Introduction The Seventy Weeks In the first year of Darius the Median, Daniel, by a diligent study of the prophecies of Jeremiah as to the number of years during which Jerusalem must lie desolate ( Daniel 9:1 , Daniel 9:2 ), was led to pour forth a penitential prayer, in which he acknowledges the justice of the divine chastisement which hung over Israel on account of their sins, and entreats the mercy of God in behalf of his people (vv. 3-19). In consequence of this prayer, the angel Gabriel ( Daniel 9:20-23 ) must pass over his people and the holy city before the consummation of the kingdom of God.
Verses 1-2 Daniel 9:1 and Daniel 9:2 mention the occasion on which the penitential prayer (vv. 3-19) was offered, and the divine revelation following thereupon regarding the time and the course of the oppression of the people of God by the world-power till the completion of God's plan of salvation. Regarding Darius, the son of Ahasverosch, of the race of the Medes, see under Daniel 6:1 . In the word המלך the Hophal is to be noticed: rex constitutus, factus est .
It shows that Darius did not become king over the Chaldean kingdom by virtue of a hereditary right to it, nor that he gained the kingdom by means of conquest, but that he received it ( קבּל , Daniel 6:1 ) from the conqueror of Babylon, Cyrus, the general of the army. The first year of the reign of Darius the Mede over the Chaldean kingdom is the year 538 b.c., since Babylon was taken by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus in the year 539-538 b.c. According to Ptolemy, Cyrus the Persian reigned nine years after Nabonadius. But the death of Cyrus, as is acknowledged, occurred in the year 529 b.c.
From the nine years of the reign of Cyrus, according to our exposition, two years are to be deducted for Darius the Mede, so that the reign of Cyrus by himself over the kingdom which he founded begins in the year 536, in which year the seventy years of the Babylonish exile of the Jews were completed; cf. The exposition under Daniel 1:1 with the chronological survey in the Com. on the Books of the Kings. The statement as to the time, Daniel 9:1 , is again repeated in the beginning of Daniel 9:2 , on account of the relative sentence coming between, so as to connect that which follows with it.
We translate (in Daniel 9:2 ), with Hgstb., Maur., Hitzig, “I marked, or gave heed, in the Scriptures to the number of the years,” so that מספּר ( number ) forms the object to בּינתי ( I understood ); cf. Proverbs 7:7 .
Neither the placing of בּספרים ( by books ) first nor the Atnach under this word controvert this view; for the object is placed after “by books” because a further definition is annexed to it; and the separation of the object from the verb by the Atnach is justified by this consideration, that the passage contains two statements, viz., that Daniel studied the Scriptures, and that his study was directed to the number of the years, etc. בּספרים , with the definite article, does not denote a collection of known sacred writings in which the writings of Jeremiah were included, so that, seeing the collection of the prophets cannot be thought of without the Pentateuch, by this word we are to understand (with Bleek, Gesenius, v.
Leng., Hitzig) the recognised collection of the O.T. writings, the Law and the Prophets. For הסּפרים , τὰ βιβλιά , is not synonymous with הכּתוּבים , αἱ γραφαί , but denotes only writings in the plural, but does not say that these writings formed already a recognised collection; so that from this expression nothing can be concluded regarding the formation of the O.T. canon.
As little can בּספרים refer, with Häv. and Kran., to the letter of Jeremiah to the exiles (Jer 29), for this reason, that not in Jer 29, but in Jeremiah 25:11 ., the seventy years of the desolation of the land of Judah, and implic . of Jerusalem, are mentioned. The plur. ספרים also can be understood of a single letter, only if the context demands or makes appropriate this narrower application of the word, as e.g., 2 Kings 19:14 .
But here this is not the case, since Jeremiah in two separate prophecies speaks of the seventy years, and not in the letter of Jer. 29, but only in Jer. 25, has he spoken of the seventy years' desolation of the land. In בּספרים lies nothing further than that writings existed, among which were to be found the prophecies of Jeremiah; and the article, the writings, is used, because in the following passage something definite is said of these writings.
In these writings Daniel considered the number of the years of which Jeremiah had prophesied. אשׁר , as Daniel 8:26 , with respect to which, relates not to השׁנים , but to השׁנים מספּר ( number of the years ). It is no objection against this that the repetition of the words “seventy years” stands opposed to this connection (Klief.), for this repetition does not exist, since מספּר does not declare the number of the years.
