Daniel 9:25

“Know therefore and discern, that from the going forth of the command to restore and to build Jerusalem to the anointed one, the prince (nagid), will be seven sevens, and sixty two sevens. It will be built again with street and moat, even in troubled times.”

The command (literally ‘word') to restore and build Jerusalem almost certainly refers to God's command for it to happen spoken of in Daniel 9:23, for the same phraseology is used by the angel to Daniel there. In Daniel 9:23 the ‘word (of the Lord) went forth' in response to Daniel's prayer for the restoration of the land, the city and the Temple. That would appear to indicate that the word that goes forth here is the same word. In terms of Daniel 9:23 that dates the commencement of the seventy sevens as being the first year of the reign of Darius the Mede, which is 539/8 BC. The fulfilment of that word on earth proceeded in stages. It commenced with the decree of Cyrus in 538 BC (Ezra 1:2) which, although it was specifically about rebuilding the temple, necessarily involved other building work in the city with the purpose of housing those who would have direct responsibility for the Temple. That is possibly why in Isaiah 44:28 Cyrus is seen as declaring of Jerusalem ‘she shall be built' and of the Temple ‘your foundation will be laid'. A further edict was decreed in the time of Nehemiah in 445 BC (Nehemiah 2:8), and there the city was to be fortified with walls and made a governing city of the area. Furthermore the words in Ezra 4:12 also indicate that an attempt had previously been made to continue the work of building Jerusalem, an attempt stymied by the activities of enemies of Jerusalem. Some work had already proceeded, certainly sufficient to arouse the ire of the complainants, and the consequence of their complaint was that the work was immediately suspended (Ezra 4:21). It is clear therefore that the work was proceeding ‘in troubled times'.

It was the rise of Nehemiah that resulted in a great advance in the situation. It was he who received the king's authority to rebuild the city and its walls, and to establish it as an independent city, thus demonstrating that God was ensuring that His plan to go forward. It was then, and only then, that Jerusalem could become what for Israel it had always been, a capital city, ruling over its own dependency. Note the words spoken to Daniel, it would be built with street and moat, a planned and defendable city, not a huddle of houses. This presumably occurred within the first ‘seven.

The importance of this is clear. When Jerusalem was destroyed and ceased to be a ruling city, that was the sign that God had forsaken His people. And while it was trodden down that situation remained. The almost overwhelming vehemence of Ezekiel's cries that ‘Jerusalem must be destroyed' was the seal that God had closed a chapter in the history of Israel and Judah. (Later indeed, in other circumstances, after another destroying of Jerusalem, we are told that the times of the Gentiles will continue while Jerusalem was trodden down (Luke 21:24) demonstrating again that it was Jerusalem primarily and the Temple only secondarily that was seen as the prime test of God's favour on the Jews).

Up to the time of Nehemiah Jerusalem had again been populated to some extent, but it was as a huddle of buildings with its own small Temple, and it was ruled from elsewhere and had little real authority. It was merely a provincial town of no importance and no status, part of a larger province, with no independence. It was still a dream in Israelite hearts rather than a reality. It was Nehemiah who rebuilt the walls and made it once more a ruling city with its pride restored (Nehemiah 5:14). It was Nehemiah who made ‘Jerusalem' truly independent from the surrounding nations. Thus the word going forth in Daniel's prophecy must be seen as resulting both in the edict of Cyrus and in the edict of Artaxerxes concerning Nehemiah, when Jerusalem once again began to count for something.

‘To an anointed one, a prince (nagid) will be seven sevens, and sixty two sevens.' There is no indication from the Hebrew whether the coming of the anointed prince was to be after the seven sevens or the sixty two sevens. However the fact that the anointed one will be cut off at the end of the sixty two ‘sevens' would appear to date his coming at that time. So we must ask, what is the significance of the split into two sections ? For nothing is specifically stated as happening at that time (unless we see it in the reference to the building of the city with street and moat in troubled times), and anointed princes were coming along in Israel all the time. It should be noted that this is not intended to be an ongoing prophecy like those in chapter 7, 8 and 11, covering different aspects of history. In this prophecy all the emphasis is on the achievement of God's ends. This being so we must probably see this anointed prince as being also the one described in Daniel 9:26. All eyes are on his coming.

