Daniel 9:24-26

9:24 “Seventy weeks ¹  have been determined

concerning your people and your holy city

to put an end to ²  rebellion,

to bring sin ³  to completion, ⁴ 

to atone for iniquity,

to bring in perpetual ⁵  righteousness,

to seal up ⁶  the prophetic vision, ⁷ 

and to anoint a most holy place. ⁸ 

9:25 So know and understand:

From the issuing of the command ⁹  to restore and rebuild

Jerusalem ¹⁰  until an anointed one, a prince arrives, ¹¹ 

there will be a period of seven weeks ¹²  and sixty-two weeks.

It will again be built, ¹³  with plaza and moat,

but in distressful times.

9:26 Now after the sixty-two weeks,

an anointed one will be cut off and have nothing. ¹⁴ 

As for the city and the sanctuary,

the people of the coming prince will destroy ¹⁵  them.

But his end will come speedily ¹⁶  like a flood. ¹⁷ 

Until the end of the war that has been decreed

there will be destruction.

[9:24]  ¹ tn Heb “sevens.” Elsewhere the term is used of a literal week (a period of seven days), cf. Gen 29:27-28; Exod 34:22; Lev 12:5; Num 28:26; Deut 16:9-10; 2 Chr 8:13; Jer 5:24; Dan 10:2-3. Gabriel unfolds the future as if it were a calendar of successive weeks. Most understand the reference here as periods of seventy “sevens” of years, or a total of 490 years.

[9:24]  ² tc Or “to finish.” The present translation reads the Qere (from the root תָּמַם, tamam) with many witnesses. The Kethib has “to seal up” (from the root הָתַם, hatam), a confusion with a reference later in the verse to sealing up the vision.

[9:24]  ³ tc The present translation reads the Qere (singular), rather than the Kethib (plural).

[9:24]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew phrase לְכַלֵּא (lÿkhalle’) is apparently an alternative (metaplastic) spelling of the root כָּלָה (kalah, “to complete, finish”), rather than a form of כָּלָא (kala’, “to shut up, restrain”), as has sometimes been supposed.

[9:24]  ⁵ tn Or “everlasting.”

[9:24]  ⁶ sn The act of sealing in the OT is a sign of authentication. Cf. 1 Kgs 21:8; Jer 32:10, 11, 44.

[9:24]  ⁷ tn Heb “vision and prophecy.” The expression is a hendiadys.

[9:24]  ⁸ tn Or “the most holy place” (NASB, NLT); or “a most holy one”; or “the most holy one,” though the expression is used of places or objects elsewhere, not people.

[9:25]  ⁹ tn Or “decree” (NASB, NIV); or “word” (NAB, NRSV).

[9:25]  ¹⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[9:25]  ¹¹ tn The word “arrives” is added in the translation for clarification.

[9:25]  ¹² tn Heb “sevens” (also later in this line and in v. 26).

[9:25]  ¹³ tn Heb “it will return and be built.” The expression is a verbal hendiadys.

[9:26]  ¹⁴ sn The expression have nothing is difficult. Presumably it refers to an absence of support or assistance for the anointed one at the time of his “cutting off.” The KJV rendering “but not for himself,” apparently suggesting a vicarious death, cannot be defended.

[9:26]  ¹⁵ tc Some witnesses (e.g., the Syriac) understand a passive verb and the preposition עִם (’im, “with) rather than the noun עַם (’am, “people”), thus reading “the city and the sanctuary will be destroyed with the coming prince.”

[9:26]  ¹⁶ tn The words “will come speedily” are not in the Hebrew text but have been added in the translation for clarity.

[9:26]  ¹⁷ sn Flood here is a metaphor for sudden destruction.