In the previous blogs, we have seen what Daniel’s seventy weeks are and how they should be reckoned. They are seventy weeks of years which, when reckoned according to the Jubilee cycle, span a period of five hundred years.
But when does this period begin? We do not have to determine that ourselves. Gabriel gives the starting point in the prophecy:
Daniel 9 (based on ISA)
²⁵ And you shall know and understand: from the going forth of the word to cause Jerusalem to return and to build, until Messiah, Prince, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks…
The reckoning therefore begins with the going forth of the word to cause Jerusalem to return and to build. The question is: which word is meant?
Daniel’s prayer
To answer that question, we need to look again at what gave rise to the prophecy. Daniel had understood from the writings of Jeremiah that the seventy years of the desolations of Jerusalem were coming to an end:
Daniel 9 (based on ISA)
² in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the scrolls the number of years concerning the word of YAHWEH that came to Jeremiah the prophet, that He would fulfill seventy years for the desolations of Jerusalem.
Daniel then begins to pray. His prayer continually centers on his people, Jerusalem, and the sanctuary. He asks God to turn His anger away from Jerusalem (v. 16), to cause His face to shine upon His desolate sanctuary (v. 17), and to look upon the desolations of the city over which His Name is called (v. 18).
At the end of his prayer, he says:
Daniel 9 (based on ISA)
¹⁹ Lord, hear! Lord, forgive! Lord, pay attention and act! Do not delay, for Your own sake, my God, because Your Name is called over Your city and over Your people.
The answer Gabriel then gives is therefore directly connected with Daniel’s prayer for the restoration of Jerusalem.
Cyrus
In the previous blogs, we already arrived at Cyrus. The seventy years of desolation end in his first year of reign:
2 Chronicles 36 (based on ISA)
²¹ …to fulfill the word of YAHWEH by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had made up for its Sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it rested, to fulfill seventy years.
²² And in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, to complete the word of YAHWEH by the mouth of Jeremiah, YAHWEH stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia…
The writer of Chronicles himself makes the connection. The seventy years are fulfilled and in the first year of Cyrus God intervenes.
Cyrus then issues a proclamation, which is recorded both at the end of 2 Chronicles and at the beginning of the following biblical book, Ezra (2 Chron. 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-3):
Ezra 1 (based on ISA)
² Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth YAHWEH, the God of the heavens, has given to me, and He has commissioned me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
³ Whoever among you is of all His people, his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and let him build the house of YAHWEH, the God of Israel…
It is therefore Cyrus who gives permission to return and to undertake the rebuilding.
Jerusalem shall be built
One might object that the decree of Cyrus in Ezra speaks primarily about rebuilding the temple, whereas Daniel 9:25 speaks about building Jerusalem. But it was precisely concerning Cyrus that Isaiah had prophesied long beforehand:
Isaiah 44 (based on ISA)
²⁸ Who says of Cyrus: My shepherd! For he shall carry out all My desire, and saying of Jerusalem: She shall be built, and of the temple: She shall be founded.
Here both are explicitly connected with Cyrus: Jerusalem shall be built and the temple shall be founded. Cyrus is also addressed directly in the following chapter:
Isaiah 45 (based on ISA)
¹ Thus says YAHWEH to His anointed, to Cyrus…
Cyrus is even called God’s anointed here. The Hebrew word is mashiach: messiah. God had chosen him for this special task. And a little further on, it is again stated what he would do:
Isaiah 45 (based on ISA)
¹³ I have stirred him up in righteousness, and all his ways I shall make straight. He shall build My city and he shall release My exiles, not for a price and not for a gift, says YAHWEH of hosts.
This is all the more remarkable because Isaiah mentions Cyrus by name almost 150 years before the destruction of Jerusalem. The restoration that would take place after the seventy years had therefore long beforehand been connected by God with this king. Cyrus is also addressed directly in the following chapter:
the word of YAHWEH
We should also pay close attention to the wording of Daniel 9:25. Gabriel does not speak of “the decree of a Persian king,” but of the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem.
In 2 Chronicles 36 and Ezra 1, it is explicitly stated that YAHWEH stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to complete the word of YAHWEH by the mouth of Jeremiah. The initiative therefore does not lie with Cyrus. He carries out what God had spoken beforehand.
Isaiah makes this clear as well. Cyrus is God’s shepherd who will carry out “all My desire.” Behind the word of Cyrus stands the word of YAHWEH. This fits exactly with the context of Daniel 9. Daniel had been reading about the word of YAHWEH that had come to Jeremiah (v. 2). He is then told that a new period is to be reckoned from the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem (v. 25).
The end of the seventy years during which Jerusalem lay desolate therefore marks at the same time the beginning of Daniel’s seventy weeks.
another starting point?
Many interpreters place the beginning of the seventy weeks much later, at a decree of Artaxerxes in Nehemiah 2. This places the starting point several decades after Cyrus.
The reason is that they understand the “word to restore and build Jerusalem” in Daniel 9:25 as a specific decree for the rebuilding of the city. They therefore arrive at Artaxerxes, who gives Nehemiah permission to go to Jerusalem and rebuild the city (Neh. 2:1-8). The earlier decree of Cyrus is then viewed primarily as a decree to rebuild the temple.
the immediate biblical context of Daniel 9
But when we read Daniel 9 within its immediate biblical context, there is no reason to do so. Daniel is at the end of the seventy years of desolation. He prays for the restoration of Jerusalem. Gabriel answers him with a prophecy that begins with the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem. And precisely at the end of the seventy years, Cyrus is stirred up by God to set the restoration in motion.
Moreover, YAHWEH had explicitly said beforehand concerning Cyrus that he would carry out His desire and that Jerusalem would be built and the temple founded. Scripture therefore points to Cyrus as the starting point of the seventy weeks.
seven weeks
From the going forth of this word, the reckoning begins. But Gabriel does not simply say that 69 weeks will pass until the Messiah. He makes a striking division:
Daniel 9 (based on ISA)
²⁵ …from the going forth of the word to cause Jerusalem to return and to build, until Messiah, Prince, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks…
First, seven weeks are mentioned separately, followed by another sixty-two weeks.
This raises the next question. Why are those first seven weeks mentioned separately? Seven weeks of years bring us, as we have now seen, to the fiftieth year, the Jubilee year. But what happens at the end of this first period?
We will look at that in the next blog.