Daniel 9

Ver. 1.—Darius the son of Ahasuerus.] Called Cyaxares, the son of Astyages, by the heathen historians, with whom Josephus agrees. Astyages had the name of Ahasuerus among the Jews: see Tobit xiv. 15. W. Lowth. For Ahasuerus, see note at Ezra iv. 6.

ment came forth.] God’s command to me, to instruct thee further in what should hereafter befall the city and temple of Jerusalem, in behalf of which thou didst pour forth thy supplications. Here was a remarkable completion of that promise in Isa. lxv. 24, “While they are yet speaking, I will hear.” W. Lowth. — therefore understand the matter, &c.] Apply thy mind carefully to what is said, for this prophecy contains in it truths of the greatest importance. Our Saviour plainly refers to these words, which are repeated ver. 25, when, explaining the latter part of this prophecy of the final destruction of Jerusalem, He adds, “Whoso readeth, let him understand,” Matt. xxiv. 15. W. Lowth. This prophecy, like all the rest of Daniel’s, consists of two parts, an introductory prophecy, and an explanation thereof. Sir Isaac Newton.

— upon thy people and upon thy holy city.] Daniel, in his prayer to God, speaking of the Jews and Jerusalem, had used these expressions, “Thy people,” and “Thy holy city,” ver. 18, 19, as if their title to God’s favour was indefeasible. To correct this mistake, the bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and † prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

restore and to build Jerusalem] Daniel had besought God to “behold their desolations,” and the ruins of “the city which was called by his name,” ver. 18. In answer to this his supplication, the angel acquaints him, that the city, both the streets and the wall thereof, should be rebuilt. W. Lowth. Daniel had this prophecy in the same year that Darius the Mede and Cyrus took Babylon, which was the 538th year before Christ. Some time after this a decree must be found for building Jerusalem, that now lay in the ruins wherein Nebuchadnezzar left it. Cyrus’s decree two years after was not such an one, for that appears to be only a liberty to return and rebuilt the temple, Ezra i. 1, 2. The next decree we read of was in the second year of Darius, which was no more than a reinforcement of Cyrus’s former decree, Ezra vi. 5. A few houses were then hastily constructed, to accommodate the builders and the worshippers. But the people were like a rope of sand, without the bands of laws and civil sanctions to knit them into a political body, before the seventh year of Artaxerxes, Ezra vii. 11: there was no face of a city, the walls were broken down, and the gates lay, as they had been burnt with fire by the Chaldes. Bp. Chandler. See the note on ver. 26. — unto the Messiah the Prince] That is, until the awful period, when the business of his life should be finished; until his hour was come, when He was to glorify his Father, or when He was to be cut off by a voluntary suffering for the sins of all mankind, and thereby triumph as a Prince over death, and over all his and our enemies. All the circumstances of his life are omitted, or rather comprehended in this final event, when all things that were written of Him were accomplished. Wintle. — shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again.] The whole put together Before CHRIST about 538. prophet. return and be built. The seventy weeks foretold. Before CHRIST about 538. Or, breach, or, dech. Heb. in street of times. Or, and shall have nothing. Or, it shall be cut off by desolations. built again, and the || wall, even † in troublous times.

— even in troublous times.] The Jews were sorely assaulted by their adversaries, who did all they could to hinder them from rebuilding the city, and fortifying it with a new wall. See Nelson, iv. 7, &c.; vi. 15. “The street” probably is put for “the streets” of the city: the singular for the plural, which is very common. W. Lowth. 26. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off.] That is, after the sixty-two added to the seven foregoing weeks, or after the termination of the

— shall—be cut off.] The Hebrew verb is by the Jewish rabbies interpreted of a death inflicted by the sentence of a judge, which sense they confirm by the use of it in a parallel place, Lev. xvii. 14, to which we may add 1 Sam. xxviii. 9. Our Saviour refers to this text, among others, Luke xxiv. 26. 46. W. Lowth. The name Messiah was probably taken from this place of the Prophet Daniel. Dr. Isaac Barrow. — but not for himself.] “The just suffering for the unjust,” 1 Pet. iii. 18. W. Lowth. — and the people of the prince that shall come &c.] The Romans, under the conduct of Vespasian and his son Titus, who were the generals in the war, which caused the destruction of Jerusalem, and were both of them dignified with the title of prince or Cæsar. After the Romans had burnt both city and sanctuary, they entirely destroyed them, so that, as Josephus relates, it could scarce be perceived the place had ever been inhabited. W. Lowth. The Romans shall soon after come and destroy Jerusalem and the temple, and shall sweep away all before them, like some violent inundation of a flood; and from