With למלּאת ( to fulfil ) the contents of the word of Jehovah, as given by Jeremiah, are introduced. לחרבות does not stand for the accusative: to cause to be complete the desolation of Jerusalem (Hitzig), but ל signifies in respect of, with regard to. This expression does not lean on Jeremiah 29:10 (Kran.), but on Jeremiah 25:12 (“when seventy years are accomplished”). חרבות , properly, desolated places , ruins, here a desolated condition .
Jerusalem did not certainly lie in ruins for seventy years; the word is not thus to be interpreted, but is chosen partly with regard to the existing state of Jerusalem, and partly with reference to the words of Jeremiah 25:9 , Jeremiah 25:11 . Yet the desolation began with the first taking of Jerusalem, and the deportation of Daniel and his companions and a part of the sacred vessels of the temple, in the fourth years of Jehoiakim (606 b.c.). (Note: Thus also the seventy years of the Exile are reckoned in 2 Chronicles 36:21-23 ; Ezra 1:1 .
This Ewald also recognises ( Proph . iii. p. 430), but thinks that it is not an exact reckoning of the times, but rather, according to Zechariah 1:12 and Daniel 9:25 , that the destruction of Jerusalem forms the date of the commencement of the desolation and of the seventy years.
But Daniel 9:25 contains no expression, or even intimation, regarding the commencement of the Exile; and in the words of Zechariah 1:12 , “against which Thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years,” there does not lie the idea that the seventy years prophesied of by Jeremiah came to an end in the second year of Darius Hystaspes.
See under this passage.) Consequently, in the first year of the reign of Darius the Mede over the kingdom of the Chaldeans the seventy years prophesied of by Jeremiah were now full, the period of the desolation of Jerusalem determined by God was almost expired. What was it that moved Daniel at this time to pour forth a penitential prayer in behalf of Jerusalem and the desolated sanctuary?
Did he doubt the truth of the promise, that God, after seventy years of exile in Babylon, would visit His people and fulfil the good word He had spoken, that He would again bring back His people to Judea ( Jeremiah 29:10 )? Certainly not, since neither the matter of his prayer, nor the divine revelation which was vouchsafed to him in answer to his prayer, indicated any doubt on his part regarding the divine promise. According to the opinion of Bleek and Ewald, it was Daniel's uncertainty regarding the termination of the seventy years which moved him to prayer Bleek ( Jahrbb.f. D.
Theol . v. p. 71) thus expresses himself on the subject: “This prophecy of Jeremiah might be regarded as fulfilled in the overthrow of the Babylonian kingdom and the termination of the Exile, when the Jews obtained from Cyrus permission to return to their native land and to rebuild their city and temple, but yet not perfectly, so far as with the hope of the return of the people from exile there was united the expectation that they would then turn in truth to their God, and that Jehovah would fulfil all His good promises to them to make them partakers of the Messianic redemption (cf.
Jeremiah 29:10 ., also other prophecies of Jeremiah and of other prophets regarding the return of the people from exile, such as Isa. 40ff.); but this result was not connected in such extent and fulness with the return of the people and the restoration of the state.” On the supposition of the absolute inspiration of the prophets, it appeared therefore appropriate “to regard Jeremiah's prophecy of the seventy years, after the expiry of which God will fulfil His good promises to His people, as stretching out into a later period beyond that to which the seventy years would extend, and on that account to inquire how it was to be properly interpreted.” Ewald ( Proph . iii. p. 421ff.) is of opinion that these seventy years of Jeremiah did not pass by without the fulfilment of his prophecy, that the ruins of Jerusalem would not continue for ever.
Already forty-nine years after its destruction a new city of Jerusalem took the place of the old as the centre of the congregation of the true religion, but the stronger hopes regarding the Messianic consummation which connected itself herewith were neither then, nor in all the long times following, down to that moment in which our author (in the age of the Maccabees) lived and wrote, ever fulfilled. Then the faithful were everywhere again exposed to the severest sufferings, such as they had not experienced since the old days of the destruction of Jerusalem.
