Commentary Critical and Explanatory
on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 9
Daniel 9:1-27. DANIEL'S
CONFESSION AND
PRAYER FOR
JERUSALEM:
GABRIEL
COMFORTS
HIM BY THE
PROPHECY OF THE
SEVENTY
WEEKS.
The world powers here recede from view; Israel, and the salvation by
Messiah promised to it, are the subject of revelation. Israel had
naturally expected salvation at the end of the captivity. Daniel is
therefore told, that, after the seventy years of the captivity, seventy
times seven must elapse, and that even then Messiah would not come in
glory as the Jews might through misunderstanding expect from the earlier
prophets, but by dying would put away sin. This ninth chapter (Messianic
prophecy) stands between the two visions of the Old Testament
Antichrist, to comfort "the wise." In the interval between Antiochus and
Christ, no further revelation was needed; therefore, as in the first
part of the book, so in the second, Christ and Antichrist in connection
are the theme.
1. first year of Darius--Cyaxares II, in whose name Cyrus, his nephew,
son-in-law, and successor, took Babylon, 538 B.C. The date of this
chapter is therefore 537 B.C., a year before Cyrus permitted the Jews to
return from exile, and sixty-nine years after Daniel had been carried
captive at the beginning of the captivity, 606 B.C.
son of Ahasuerus--called Astyages by
XENOPHON. Ahasuerus was a name
common to many of the kings of Medo-Persia.
made king--The phrase implies that Darius owed the kingdom not to
his own prowess, but to that of another, namely, Cyrus.
2. understood by books--rather, "letters," that is, Jeremiah's letter
(Jeremiah 29:10) to the captives in Babylon; also Jeremiah 25:11,12; compare 2 Chronicles 36:21, Jeremiah 30:18, 31:38. God's promises are the ground on which we should, like Daniel, rest sure hope; not so as to make our
prayers needless, but rather to encourage them.
3. prayer . . . supplications--literally, "intercessions . . .
entreaties for mercy." Praying for blessings, and deprecating
evils.
4. my confession--according to God's promises in Leviticus 26:39-42, that if Israel in exile for sin should repent and confess, God would
remember for them His covenant with Abraham (compare
Deuteronomy 30:1-5'Jeremiah 29:12-14' 4:10'). God's promise was absolute, but prayer also was ordained as about to precede its fulfilment, this too
being the work of God in His people, as much as the external restoration which was to follow. So it shall be at Israel's final
restoration (Psalms 102:13-17). Daniel takes his countrymen's place of confession of sin, identifying himself with them, and, as their
representative and intercessory priest, "accepts the punishment of their
iniquity." Thus he typifies Messiah, the Sin-bearer and great
Intercessor. The prophet's own life and experience form the fit starting
point of the prophecy concerning the sin atonement. He prays for
Israel's restoration as associated in the prophets (compare
Jeremiah 31:4,11,12,31, &c.). with the hope of Messiah. The revelation, now granted, analyzes into its successive parts that which the prophets,
in prophetical perspective, heretofore saw together in one; namely, the
redemption from captivity, and the full Messianic redemption. God's
servants, who, like Noah's father (Genesis 5:29), hoped many a time that now the Comforter of their afflictions was at hand, had to wait from age
to age, and to view preceding fulfilments only as pledges of the coming
of Him whom they so earnestly desired to see (Matthew 13:17); as now also Christians, who believe that the Lord's second coming is nigh, are
expected to continue waiting. So Daniel is informed of a long period of
seventy prophetic weeks before Messiah's coming, instead of seventy
years, as he might have expected (compare Matthew 18:21,22) [AUBERLEN].
great and dreadful God--as we know to our cost by the calamities we
suffer. The greatness of God and His dreadful abhorrence of sin
should prepare sinners for reverent, humble acknowledgment of the
justice of their punishment.
keeping . . . covenant and mercy--that is, the covenant of Thy mercy,
whereby Thou hast promised to deliver us, not for our merits, but of Thy
mercy (Ezekiel 36:22,23). So weak and sinful is man that any covenant for good on God's part with him, to take effect, must depend solely on
His grace. If He be a God to be feared for His justice, He is one to
be trusted for His "mercy."
love . . . keep his commandments--Keeping His commandments is the
only sure test of love to God (John 14:15).