one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause &c.] Most of the interpreters suppose the seventy weeks to be completed at the death of Christ. They accordingly suppose John the Baptist’s preaching to have occupied three years and a half, before Christ entered on his prophetical office, and translate the following words, “in the half part of the week,” understanding it of the latter half. The Hebrew word properly signifies “the half part,” and is to be so understood by our translation, chap. xii. 7. W. Lowth. — he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.] Christ, “by his one oblation of himself once offered,” shall put an end to all the sacrifices and oblations made in the Jewish temple. Compare Heb. x. 5, 6, &c. W. Lowth. — and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation.] He shall cause the sinful city Jerusalem to be overrun with the abominable legions of the Roman conquerors to the utter desolation thereof. Bp. Hall. The Romans, after they had set the temple on fire, placed the idolatrous ensigns of their army over against the eastern gate of the temple, and offered sacrifice to them, as Josephus expressly tells us. The word “abominations” is commonly used for idols: see 1 Kings xi. 5. 7; 2 Kings xxiii. 13. And the “abomination of desolation,” set upon the altar by Antiochus, 1 Mac. i. 54, is explained by the idol altar, ver. 59. So the “abominations” here spoken of properly signify the ensigns or standards of the Roman legions: each standard having stamped upon it the image of the tutelar god, to which the legion offered sacrifice. W. Lowth. — and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.] All the judgments, which are determined, shall be fully consummated and poured out upon this miserable city. Bp. Hall. The words briefly allude to those terrible calamities, which made an entire destruction of that city and people, and were executed upon them in the most dreadful manner, that any nation ever suffered, and with the most evident tokens of the Divine vengeance. W. Lowth. See the notes on Deut. xxviii. The events, which preceded and followed the coming and sufferings of the Messiah, having been so punctually fulfilled, afford a double confirmation of his being the very same Person prophesied of, and afterwards crucified; nor can they, with any probability of truth, be applied to any other. So that we may well say, This is the clearest and most express prediction in the whole Bible concerning the time of his coming and death. Wigan. Sir Isaac Newton justly represents this illustrious prophecy as the foundation of the Christian religion. Dr. Hales. And Archbishop Secker has recorded the declaration of a writer upon “the weeks,” that “if he had hitherto lived an infidel, the conviction wrought in him by a just consideration of the certain

Daniel 9:2

2.—I Daniel understood my books.] The several prophecies of Jeremiah are called so many books. See Jer. xxv. 13; xxix. 1. W. Lowth.

—seventy years.] Which were now very far advanced. This first year of Darius was the sixty-eighth of the captivity. Wintle.

Daniel 9:3

3. And I set my face unto the Lord God.] I directed my face towards the place where the temple stood: see chap. vi. 10. W. Lowth.

—to seek by prayer and supplications.] The promises of God are generally conditional: and the promise of restoring the Jews after seventy years’ captivity, had this condition particularly expressed, that they should “call upon him and pray unto him,” and then He would “hearken unto them,” Jer. xxix. 12. W. Lowth.

4. And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my

Daniel here sets himself to confess his sins, and those of his countrymen, and to entreat for mercy on Jerusalem, with a fervour and affection never to be exceeded. Our devotions, according to this model, should consist of confession of sins; depreciation of the punishments and judgments acknowledged to be justly due to them; supplication for pardon, deliverance, and grace; and intercession for the Church, and all included in her, our relations, friends, countrymen, and fellow Christians, and more especially for all the sons and daughters of affliction: the whole to be concluded with thanksgiving; concerning which we may observe, that no situation in this world can exclude the necessity, and take away the ground of it, since we find Daniel “giving thanks,” when the city and temple of God were in ashes, and himself a captive in Babylon. Even then he not only “prayed,” but also “gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime,” chap. vi. 10. Bp. Horne.

Daniel 9:12

12.—our judges that judged us.] Judges here signify any princes or rulers. Compare Job xii. 17; Ps. ii. 10; cxviii. 11; Prov. viii. 16. W. Lowth.