Therefore the anxious question as to the duration of such persecution and the actual beginning of the Messianic time, which Daniel, on the ground of the mysterious intimation in Daniel 7:12 , Daniel 7:25 and Daniel 8:13 ., regarding the period of the sufferings of the time of the end, sought here to solve, is agitated anew; for he shows how the number of the seventy years of Jeremiah, which had long ago become sacred, yet accorded with these late times without losing its original truth. Thus Ewald argues.
These two critics in their reasoning proceed on the dogmatic ground, which they regard as firmly established, that the book of Daniel is a product of the age of the Maccabees.
All who oppose the genuineness of this book agree with them in the view that this chapter contains an attempt, clothed in the form of a divine revelation communicated to the prophet in answer to his prayer, to solve the mystery how Jeremiah's prophecy of the beginning of the Messianic salvation after the seventy years of exile is to be harmonized with the fact that this salvation, centuries after the fall of the Babylonish kingdom and the return of the Jews from the Babylonish exile, had not yet come, but that instead of it, under Antiochus Epiphanes, a time of the severest oppression had come.
How does this opinion stand related to the matter of this chapter, leaving out of view all other grounds for the genuineness of the book of Daniel? Does the prayer of Daniel, or the divine revelation communicated to him by means of Gabriel regarding the seventy weeks, contain elements which attest its correctness or probability? The prayer of Daniel goes forth in the earnest entreaty that the Lord would turn away His anger from the city Jerusalem and His holy mountain, and cause His face to shine on the desolation and on the city that was called by His name ( Daniel 9:15-18 ).
If this prayer is connected with the statement in Daniel 9:2 , that Daniel was moved thereto by the consideration of the words of Jeremiah regarding the desolation of Jerusalem, we can understand by the ruins, for the removal of which Daniel prayed, only the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple which was brought about by the Chaldeans. Consequently the prayer indicates that the desolation of Jerusalem predicted by Jeremiah and accomplished by Nebuchadnezzar still continued, and that the city and the temple had not yet been rebuilt.
This, therefore, must have been in the time of the Exile, and not in the time of Antiochus, who, it is true, desolated the sanctuary by putting an end to the worship of Jehovah and establishing the worship of idols, but did not lay in ruins either the temple or the city.
In his message ( Daniel 9:24-27 ) the angel speaks only of the going forth of the word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, and present the going forth of this word as the beginning of the seventy weeks of Daniel determined upon the people and the holy city within which Jerusalem must be built, and thus distinguishes the seventy weeks as distinctly as possible from Jeremiah's seventy years during which Jerusalem and Judah should lie desolate.
Thus is set aside the opinion that the author of this chapter sought to interpret the seventy years of Jeremiah by the seventy weeks; and it shows itself to be only the pure product of the dogmatic supposition, that this book does not contain prophecies of the prophet Daniel living in the time of the Exile, but only apocalyptic dreams of a Maccabean Jew. (Note: The supposition that the seventy weeks, Daniel 9:24 , are an interpretation of the seventy years of Jeremiah, is the basis on which Hitzig rests the assertion that the passage does not well adjust itself to the standpoint of the pretended Daniel, but is in harmony with the time of the Maccabees.
The other arguments which Hitzig and others bring forth against this chapter as the production of Daniel, consist partly in vain historical or dogmatic assertions, such as that there are doubts regarding the existence of Darius of Media, - partly in misinterpretations, such as that Daniel wholly distinguishes himself, Daniel 9:6 , Daniel 9:10 , from the prophets, and presents himself as a reader of their writings (Hitz.), - opinions which are no better founded than the conclusions of Berth., v.
Leng., and Staeh., drawn from the mention of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Daniel 9:7 , and of the holy city, Daniel 9:24 , that Jerusalem was then still inhabited and the temple still standing.
To this it is added, that the prayer of Daniel is an imitation of the prayers of Ezra 9:1-15 and Neh 9, or, as Ewald thinks, an extract from the prayer of Baruch (Bar. 1 and 2).) Moreover, it is certainly true that in the Exile the expectation that the perfection and glory of the kingdom of God by the Messiah would appear along with the liberation of the Jews from Babylon was founded on the predictions of the earlier prophets, but that Daniel shared this expectation the book presents no trace whatever.
