Before we proceed, because this study is very important,
it is recommended that you be comfortable with the bible version being used.
If you would prefer to use a version other than the King James Version,
go to the top of this page and select one you trust.

Before we get started on Daniel 9, there are some things I should make clear.
Firstly, it should be made clear that when the bible was written, it was not written with chapters.
This is important, because the prophecy of Daniel 8 does not end with chapter 8. It continues right on into chapter 9.
Also, Daniel was a sealed book, Daniel 12:9 so the translators that devised the chapter breaks,
did not understand that Daniel 8 and 9 were parts of the same prophecy.
The second thing to get straight, is that all the prophecies in Daniel, are about the same topic, the same message.
The message of Daniel was so important, that God gave it four times, in different fashions and with increasing amounts of detail.
God first gives the message about the future of the world's kingdoms in about half a chapter in Daniel 2
He then takes the whole of chapter 7 to tell the same thing with increased detail.
Not satisfied with that, He takes the two chapters of Daniel 8 and 9 to tell it again with even more detail.
Finally, He takes the three chapters of Daniel 10, 11, and 12 to give it one last time in very fine detail.

So, if God thought it so important that He gave the message four times in increasing detail,
then just maybe we should study it till we understand it.
The prophecy of Daniel 9 has been deliberately mis-interpreted by people with an agenda,
because it is a very damning prophecy for those same people.

When we finished Daniel 8, there was a burning question left hanging in suspense.
We saw that there was a prophecy of 2300 years, but, When did it start? and When did it come to completion?
We are about to find out!

In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;  There is some argument as to when Darius reigned. This argument is mainly from skeptics, but just like all the other attempts they have made to dis-credit Daniel, it will eventually fall by the wayside as well.
I personally believe that this dates the prophecy to 539BC, not long after Daniel 8, but in any case, the only thing important is that it was written after Daniel 8.
 
In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.  God had promised through Jeremiah, that the children of Israel would be in captivity in Babylon for 70 years and then they would be let go. Jeremiah 25:11-12 and the seventy years is almost up.
 
And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;
We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:
Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;
Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.
Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.
And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.
Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.
O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. 		 Daniel is praying to God and confessing the sins of his brethren, and asking God to forgive them, and not to forget them, leaving them in the captivity which they brought on themselves.
 
O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.  Daniel is asking that God not delay on His promise to bring them out of Babylon.
 
And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;
Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, 		 This is the angel Gabriel, the most important and powerful angel in heaven, who came to his side.
 
whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning,  

WHOA!

What did he mean the vision at the beginning? What vision? There is no vision in chapter 9!
A lot of bible scholars try to remove Daniel 9 from Daniel 8 to suit their purposes.
The vision he is talking about here is the one in the previous chapter, the one about the 2300 days.
There were no chapter breaks when the Bible was written.
 
being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.  Wow! These angels can move! Gabriel has come from heaven to earth in the time it took Daniel to pray.
 
And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.   give thee skill and understanding about WHAT?
He is talking about the vision in Daniel chapter 8.
Remember, Daniel fainted while Gabriel was explaining it to him.
So, all we have so far about the 2300 days, is that there is a period of 2300 years until the judgment starts, but we do not know from when, and therefore, we do not know when it ends.
 
At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved:  When Daniel started to pray, the angel Gabriel was despatched to give him the remainder of the explanation he missed out on when he fainted.
 
therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.  Once again, the vision he is talking about is the one in Daniel 8 when Gabriel's explanation was cut short, due to Daniel fainting.
 
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city,  Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people is saying that Daniel's people, the Jews, have been given Seventy weeks to achieve something. That word determined is a very strong word. If you like, it is a very determined statement.
The Seventy weeks is subject to the rules of symbolic prophecy. That is one day represents 1 year. Ezekiel 4:6 Numbers 14:34
So, 70 weeks x 7 days per week = 490 symbolic days = 490 literal years.
 

So, our chart now looks like this:-





to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity,  This is what they have been requested to do within the 490 years.
 
and to bring in everlasting righteousness,  This is referring to the coming of Jesus, who was to come through the Jewish line. The everlasting righteousness is a reference to Jesus removing sin as part of the plan of salvation.
 
and to seal up the vision and prophecy,  The seal up is used in the original language as bring an end to.
So, it is simply saying this time period will bring an end to the vision and the prophecy.
It would appear that this is referring to there being no more visions and prophets given to the Jews after this time runs out.
This is acted out in the scene of the stoning of Stephen. When they are about to stone him, he has a vision from heaven seeing Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and simultaneously, the killers left their clothes with Saul who was about to become Paul and go to the Gentiles. Acts 7:55-59 Therefore, in this event you have the final vision given to Stephen, who was a preacher and prophet to the Jews, and you have Paul standing there, unaware that he is Stephen's replacement, but he is being sent to the Gentiles, because the 70 weeks has run out for the Jews.
 
and to anoint the most Holy.  anoint the most Holy refers to the Baptism of Jesus, where he was anointed by the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove.
 
Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem  At Last! Now we have a start date. The 2300 days starts at the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.
Firstly, we need to understand actually what it was meant by rebuild and restore.
To do that, we need to see what it was that was carried away in the first place. It was not only the physical Jerusalem, but the entire community structure. 2 Kings 24:14-16 There were actually four decrees concerning Jerusalem, two being to re-build the temple only, but only one of them had the full backing from the king of Persia, and was financed by him. That was in 457BC. If you add 2300 years to that date, you have 1844 (There is no year 0, so you need to add 1 going from BC to AD).
A large number of Bible scholars go with the date of 445BC, but this is not correct. This was a re-issuance of the decree that was made by Artaxerxes in 457BC. The 7th year of Artaxerxes has been nailed to 457BC by archeologists. The decree given by Artaxerxes in 457 was the one reported by Ezra Ezra 7:7-13 and if you read the Wikipedia entry about the decree you will see that there was no decree in 445BC. It was just the action of the going forth of the decree that happened in 457BC.
Also, you will notice in Ezra 7:25-27 that he also restored the social structue of Jerusalem, which is an essential part of "restoring". This was the decree that Gabriel talked about.
If you remember from the study of Daniel 8 that at the end of the 2300 years the Sanctuary will be cleansed which means the judgment occurs.
Conclusion:- The judgment started in 1844. Obviously, only the dead are judged at that stage.
 
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 time  It is obvious from the wording that the 490 years (70 weeks) is the first piece of the 2300 years, although the wording is interesting "seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks".
It is obvious that there are two events here.
Those two events are, the coming of the Messiah the Prince and the re-building of the street and the wall.
One of these was to happen seven weeks (7 weeks x 7 days per week = 49 days = 49 years) and the other was to happen in 62 weeks (62 weeks x 7 days per week = 434 days = 434 years) after that.
Verse 26 tells us that the 62 weeks refers to Messiah the prince.
The wall and streets were re-built in 49 years, and there was much trouble doing this, as those opposed the the re-building took a very active part in destruction and sabotage of the project.
This, therefore is the seven weeks, and the remaining 434 years refers to The Messiah the Prince.
Let's see if it does. 457BC + 49 years = 408BC + 434 years + 1 going BC to AD = 27AD.
That is when Jesus was baptised and anointed by the Holy Spirit.
This date is so easy to prove, because God gave us so many clues in Luke 3:1-3,21-22
We are told in Acts 10:36-38 that Jesus was anointed at His baptism. This also gives us a clear starting point and a clear point for the 69th week. It starts at the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem and leads up to the "Messiah the Prince".
 

At this point, our chart looks like this:-





Here is where we run into trouble. There is a large group of "Christians" that prefer to believe a book that is purchased in the "fiction" section of a bookstore, rather that the Bible.
I am talking about the "Left Behind" followers, or, as I call them, "The Left Right Out" people.
Their approach is this:- They use a hack-saw to remove one week off the end of the 70 weeks, and say
"There is a break in the 70 weeks at the 69th week and the other week is applied right down at the end of time".
Hmm... OK. Well, how about this? What if I said to these gullible people,
"I shall keep my car for 70 weeks and give it to you, no charge"
And then when they come to collect in 70 weeks, I say, "Oh! There is a break between the 69th week and the 70th week, and that break is 2000 years long."
I can imagine just what these people would say...
"But that does not make sense. You are changing it to suit yourself!"
Very true, and that is exactly what I say to them. 70 weeks is 70 weeks, not 69 weeks + massive gap in time + 1 week. But, I digress. Let us continue.