5. Compare Nehemiah's confession (Nehemiah 9:1-38).
sinned . . . committed iniquity . . . done wickedly . . . rebelled--a
climax. Erred in ignorance . . . sinned by
infirmity . . . habitually and wilfully done wickedness . . . as
open and obstinate rebels set ourselves against God.
6. prophets . . . spake . . . to our kings . . .
to all the people--They fearlessly warned all
without respect of persons.
7. confusion of faces, as at this day--Shame at our guilt, betrayed
in our countenance, is what belongs to us; as our punishment "at this
day" attests.
near, and . . . far off--the chastisement, however varied, some Jews
not being cast off so far from Jerusalem as others, all alike were
sharers in the guilt.
9. mercies--The plural intensifies the force; mercy manifold and
exhibited in countless ways. As it is humbling to recollect
"righteousness belongeth unto God," so it is comforting, that
"mercies belong to the Lord OUR God."
though we have rebelled--rather, "since," &c. [Vulgate],
(Psalms 25:11). Our punishment is not inconsistent with His "mercies," since we have rebelled against Him.
10. set before us--not ambiguously, but plainly, so that we were
without excuse.
11. all--(Psalms 14:3, Romans 3:12).
the curse . . . and . . . oath . . . in . . . law--the curse against Israel, if disobedient, which God ratified by oath
(Leviticus 26:14-39;,Deut 27:15-26, 28:15-68,29).
12. confirmed his words--showed by the punishments we suffer, that
His words were no idle threats.
under . . . heaven hath not been done as . . . upon
Jerusalem--(Lamentations 1:12).
13. yet made we not our prayer before--literally, "soothed not the
face of." Not even our chastisement has taught us penitence
(Isaiah 9:13, Jeremiah 5:3, Hosea 7:10). Diseased, we spurn the healing medicine.
that we might turn, &c.--Prayer can only be accepted when joined
with the desire to turn from sin to God (Psalms 66:18, Proverbs 28:9).
understand thy truth--"attentively regard Thy faithfulness" in
fulfilling Thy promises, and also Thy threats
[CALVIN]. Thy law (Daniel 8:12), [MAURER].
14. watched upon the evil--expressing ceaseless vigilance that His
people's sins might not escape His judgment, as a watchman on guard
night and day (Job 14:16, Jeremiah 31:28, 44:27). God watching upon the Jews punishment forms a striking contrast to the Jews slumbering in
their sins.
God is righteous--True penitents "justify" God, "ascribing
righteousness to Him," instead of complaining of their punishment as too
severe (Nehemiah 9:33'Job 36:3'Psalms 51:4'Lamentations 3:39-42').
15. brought thy people . . . out of . . . Egypt--a proof to all ages
that the seed of Abraham is Thy covenant-people. That ancient benefit
gives us hope that Thou wilt confer a like one on us now under similar
circumstances (Psalms 80:8-14, Jeremiah 32:21, 23:7,8).
as at this day--is known.
16. thy righteousness--not stern justice in punishing, but Thy
faithfulness to Thy promises of mercy to them who trust in Thee
(Psalms 31:1, 143:1).
thy city--chosen as Thine in the election of grace, which changes
not.
for . . . iniquities of . . . fathers--(Exodus 20:5). He does not impugn God's justice in this, as did the murmurers (Ezekiel 18:2,3; compare Jeremiah 31:29).
thy people . . . a reproach--which brings reproach on Thy name. "All
the nations that are about us" will say that Thou, Jehovah, wast not
able to save Thy peculiar people. So Daniel 9:17, "for the Lord's sake"; Daniel 9:19, "for Thine own sake" (Isaiah 48:9,11).
17. cause thy face to shine--metaphor from the sun, which gladdens all
that it beams upon (Numbers 6:25, Malachi 4:2).
18. present . . . supplications--literally, "cause to fall," &c.
