In the previous blog, we saw that Daniel was occupied with the seventy years that Jeremiah had foretold. These seventy years were not just an arbitrary period. During these years, the land received the sabbaths it had not received during Israel’s time in the land.
It is precisely when these seventy years are coming to an end that Gabriel appears to Daniel and once again announces a period of “seventy”:
Daniel 9 (after ISA)
²⁴ Seventy weeks are determined concerning your people and concerning your holy city…
What are these “weeks,” and how should we reckon them?
sevens
The Hebrew word translated as “weeks” in Daniel 9 is shavua. The word is derived from the Hebrew word for seven and denotes a group of seven. After all, a week is nothing more than a period of seven.
This does not mean, however, that ordinary weeks of seven days are meant here. The prophecy itself already shows that this cannot be the intention. Gabriel speaks of events extending from the restoration and rebuilding of Jerusalem to the coming and cutting off of the Messiah. That could never take place within seventy ordinary weeks, less than a year and a half.
These are sevens of years, or weeks of years. One week represents a period of seven years.
sabbaths of years
Reckoning with periods of seven years is also not something new that is first introduced in Daniel. Israel already knew this way of reckoning time from the law. In the previous blog, we saw that every seventh year was a sabbath for the land.
In Leviticus 25, we then find seven such periods of seven years grouped together:
Leviticus 25 (after ISA)
⁸ And you shall count for yourself seven sabbaths of years, seven years seven times, and the days of the seven sabbaths of years shall be for you forty-nine years.
Here we find precisely the principle of a week of years. Just as seven days form a week, seven years form a “sabbath of years.” Seven such periods amount to seven times seven, or 49 years.
This background is important when Gabriel speaks to Daniel about seventy “sevens.” Daniel did not have to guess what was meant. The law already knew a system of reckoning time in which years were counted in groups of seven.
seven, sixty-two, and one
Gabriel then divides the seventy weeks of years into different parts. First seven weeks are mentioned, followed by sixty-two weeks:
Daniel 9 (after ISA)
²⁵ And you shall know and have insight: from the going forth of the word to cause to return and to build Jerusalem, until Messiah, Prince, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks…
Seven plus sixty-two is 69 weeks. In the next verse, we read what happens after these 62 weeks, and in verse 27 we then find one more week. Thus, the total period of seventy weeks is divided into:
7 weeks
62 weeks
1 week
total: 70 weeks
Since these are weeks of years, the usual calculation is obvious:
70 × 7 years = 490 years
And yet, earlier in this series we saw that the period from Cyrus to Christ spans five hundred years within the biblical chronology. How, then, can a prophecy of seventy weeks of years cover a period of five hundred years?
seven weeks of years
The key lies in the first period Gabriel mentions: seven weeks. Seven weeks of years are seven times seven years:
7 × 7 = 49 years
We have just encountered that number in Leviticus 25 as well. But the counting does not stop there. After these 49 years, a special year follows:
Leviticus 25 (after ISA)
¹⁰ And you shall sanctify the year, the fiftieth year…
¹¹ A jubilee shall this, the fiftieth year, be for you.
After seven weeks of years, we therefore arrive at the fiftieth year, the jubilee year.
This brings us to an important question. If seven weeks of years are 49 years, how should we reckon the fiftieth year? Is the jubilee year at the same time the first year of a new cycle, so that each cycle lasts 49 years? Or is the fiftieth year truly a separate year, so that a complete jubilee cycle spans fifty years?
The answer to that question is of great importance for Daniel’s seventy weeks of years.