And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off,  This is now in the 70th week, after the 7 weeks and then the 62 weeks.
The Messiah shall be cut off refers to the crucifixion of Jesus.
When He said My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Matthew 27:46 Mark 15:34
He had been "Cut off from God".
At that point, He was carrying the weight of the sins of the entire world and this separated Him from God.
Isaiah 53:8-9 prophecied the event of The Messiah shall be cut off.
 
but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;  We already know that the Prince (Messiah the Prince).
A lot of people try to attribute this verse to the Anti-Christ rather than Christ Himself.
Well, that is just not correct, unless you attribute Messiah the Prince to the anti-Christ, because verse 25 flows right on into verse 26 still talking about The Messiah and The Prince.
That however, leaves us with a dilemna. Who are the people of the prince ? That can only mean one thing at this point in time. The Jews. But, THAT is not the dilemna. Does this mean that the Jews destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple? YES!
By rejecting the Messiah, the Jews sealed their fate. This is what Jesus was referring to when He said "Your house is left to you desolate". Luke 13:34-35 and He said "Not one stone shall remain on another" Matthew 24:2
In 70AD, Rome tore Jerusalem and the Temple to the ground and burnt it, but Rome was the tool. It was the Jews who were responsible for their own demise.
The very next verse (verse 27) clarifies it. Read closely. It says that because of the overspreading of abominations He shall make it desolate. What could be more clear than that? They brought the desolation on their own heads. The people of the prince .... shall destroy the city.
Hosea prophecied of this when he said O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help. Hosea 13:9
 
and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.  The word flood is symbolic of armies, water representing masses of people and a flood is a swamping or a carrying away effect of an attacking army.
end of the war is a double barrel symbolism similar to Matthew 24. It represents the end of the war that ended in the destruction of Jerusalem, and the end of the war between Christ and satan.
Desolations are determined represents the raining down of the fruits of the Jews labour on their own heads.
The Jews have never had any peace as a nation since the fall of Jerusalem in 70AD.
 
And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:  The covenant was with the Jews. Jesus preached to the Jews for 3 1/2 years and then the disciples preached to the Jews also for another 3 1/2 years, making a total of 7 years (1 week).
Jesus referred to this when He directed the disciples to continue with the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matthew 10:5-6 because the 70 weeks (490 years) they had been determined had not run out yet, so they still had time to repent and save their nation.
This is why Acts chapters 1 to 9 are involved with the disciples preaching to the Jews only, and then suddenly, Peter is given a vision telling him that it is now OK to preach to the gentiles.
Jesus gave a clear statement concerning this in Matthew 23:34-36 where He states three days before his death, that He is going to send prophets, wise men, and scribes but they would reject them also until the 70 weeks ran out and then all the punishment and ruin would fall on their heads.
John the Baptist also referred to the nearness of this event. Luke 3:9
In 34AD, the 490 years (70 weeks determined on your people) ran out, and Stephen went in to tell the leaders that their time was up, and they had failed to receive the Messiah.
They did not take the news well, and they stoned him.
Jesus confirmed the covenant with many for one week. But, you say, He could not have done so, because He was crucified in the midst of the week.
Well, look at the conversion of Saul to Paul. This happened at the end of the 70 weeks, and Jesus was already dead, but WHO does Jesus say that Saul is percecuting? Acts 9:4. He says "Why persecutest thou ME?" Because it was Jesus, working through His disciples and followers, that was still confirming the covenant till their time ran out.
Notice the order that Jesus mentions the gospel going to the world as the VERY LAST thing He said before He left the earth. Acts 1:8-9. First Jerusalem & Judea (Jews) and then Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth (Gentiles).
The sequence of the book of Acts
 Chapters
1-6
Gospel to Jews
Chapter
7
Stephen is stoned (70 weeks runs out)
Chapter
8
Gospel to Samaritans
Chapter
9
Conversion of Saul
Chapter
10-28
Gospel to Gentiles

Notice also, the words of Paul referring to this event. Acts 13:46-47 He says "It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you" Why was that? It was because the 70 weeks had not yet run out.
 
and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,  In the midst of the week (AD31, 3 1/2 years after His baptism), He was crucified. This brought to an end the sacrificial system, because Jesus, the REAL sacrifice had paid, and we were no longer looking FORWARD to the Messiah. We were now looking back. This is why Jesus said "It is finished!" and the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom because there was no need for any more sacrifices.
 
and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate,  Because of the continued iniquities of the Jews, and because they had refused to accept the Messiah, the temple was desolated and the jews were no longer "The chosen people".
This is why Jesus said "Your house is left to you desolate!" Luke 13:34-35
 
even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.  Even till all this winds up at the end of time, these things will continue to fall on the Jews. If you look at their history since 70AD, you can see that this is so true. Trouble has rained heavily on the Jews ever since.
 

Our final chart looks like this:-




It helps to reinforce what you have learned by taking the optional quiz,
or simply return to the menu and do the next study.