19. The short broken ejaculations and repetitions show the intense
fervor of his supplications.
defer not--He implies that the seventy years are now all but complete.
thine own sake--often repeated, as being the strongest plea
(Jeremiah 14:21).
20. whiles I was speaking--repeated in Daniel 9:21; emphatically marking that the answer was given before the prayer was completed, as
God promised (Isaiah 30:19, 65:24; compare Psalms 32:5).
21. I had seen in the vision at the beginning--namely, in the former
vision by the river Ulai (Daniel 8:1,16).
fly swiftly--literally, "with weariness," that is, move swiftly as
one breathless and wearied out with quick running
[GESENIUS].
English Version is better (Isaiah 6:2, Ezekiel 1:6, Revelation 14:6).
time of . . . evening oblation--the ninth hour, three o'clock (compare
1 Kings 18:36). As formerly, when the temple stood, this hour was devoted to sacrifices, so now to prayer. Daniel, during the whole
captivity to the very last, with pious patriotism never forgot God's
temple-worship, but speaks of its rites long abolished, as if still in
use.
22. to give thee . . . understanding--Daniel 8:16; Daniel 8:26 shows that the symbolical vision had not been understood. God therefore now
gives "information" directly, instead of by symbol, which required
interpretation.
23. At the beginning of thy supplications, &c.--The promulgation of
the divine decree was made in heaven to the angels as soon as Daniel
began to pray.
came forth--from the divine throne; so Daniel 9:22.
thou art greatly beloved--literally, "a man of desires" (compare
Ezekiel 23:6,12); the object of God's delight. As the apocalyptic prophet of the New Testament was "the disciple whom Jesus loved," so the
apocalyptic prophet of the Old Testament was "greatly beloved" of God.
the vision--the further revelation as to Messiah in connection with
Jeremiah's prophecy of seventy years of the captivity. The charge to
"understand" is the same as in Matthew 24:15, where Rome primarily, and Antichrist ultimately, is referred to (compare Note,
24. Seventy weeks--namely, of years; literally, "Seventy sevens";
seventy heptads or hebdomads; four hundred ninety years; expressed in a
form of "concealed definiteness"
[HENGSTENBERG], a usual way with
the prophets. The Babylonian captivity is a turning point in the
history of the kingdom of God. It terminated the free Old Testament
theocracy. Up to that time Israel, though oppressed at times, was; as a
rule, free. From the Babylonian captivity the theocracy never recovered
its full freedom down to its entire suspension by Rome; and this period
of Israel's subjection to the Gentiles is to continue till the
millennium (Revelation 20:1-15), when Israel shall be restored as head of the New Testament theocracy, which will embrace the whole earth. The
free theocracy ceased in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, and the
fourth of Jehoiakim; the year of the world 3338, the point at which the
seventy years of the captivity. begin. Heretofore Israel had a right,
if subjugated by a foreign king, to shake off the yoke
(Judges 4:1-5:31'2 Kings 18:7') as an unlawful one, at the first opportunity.
But the prophets (Jeremiah 27:9-11) declared it to be God's will that they should submit to Babylon. Hence every effort of Jehoiakim, Jeconiah, and Zedekiah to rebel was vain. The period of the world times,
and of Israel's depression, from the Babylonian captivity to the
millennium, though abounding more in afflictions (for example, the two
destructions of Jerusalem, Antiochus' persecution, and those which
Christians suffered), contains all that was good in the preceding ones,
summed up in Christ, but in a way visible only to the eye of faith.
Since He came as a servant, He chose for His appearing the period
darkest of all as to His people's temporal state. Always fresh
persecutors have been rising, whose end is destruction, and so it shall
be with the last enemy, Antichrist. As the Davidic epoch is the point of
the covenant-people's highest glory, so the captivity is that of their
lowest humiliation. Accordingly, the people's sufferings are reflected
in the picture of the suffering Messiah. He is no longer represented as
the theocratic King, the Antitype of David, but as the Servant of God
and Son of man; at the same time the cross being the way to glory
(compare Daniel 9:1-27 with Daniel 2:34,35,44, 12:7). In the second and seventh chapters, Christ's first coming is not noticed, for Daniel's
object was to prophesy to his nation as to the whole period from the
destruction to the re-establishment of Israel; but this ninth chapter
minutely predicts Christ's first coming, and its effects on the covenant
people.