The main answer to the question of the reason for the split almost certainly lies in the nature of seven ‘sevens'. We must look at this from the perspective of Israel and understand in this regard that ‘seven' was a distinctive period for Israel. Time for them was split up into seven day periods, with the seventh day a sabbath; then into moon periods; then into years; and then into seven year periods, with the seventh year a sabbath for the land; and then finally into ‘seven sevens of years' (Leviticus 25:8) with the fiftieth year a year of Yubile (Leviticus 25:10), a time when all Israelite bondservants would be released and land outside of walled cities would revert to its original owners (see Leviticus 25:27). All Israel would then be made free again. Thus time was seen as moving forward in seven day periods, and then in seven year periods and then in forty nine year periods (seven sevens of years). The fiftieth year was not strictly a year like all the others but overlapped the forty ninth year at the end of one period and the first year that began to next period of forty nine years. The Jews therefore saw time as moving forward in sevens.

Thus if seven days ended up with the sabbath and seven years ended up with the sabbath for the land and seven sevens of years ended up with the year of Yubile, then seven ‘sevens' might well have been seen as a period ending with a seventh ‘seven' which would be a time of special blessing. Seemingly this would be the period when the street and moat of Jerusalem would be built in troubled times, the street indicating a populated city, the moat indicating a city with strong defences (Daniel 9:25). Thus by the time of the seventh ‘seven' Jerusalem would have been established as a populated and fortified city. And they might well have seen that as indicating that the kingdom of blessing would then come. The angel is therefore careful to explain that that will not be so. For the seven ‘sevens' will simply lead into the sixty two ‘sevens'. They were not to look for a quick solution. The purpose of this is n order to emphasise that there will be a considerable length of time which must pass before what is prophesied finally comes about. The everlasting kingdom will not be issued in by the restoration of the city and building of the sanctuary.

This is not suggesting that we are to think strictly of a certain period of years. Indeed it rather brings out that we are dealing in ‘sevens' not years. Not ‘seven days', not ‘seven years', nor seven sevens of years, but seven ‘sevens', seven divinely determined periods. And these will then be followed by a period of a further sixty two ‘sevens', and then by a final period of ‘a seven'. And these are clearly to occur in sequence. There is not even a hint of a gap in between. The first ‘seven' (divinely determined period) sees the establishment of Jerusalem. The second series of ‘sevens' will end in the coming of the anointed Prince, and the third ‘seven' will bring about the consummation, the final fulfilment of prophecy and the introduction of the everlasting kingdom.

(At this point an interesting fact should be considered. In prophetic and general calculations months tended to be seen as of thirty days. This was equally used for convenience outside prophetic circles. It was a useful approximation. Of course true months per the moon were for twenty eight to twenty nine days, but this made for awkwardness, whilst our method of calculating months would not have been known to Daniel. Men lived by moon periods. So for calculation purposes a month was often seen as thirty days. Consider the 1,260 days of Revelation 11:3 which equates to forty two months which is intended to represent three and a half years (Revelation 11:2 with Daniel 11:3), and the 150 days of the flood which seems to indicate five months (Genesis 7:11 with Daniel 8:4). If we take the first sixty nine sevens as years and count them as being 360 days in length (12 times 30) we have 483 x 360, and the number of days resulting after the edict given to Nehemiah would actually, quite remarkably, bring us to the time of Jesus ministry on earth. This is so extraordinary a ‘coincidence' that some find it difficult to see it as a mere coincidence. But the fact is that the angel has made quite clear when ‘the word went forth' (Daniel 9:23; Daniel 9:25) and that was in 359/8 BC. Thus the main idea behind the seventy ‘sevens' (rather than ‘seventy years' as prophesied by Jeremiah) is of God's perfect timing and a divinely perfect number of God-determined periods of activity of a duration unknown to man, as with the ‘seven times' in Daniel 4:16. It should be noted in this regard that neither Jesus nor the Apostles ever seized on this passage as evidence that Jesus had come as ‘the anointed One', nor did anyone else in the early church. That must count against its having a timing significance).

‘To an anointed one, a prince (or ‘to Messiah the Prince').' The latter translation would mean that we have here the first specific reference to the Messiah, although not to the Messianic idea, which occurs fairly regularly in the Old Testament. But either way, in these words all the emphasis is on this prince. He is the one who is coming, and to whom all should look forward. This account is all about ‘the anointed One, the Prince', who is coming, and what is done to him, and what subsequently follows.