Jeremiah also, neither in Jer. 25 nor in Jer. 29, where he speaks of the seventy years of the domination of Babylon, announces that the Messianic salvation would begin immediately with the downfall of the Babylonian kingdom.
In Jer. 25 he treats only of the judgment, first over Judah, and then over Babylon and all the kingdoms around; and in Jer. 29 he speaks, it is true, of the fulfilling of the good word of the return of the Jews to their fatherland when seventy years shall be fulfilled for Babylon ( Daniel 9:10 ), and of the counsel of Jehovah, which is formed not for the destruction but for the salvation of His people, of the restoration of the gracious relation between Jehovah and His people, and the gathering together and the bringing back of the prisoners from among all nations whither they had been scattered ( Daniel 9:11-14 ), but he says not a word to lead to the idea that all this would take place immediately after these seventy years.
Now if Daniel, in the first year of Darius the Mede, i.e., in the sixty-ninth year of the Exile, prayed thus earnestly for the restoration of Jerusalem and the sanctuary, he must have been led to do so from a contemplation of the then existing state of things. The political aspect of the world-kingdom could scarcely have furnished to him such a motive.
The circumstance that Darius did not immediately after the fall of Babylon grant permission to the Jews to return to their fatherland and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple, could not make him doubt the certainty of the fulfilment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah regarding the duration of the Exile, since the prophecy of Isaiah, Isaiah 44:28 , that Coresch (Cyrus) should build Jerusalem and lay the foundation of the temple was beyond question known to him, and Darius had in a certain sense reached the sovereignty over the Chaldean kingdom, and was of such an age ( Daniel 6:1 ) that now his reign must be near its end, and Cyrus would soon mount his throne as his successor.
That which moved Daniel to prayer was rather the religious condition of his own people, among whom the chastisement of the Exile had not produced the expected fruits of repentance; so that, though he did not doubt regarding the speedy liberation of his people from Babylonish exile, he might still hope for the early fulfilment of the deliverance prophesied of after the destruction of Babylon and the return of the Jews to Canaan. This appears from the contents of the prayer.
From the beginning to the close it is pervaded by sorrow on account of the great sinfulness of the people, among whom also there were no signs of repentance. The prayer for the turning away of the divine wrath Daniel grounds solely on the mercy of God, and upon that which the Lord had already done for His people by virtue of His covenant faithfulness, the צדקות ( righteousness ) of the Lord, not the “righteousness” of the people.
This confession of sin, and this entreaty for mercy, show that the people, as a whole, were not yet in that spiritual condition in which they might expect the fulfilment of that promise of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 29:12 .): “Ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart; and I will be found of you, and will turn away your captivity,” etc.
With this view of the contents of the prayer corresponds the divine answer which Gabriel brings to the prophet, the substance of which is to this effect, that till the accomplishment of God's plan of salvation in behalf of His people, yet seventy weeks are appointed, and that during this time great and severe tribulations would fall upon the people and the city.
Verses 3-19 Daniel's prayer. This prayer has been judged very severely by modern critics. According to Berth., v. Leng., Hitzig, Staeh., and Ewald, its matter and its whole design are constructed according to older patterns, in particular according to the prayers of Neh 9 and Ezra 9:1-15 , since Daniel 9:4 is borrowed from Nehemiah 1:5 ; Nehemiah 9:32 ; Daniel 9:8 from Nehemiah 9:34 ; Daniel 9:14 from Nehemiah 9:33 ; Daniel 9:15 from Nehemiah 1:10 ; Nehemiah 9:10 ; and, finally, Daniel 9:7 , Daniel 9:8 from Ezra 9:7 .
But if we consider this dependence more closely, we shall, it is true, find the expression הפנים בּשׁת ( confusion of faces , Ezra 9:7 , Ezra 9:8 ) in Ezra 9:7 , but we also find it in 2 Chronicles 32:21 ; Jeremiah 7:19 , and also in Psalms 44:16 ; סלחות ( forgivenesses , Daniel 9:9 ) we find in Nehemiah 9:17 , but also in Psalms 130:4 ; and על תּתּך ( is poured upon , spoken of the anger of God, Daniel 9:11 ) is found not only in 2 Chronicles 12:7 ; 2 Chronicles 34:21 , 2 Chronicles 34:25 , but also Jeremiah 42:18 ; Jeremiah 44:6 , and Nahum 1:6 .