The seventy weeks date thirteen years before the rebuilding of Jerusalem; for then the re-establishment of the theocracy began, namely, at
the return of Ezra to Jerusalem, 457 B.C. So Jeremiah's seventy
years of the captivity begin 606 B.C., eighteen years before the
destruction of Jerusalem, for then Judah ceased to exist as an
independent theocracy, having fallen under the sway of Babylon. Two
periods are marked in Ezra: (1) The return from the captivity under
Jeshua and Zerubbabel, and rebuilding of the temple, which was the
first anxiety of the theocratic nation. (2) The return of Ezra
(regarded by the Jews as a second Moses) from Persia to Jerusalem, the
restoration of the city, the nationality, and the law. Artaxerxes,
in the seventh year of his reign, gave him the commission which
virtually includes permission to rebuild the city, afterwards confirmed
to, and carried out by, Nehemiah in the twentieth year
(Ezra 9:9 7,11, &c.). Daniel 9:25, "from the going forth of the commandment to build Jerusalem," proves that the second of the two
periods is referred to. The words in Daniel 9:24 are not, "are determined upon the holy city," but "upon thy people and thy holy
city"; thus the restoration of the religious national polity and
the law (the inner work fulfilled by Ezra the priest), and the
rebuilding of the houses and walls (the outer work of Nehemiah, the
governor), are both included in Daniel 9:25, "restore and build Jerusalem." "Jerusalem" represents both the city, the body, and the
congregation, the soul of the state. Compare
Psalms 46:1-11, 48:1-14, 87:1-7. The starting-point of the seventy weeks dated from eighty-one years after Daniel received the prophecy: the
object being not to fix for him definitely the time, but for the
Church: the prophecy taught him that the Messianic redemption,
which he thought near, was separated from him by at least a half
millennium. Expectation was sufficiently kept alive by the general conception of the time; not only the Jews, but many Gentiles looked for
some great Lord of the earth to spring from Judea at that very time
[TACITUS, Histories, 5.13;
SUETONIUS, Vespasian, 4]. Ezra's
placing of Daniel in the canon immediately before his own book and
Nehemiah's was perhaps owing to his feeling that he himself brought
about the beginning of the fulfilment of the prophecy (Daniel 9:20-27) [AUBERLEN].
determined--literally, "cut out," namely, from the whole course of
time, for God to deal in a particular manner with Jerusalem.
thy . . . thy--Daniel had in his prayer often spoken of Israel as
"Thy people, Thy holy city"; but Gabriel, in reply, speaks of
them as Daniel's ("thy . . . thy") people and city, God thus
intimating that until the "everlasting righteousness" should be brought
in by Messiah, He could not fully own them as His
[TREGELLES]
(compare Exodus 32:7). Rather, as God is wishing to console Daniel and the godly Jews, "the people whom thou art so anxiously praying for";
such weight does God give to the intercessions of the righteous
(James 5:16-18).
finish--literally "shut up"; remove from God's sight, that is, abolish
(Psalms 51:9) [LENGKERKE]. The seventy years exile was a punishment,
but not a full atonement, for the sin of the people; this would come
only after seventy prophetic weeks, through Messiah.
make an end of--The Hebrew reading, "to steal," that is, to hide
out of sight (from the custom of sealing up things to be concealed,
compare Job 9:7), is better supported.
make reconciliation for--literally, "to cover," to overlay (as with
pitch, Genesis 6:14). Compare Psalms 32:1.
bring in everlasting righteousness--namely, the restoration of the
normal state between God and man (Jeremiah 23:5,6); to continue eternally (Hebrews 9:12, Revelation 14:6).
seal up . . . vision . . . prophecy--literally, "prophet." To give
the seal of confirmation to the prophet and his vision by the
fulfilment.
