosques on the Haram Al Sharif, then that would ignite an enormous forceful reaction from Iran, which has been constantly harassed by the USA and Israel. Think of the assassination of its most important military officer, Soleimani (2020), the bombing of its embassy in Damascus (2024) and the murder of important generals and scientists, together with hundreds of citizens in a failed decapitation strike (2025). Moreover, the USA and the state of Israel have upset the whole world by the way that the Palestinians have been treated for the past 2 years. The desecration of one or both of the mosques would be the straw that breaks the camel's back. The literal Hebrew word for 'overspreading' is 'wing' or 'extremity'. So because of the abominations (detestable things and idolatry), will reach the most extreme levels thinkable (like the honoring of a USA president in a Mosque, following a genocide by both this president and his Zionist proxy) 'he', this US-president, will make desolate, will devastate, will cause horror. But what will be made desolate? Reading the context, it must be 'the city and the people of Daniel'. It is the state of Israel that is constantly harassing the complete Middle East since its inception, so it is the state of Israel that will be wiped off the map. Daniel 9:27 is in perfect alignment with Daniel 11:39-40. There we see 'the god of fortresses' (the USA) being honored by 'the king', the ruler of Israel, we believe to be Netanyahu, based on Daniel 8:23-26 (see above). This would happen in 'the strong fortress' (one or both Mosques on the temple-mount). Then 'the king of the South' (Egypt) and 'the king of the North' (Iran) will attack Israel. According to Isaiah 28:14-19, this will be a terrible experience. It is the start of the 'great tribulation'. Jesus warns every witness of the 'abomination of desolation' in Israel to flee the land as soon as possible (Mathew 24:15-21).

The End Goal of the 70 Weeks

The prophecy shows the empire in the background. The 490 years will end with six things that will be accomplished:

1. to finish the transgression - The transgression of 2300 days of desecrating the temple, stopping the daily sacrifice and putting up an abomination, worshiping an idle in the holy place. As we have seen above, about 3 years 1.080 days of transgression already passed from 167 - 164 BC. The rest of the 2300 days = about 1.220 days still have to be fulfilled in the future. We think the last 'week' of 7 years has already started with the present Netanyahu regime in december 2022. That would mean that 

2. to make an end of sins - The abominations and the utter lawlessness that would eventually lead to the total destruction of Israel and large parts of the world, will be totally ended once Jesus appears on the scene.

3. to make reconciliation for iniquity - The basis for reconciliation on the part of God was laid by Jesus on Calvary's cross after the ending of the 69th week. Then a completely new era started, the era of the church, which is not counted as part of the 70 weeks. For reconciliation however two parties are necessary. Every individual has to acknowledge guilt and necessity of reconciliation based on the offering of Jesus on the cross. For the Jewish people, mainly the Palestinians, that acknowledgement will come once they will see the Savior of the world, while He comes for their rescue, while they are on de verge of total annihilation. This is seen in Zechariah 12:10 and in Zechariah 13:8,9.

4. to bring in everlasting righteousness - This will be the fulfillment of one of the blessings, which Jesus named in the Beatitudes; 'Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.' This means that those who have been enriching themselves at the cost of the majority of humanity, and that have come away will all atrocities they committed in the process because they had bought off all levers of power, will finally meet total justice in front of the returning Jesus. 

5. to seal up the vision and prophecy - The most of bible prophecy will be fulfilled during the Endtime, the last 3.5 years before the return of Jesus.

6. to anoint the most Holy - We understand this to be the anointing of people, that will receive the Holy Spirit (as Jesus was anointed with the Spirit at his baptism). The people will receive God's Spirit once they repent and acknowledge Jesus as their Savior - Zechariah 12:10, Ezekiel 36:27, Ezekiel 37:14. Therefore the people of God are called 'the saints of the most High'.