Daniel 9:25

Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment - namely, the command from God, whence originated the command of the Persian king (Ezra 6:14). Auberlen remarks, there is but one Apocalypse in each Testament. Its purpose in each is to sum up all the preceding prophecies previous to the "troublous times" of the Gentiles, in which there was to be no revelation. Daniel sums up all the previous Messianic prophecy, separating into its individual phases, what the prophets had seen in one and the same perspective, the temporary deliverance from captivity and the antitypical final Messianic deliverance. The 70 weeks are separated (Daniel 9:25) into three unequal parts, 7 weeks, 62 weeks, one week. The 70th is the consummation of the preceding ones, as the Sabbath of God succeeds the working days-an idea suggested by the division into weeks. In the 69 weeks Jerusalem is restored, and so a place is prepared for Messiah wherein to accomplish His sabbatic work (Daniel 9:25) of "confirming the covenant" Daniel 9:27).

The Messianic time is the Sabbath of Israel's history, in which it had the offer of all God's mercies, but in which it was cut off for a time by its rejection of them. As the 70 weeks end with 7 years, or a week, so they begin with seven times seven - i:e., 7 weeks. As the 70th week is separated from the rest as a period of revelation, so it may be with the seven weeks. The number seven is associated with revelation; because the seven Spirits of God are the mediators of all His revelations (Revelation 1:4; Revelation 3:1; Revelation 4:5). Ten is the number of what is human-e.g., the world-power issues in ten heads and ten horns (Daniel 2:42, "the (ten) toes" of the image; Daniel 7:7). Seventy is ten multiplied by seven, the human moulded by the divine. The 70 years of exile symbolize the triumph of the world-power over Israel. In the seven times 70 years the world number 10 is likewise contained - i:e., God's people is still under the power of the world ("troublous times" Daniel 9:25); but the number of the divine is multiplied by itself; seven times seven years, at the beginning, a period of Old Testament revelation to God's people by Ezra, Nehemiah, and Malachi, whose labours extend over about half a century, or seven weeks, and whose writings are last in the canon; and in the end, seven years, the period of New Testament revelation in Messiah. The commencing seven weeks of years of Old Testament revelation are hurried over, in order that the chief stress might rest on the Messianic week. Yet the seven weeks of Old Testament revelation are marked by their separation from the sixty-two, to be above those sixty-two, wherein there was to be none.

The Messiah the Prince - Hebrew [ naagiyd (H5057)], Messiah, the King, is Jesus' title in respect to Israel (Psalms 2:2, "the Lord's anointed;" Matthew 27:37; Matthew 27:42 "Jesus the King of the Jews" - "the King of Israel"). Naagiyd, as Prince of the Gentiles (Isaiah 55:4, "Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader" [ naagiyd (H5057)]. Naagiyd is applied to Titus, only as representative of Christ, who designates the Roman destruction of Jerusalem as, in a sense, His "coming" (Matthew 24:1; John 21:22). Hence, too, he calls Titus' army His army (Matthew 22:7, "When the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city"). Messiah denotes His calling; naagiyd (H5057), His power. He is to 'be cut off, and there shall be nothing for Him.' So the Hebrew [ wª'eeyn (H369) low (H3807a)] for "not for himself" (Daniel 9:26) ought to be translated. The dominion which it was expected by the Jews that He would then set up shall at that time come to nothing by His death. Maurer translates, 'There shall be none (as an anointed successor in the kingdom) to Him.' There shall be no Messiah after him (Messiah being the natural word to supply, as being that which immediately precedes). Yet He is "the Prince" who is to "come," by His representative (the Roman Titus) at first to inflict judgment, and at last in person. The English version, "but not for himself," is often quoted as a proof of the vicarious nature of Christ's sufferings. But the Hebrew simply expresses that, Messiah having been cut off, His expected earthly kingdom was for the time being to be a thing not realized.

And the wall - the 'trench,' or 'scarped rampart' (Tregelles). The street and trench include the complete restoration of the city externally and internally, which was during the 69 weeks.