anoint the Most Holy--primarily, to "anoint," or to consecrate after its pollution "the Most Holy" place but mainly Messiah,
the antitype to the Most Holy place (John 2:19-22). The propitiatory in the temple (the same Greek word expresses the mercy seat and
propitiation, Romans 3:25), which the Jews looked for at the restoration from Babylon, shall have its true realization only in
Messiah. For it is only when sin is "made an end of" that God's presence
can be perfectly manifested. As to "anoint," compare Exodus 40:9,34. Messiah was anointed with the Holy Ghost (Acts 4:27, 10:38). So hereafter, God-Messiah will "anoint" or consecrate with His presence the
holy place at Jerusalem (Jeremiah 3:16,17, Ezekiel 37:27,28), after its pollution by Antichrist, of which the feast of dedication after the
pollution by Antiochus was a type.
25. from the going forth of the commandment--namely the command from
God, whence originated the command of the Persian king (Ezra 6:14). AUBERLEN remarks, there is but one Apocalypse in each Testament. Its
purpose in each is to sum up all the preceding prophecies, previous to
the "troublous times" of the Gentiles, in which there was to be no
revelation. Daniel sums up all the previous Messianic prophecy,
separating into its individual phases what the prophets had seen in one
and the same perspective, the temporary deliverance from captivity and
the antitypical final Messianic deliverance. The seventy weeks are
separated (Daniel 9:25-27) into three unequal parts, seven, sixty-two, one. The seventieth is the consummation of the preceding ones, as the
Sabbath of God succeeds the working days; an idea suggested by the
division into weeks. In the sixty-nine weeks Jerusalem is restored,
and so a place is prepared for Messiah wherein to accomplish His
sabbatic work (Daniel 9:25,26) of "confirming the covenant" (Daniel 9:27). The Messianic time is the Sabbath of Israel's history, in which it had the offer of all God's mercies, but in which it was cut
off for a time by its rejection of them. As the seventy weeks end with
seven years, or a week, so they begin with seven times seven, that is,
seven weeks. As the seventieth week is separated from the rest
as a period of revelation, so it may be with the seven weeks. The
number seven is associated with revelation; for the seven spirits
of God are the mediators of all His revelations (Revelation 1:4, 3:1, 4:5). Ten is the number of what is human; for example, the world power issues
in ten heads and ten horns (Daniel 2:42, 7:7). Seventy is ten multiplied by seven, the human moulded by the divine. The
seventy years of exile symbolize the triumph of the world power
over Israel. In the seven times seventy years the world number ten is
likewise contained, that is, God's people is still under the power of
the world ("troublous times"); but the number of the divine is
multiplied by itself; seven times seven years, at the beginning a
period of Old Testament revelation to God's people by Ezra, Nehemiah,
and Malachi, whose labors extend over about half a century, or
seven weeks, and whose writings are last in the canon; and in the end,
seven years, the period of New Testament revelation in Messiah. The
commencing seven weeks of years of Old Testament revelation are hurried
over, in order that the chief stress might rest on the Messianic week.
Yet the seven weeks of Old Testament revelation are marked by their
separation from the sixty-two, to be above those sixty-two wherein
there was to be none.
Messiah the Prince--Hebrew, Nagid. Messiah is Jesus' title in
respect to Israel (Psalms 2:2, Matthew 27:37,42). Nagid, as Prince of the Gentiles (Isaiah 55:4). Nagid is applied to Titus, only as representative of Christ, who designates the Roman destruction of
Jerusalem as, in a sense, His coming (Matthew 24:29-31'John 21:22'). Messiah denotes His calling; Nagid, His power. He is to "be cut
off, and there shall be nothing for Him." (So the Hebrew for "not
for Himself," Daniel 9:26, ought to be translated). Yet He is "the Prince" who is to "come," by His representative at first, to inflict
judgment, and at last in person.
wall--the "trench" or "scarped rampart"
[TREGELLES]. The
street and trench include the complete restoration of the city
externally and internally, which was during the sixty-nine weeks.
