Lesson 4: Daniel’s Seventy Weeks

Daniel 9:24-27
24 Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.
25 Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.
26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed.
27 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.

A prophecy which has been partly fulfilled is found in our verses above. It is important to note from verse 24 to whom this prophecy is given. Since the person hearing this is Daniel, we know this prophecy is about Israel – Daniel’s people.


Verse 25 gives us the starting date for this prophecy to be fulfilled – the date of the order given for Jerusalem to be restored. This was fulfilled, and the date is given, in Nehemiah 2:1-5. The prince named in this verse is Nehemiah who, by the king’s orders, became the governor of Israel and brought the people back to God’s way.

Verse 26 says after this first period of seven weeks (49 years), when Nehemiah was in charge, will come an additional 62 weeks (434 years). At the close of this time the “Anointed One” would be cut off. Counting, then, the 483 years from the king’s decree for Nehemiah to restore the city of Jerusalem, we come to the year of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem – the event we today call Palm Sunday. That was the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey’s colt, offering Himself as the King of the Jews. His offer was refused, and a few days later He was crucified – cut off.

Verse 27 gives one additional week as the closing of this prophecy – a final seven years which is broken into two parts. This “week” or seven years begins with a covenant between “Daniel’s people” – Israel, and ends with the return of Jesus to earth. In Daniel 12:11, God tells us the exact number of days from the middle event of this seven-year period – the abomination of desolation – until Jesus steps onto the Mount of Olives, and puts an end to the “desolator” (the antichrist).

Prayer: Father, help us to understand Your faithfulness in completing everything You have prophesied in complete agreement with all You have said.