Daniel prayeth for the restoration of Jerusalem. Before CHRIST about 538.

Daniel 9:15

15. And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt &c.] A form of supplication used in several places of Scripture, whereby devout persons entreat God to continue his favours by recounting his former mercies towards them: see Exod. xxxii. 11. 13; Neh. ix. 10; Jer. xxxii. 20. W. Louth.

Daniel 9:16

16. — according to all thy righteousness, &c.] When we have in our Litany expressed from what things we desire to be delivered, we earnestly entreat our good and gracious Lord to shew this mercy to us, “by the mystery of his holy incarnation,” and so on: that is, by the means and for the sake of all that He hath done and suffered for us. The same manner of expression is used, not only in common speech on other occasions, and in the liturgies of the ancient church on this, but in the Scripture itself; where St. Paul beseeches Christians “by the mercies of God,” Rom. xii. 1; “by the meekness and gentleness of Christ,” 2 Cor. x. 1; “by his coming and their gathering together unto him,” 2 Thess. ii. 1; and Daniel intercedes with God thus, “According to all thy righteousness, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away: defer not for thine own sake, O my God.” Abp. Secker.

Daniel 9:17

17. — for the Lord’s sake.] For the sake of the Messiah, known by the title of the “Lord” among the Jews, see Ps. cx. 1; and called “Messiah the Prince,” ver. 25 of this chapter. All God’s promises are fulfilled in and for the sake of Christ, 2 Cor. i. 20. W. Louth.

This expression, “for the Lord’s sake,” seems to point out a personal distinction in the Deity, and to refer to the promised Redeemer, who says of Himself, “I am in the Father, and the Father in me,” John xiv. 11; that Lord, for whose sake alone the petition of the Prophet could be heard and accepted. Many similar passages occur in the Old Testament, shewing a plurality of Divine persons so clearly, that no one, who has not

“the veil upon his heart,” can well mistake their meaning. See particularly Zech. ii. 10, 11; see also Ps. cx. 1. Waldo.

Daniel 9:19

19. — defer not, for thine own sake, O my God.] The seventy years of our captivity are nearly expired: defer not then, I beseech Thee, the accomplishment of the promise, which Thou hast made to restore us to our own country, and the free exercise of our religion. So remarkable a turn of providence will greatly rebound to the honour of thy name. See Ps. lxxix. 9, 10; cii. 15, 16. W. Louth.

To the same effect with this supplication of Daniel are those petitions in our Litany, where we pray God to “deliver us for his name’s sake,” and presently after, “for his honour.” In both which petitions we implore the aid and protection of Almighty God, not for any merit of our own, but from a deep sense of his boundless mercy and goodness; not merely that we may be delivered, but that his honour and glory may be displayed; that men may know, that “he, whose name alone is Jehovah, is the most High over all the earth.” Ps. lxxxiii. 18. Waldo.

Daniel 9:20

20. — for the holy mountain of my God.] The temple, on the rocky mountain Zion: see ver. 16. Wintle.

Daniel 9:21

21. — the man Gabriel.] The angel Gabriel, appearing in the shape of a man. W. Louth.

— about the time of the evening oblation.] There were three hours of prayers; see chap. vi. 10: but the two most solemn seasons of it were at the “time of the morning and evening oblation,” that solemn service, which was offered daily in the temple in the name of the whole nation: see chap. viii. 11. This service was performed at the third and ninth hours of the day, answering to our nine in the morning and three in the afternoon. Devout persons, that could not attend the temple service, set apart those hours for their private devotions: see 1 Kings xviii. 36. W. Louth.

23. At the beginning of thy supplications the command- The seventy weeks foretold. Before CHRIST about 538. of desires. Or, to restress. up. forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art † greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.

Daniel 9:24

24. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people &c.] By “seventy weeks” we are to understand seventy weeks of years, or seventy times seven years; that is, 490 years; and each day being accounted for a year, according to the prophetical way of reckoning: see Numb. xiv. 34; Ezek. iv. 6. Daniel, by examining the prophecy of Jeremiah, had discovered, that the seventy years of the captivity were nearly expired: and here the angel reveals to him another line of time, importing that Jerusalem, after its restoration, should continue for a spare consisting of seventy times seven years, which being expired, it should be finally destroyed. W. Lowth. Here, by putting a week for seven years, are reckoned