26. after threescore and two weeks--rather, the threescore and
two weeks. In this verse, and in Daniel 9:27, Messiah is made the prominent subject, while the fate of the city and sanctuary are
secondary, being mentioned only in the second halves of the verses.
Messiah appears in a twofold aspect, salvation to believers, judgment on
unbelievers (Luke 2:34; compare Malachi 3:1-6, 4:1-3). He repeatedly, in Passion week, connects His being "cut off" with
the destruction of the city, as cause and effect
(Matthew 21:37-41, 23:37,38, Luke 21:20-24, 23:28-31). Israel might naturally expect Messiah's kingdom of glory, if not after the seventy years'
captivity, at least at the end of the sixty-two weeks; but, instead of
that, shall be His death, and the consequent destruction of Jerusalem.
not for himself--rather, "there shall be nothing to Him"
[HENGSTENBERG]; not that the real object of His first coming (His
spiritual kingdom) should be frustrated; but the earthly kingdom
anticipated by the Jews should, for the present, come to naught, and
not then be realized.
TREGELLES refers the title, "the Prince"
(Daniel 9:25), to the time of His entering Jerusalem on an ass's colt, His only appearance as a king, and six days afterwards put to death as
"King of the Jews."
the people of the prince--the Romans, led by Titus, the representative
of the world power, ultimately to be transferred to Messiah, and so
called by Messiah's title, "the Prince"; as also because sent by Him, as
His instrument of judgment (Matthew 22:7).
end thereof--of the sanctuary.
TREGELLES takes it, "the end of the
Prince," the last head of the Roman power, Antichrist.
with a flood--namely, of war (Psalms 90:5, Isaiah 8:7,8, 28:18). Implying the completeness of the catastrophe, "not one stone left on another."
unto the end of the war--rather, "unto the end there is war."
determined--by God's decree (Isaiah 10:23, 28:22).
27. he shall confirm the covenant--Christ. The confirmation of the
covenant is assigned to Him also elsewhere. Isaiah 42:6, "I will give thee for a covenant of the people" (that is, He in whom the covenant
between Israel and God is personally expressed); compare Luke 22:20, "The new testament in My blood"; Malachi 3:1, "the angel of the covenant"; Jeremiah 31:31-34, describes the Messianic covenant in full. Contrast Daniel 11:30,32, "forsake the covenant," "do wickedly against the covenant." The prophecy as to Messiah's
confirming the covenant with many would comfort the faithful in
Antiochus' times, who suffered partly from persecuting enemies, partly
from false friends (Daniel 11:33-35). Hence arises the similarity of the language here and in Daniel 11:30,32, referring to Antiochus, the type of Antichrist.
with many--(Isaiah 53:11, Matthew 20:28, 26:28, Romans 5:15,19, Hebrews 9:28).
in . . . midst of . . . week--The seventy weeks extend to A.D. 33.
Israel was not actually destroyed till A.D. 79, but it was so virtually,
A.D. 33, about three or four years after Christ's death, during which
the Gospel was preached exclusively to the Jews. When the Jews
persecuted the Church and stoned Stephen (Acts 7:54-60), the respite of grace granted to them was at an end (Luke 13:7-9). Israel, having rejected Christ, was rejected by Christ, and henceforth is counted dead
(compare Genesis 2:17 with Genesis 5:5, Hosea 13:1,2), its actual destruction by Titus being the consummation of the removal of the
kingdom of God from Israel to the Gentiles (Matthew 21:43), which is not to be restored until Christ's second coming, when Israel shall be at the
head of humanity (Matthew 23:39, Acts 1:6,7, Romans 11:25-31,15). The interval forms for the covenant-people a great parenthesis.
he shall cause the sacrifice . . . oblation to cease--distinct from
the temporary "taking away" of "the daily" (sacrifice) by Antiochus
(Daniel 8:11, 11:31). Messiah was to cause all sacrifices and oblations in general to "cease" utterly. There is here an allusion only to
Antiochus' act; to comfort God's people when sacrificial worship was to
be trodden down, by pointing them to the Messianic time when salvation
would fully come and yet temple sacrifices cease. This is the same
consolation as Jeremiah and Ezekiel gave under like circumstances, when
the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar was impending
(Jeremiah 3:16, 31:31, Ezekiel 11:19). Jesus died in the middle of the last week, A.D. 30. His prophetic life lasted three and a half years; the
very time in which "the saints are given into the hand" of Antichrist
(Daniel 7:25). Three and a half does not, like ten, designate the power of the world in its fulness, but (while opposed to the divine,
expressed by seven) broken and defeated in its seeming triumph; for
immediately after the three and a half times, judgment falls on the
victorious world powers (Daniel 7:25,26). So Jesus' death seemed the triumph of the world, but was really its defeat (John 12:31). The rending of the veil marked the cessation of sacrifices through Christ's
death (Leviticus 4:6,17, 16:2,15, Hebrews 10:14-18). There cannot be a covenant without sacrifice (Genesis 8:20, 9:17, 15:9, &c. Hebrews 9:15). Here the old covenant is to be confirmed, but in a way peculiar to the New
Testament, namely, by the one sacrifice, which would terminate all
sacrifices (Psalms 40:6,11). Thus as the Levitical rites approached their end, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, with ever increasing
clearness, oppose the spiritual new covenant to the transient earthly
elements of the old.
for the overspreading of abominations--On account of the abominations committed by the unholy people
against the Holy One, He shall not only destroy the city and sanctuary
(Daniel 9:25), but shall continue its desolation until the time of the consummation "determined" by God (the phrase is quoted from
Isaiah 10:22,23), when at last the world power shall be judged and dominion be given to the saints of the Most High (Daniel 7:26,27). AUBERLEN translates, "On account of the desolating summit of
abominations (compare Daniel 11:31, 12:11; thus the repetition of the same thing as in Daniel 9:26 is avoided), and till the consummation which is determined, it (the curse, Daniel 9:11, foretold by Moses) will pour on the desolated." Israel reached the summit of abominations,
which drew down desolation (Matthew 24:28), nay, which is the desolation itself, when, after murdering Messiah, they offered sacrifices, Mosaic
indeed in form, but heathenish in spirit (compare Isaiah 1:13, Ezekiel 5:11). Christ refers to this passage (Matthew 24:15), "When ye see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand
in the holy place" (the latter words being tacitly implied in
"abominations" as being such as are committed against the sanctuary).
TREGELLES translates, "upon the wing of abominations shall be that
which causeth desolation"; namely, an idol set up on a wing or pinnacle
of the temple (compare Matthew 4:5) by Antichrist, who makes a covenant with the restored Jews for the last of the seventy weeks of years
(fulfilling Jesus' words, "If another shall come in his own name, him ye
will receive"), and for the first three and a half years keeps it, then
in the midst of the week breaks it, causing the daily sacrifices to
cease.
TREGELLES thus identifies the last half week with the time,
times, and a half of the persecuting little horn (Daniel 7:25). But thus there is a gap of at least 1830 years put between the sixty-nine
weeks and the seventieth week.
SIR
ISAAC
NEWTON explains the wing
("overspreading") of abominations to be the Roman ensigns (eagles)
brought to the east gate of the temple, and there sacrificed to by the
soldiers; the war, ending in the destruction of Jerusalem, lasted from
spring A.D. 67 to autumn A.D. 70, that is, just three and a half years,
or the last half week of years
[JOSEPHUS, Wars of the Jews, 6.6].
poured upon the desolate--TREGELLES
translates, "the causer of
desolation," namely, Antichrist. Compare "abomination that maketh desolate" (Daniel 12:11). Perhaps both interpretations of the whole passage may be in part true; the Roman desolator, Titus, being a type of
Antichrist, the final desolator of Jerusalem. BACON
[The Advancement of Learning, 2.3] says, "Prophecies are of the
nature of the Author, with whom a thousand years are as one day; and
therefore are not fulfilled punctually at once, but have a springing and
germinant accomplishment through many years, though the height and
fulness of them may refer to one age."
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