We have only to examine the other parallel common thoughts and words adduced in order at once to perceive that, without exception, they all have their roots in the Pentateuch, and afford not the slightest proof of the dependence of this chapter on Neh 9. The thought, “great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy,” etc., which is found in Daniel 9:4 and in Nehemiah 1:5 , has its roots in Deuteronomy 7:21 and Daniel 9:9 , cf.
Exodus 20:6 ; Exodus 34:7 , and in the form found in Nehemiah 9:32 , in Deuteronomy 10:17 ; the expression ( Daniel 9:15 ), “Thou hast brought Thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand,” has its origin in Deuteronomy 7:8 ; Deuteronomy 9:26 , etc. But in those verses where single thoughts or words of this prayer so accord with Neh 9 or Ezra 9:1-15 as to show a dependence, a closer comparison will prove, not that Daniel borrows from Ezra or Nehemiah, but that they borrow from Daniel.
This is put beyond a doubt by placing together the phrases: “our kings, our princes, our fathers” ( Daniel 9:5 , Daniel 9:8 ), compared with these: “our kings, our princes, our priests , and our fathers” ( Nehemiah 9:34 , Nehemiah 9:32 ), and “our kings and our priests” ( Ezra 9:7 ). For here the naming of the “priests” along with the “kings and princes” is just as characteristic of the age of Ezra and Nehemiah as the omission of the “priests” is of the time of the Exile, in which, in consequence of the cessation of worship, the office of the priest was suspended.
This circumstance tends to refute the argument of Stähelin ( Einl . p. 349), that since the prayers in Chron., Ezra, and Nehem. greatly resemble each other, and probably proceed from one author, it is more likely that the author of Daniel 9 depended on the most recent historical writings, than that Daniel 9 was always before the eyes of the author of Chron. - a supposition the probability of which is not manifest.
If, without any preconceived opinion that this book is a product of the times of the Maccabees, the contents and the course of thought found in the prayer, Daniel 9, are compared with the prayers in Ezra 9:1-15 and Neh 9, we will not easily suppose it possible that Daniel depends on Ezra and Nehemiah.
The prayer of Ezra 9:6-15 is a confession of the sins of the congregation from the days of the fathers down to the time of Ezra, in which Ezra scarcely ventures to raise his countenance to God, because as a member of the congregation he is borne down by the thought of their guilt; and therefore he does not pray for pardon, because his design is only “to show to the congregation how greatly they had gone astray, and to induce them on their part to do all to atone for their guilt, and to turn away the anger of God” (Bertheau).
The prayer, Neh 9:6-37, is, after the manner of Ps 105 and 106, an extended offering of praise for all the good which the Lord had manifested toward His people, notwithstanding that they had continually hardened their necks and revolted from His from the time of the call of Abraham down to the time of the exile, expressing itself in the confession, “God is righteous, but we are guilty,” never rising to a prayer for deliverance from bondage, under which the people even then languished.
The prayer of Daniel 9, on the contrary, by its contents and form, not only creates the impression “of a fresh production adapted to the occasion,” and also of great depth of thought and of earnest power in prayer, but it presents itself specially as the prayer of a man, a prophet, standing in a near relation to God, so that we perceive that the suppliant probably utters the confession of sin and of guilt in the name of the congregation in which he is included; but in the prayer for the turning away of God's anger his special relation to the Lord is seen, and is pleaded as a reason for his being heard, in the words, “Hear the prayer of Thy servant and his supplication ( Daniel 9:17 ); O my God, incline Thine ear” ( Daniel 9:18 ). (Note: After the above remarks, Ewald's opinion, that this prayer is only an epitome of the prayer of Baruch (1:16-3:8), scarcely needs any special refutation.
It is open before our eyes, and has been long known, that the prayer of Baruch in the whole course of its thoughts, and in many of the expressions found in it, fits closely to the prayer of Daniel; but also all interpreters not blinded by prejudice have long ago acknowledged that from the resemblances of this apocryphal product not merely to Daniel 9, but also much more to Jeremiah, nothing further follows than that the author of this late copy of ancient prophetic writings knew and used the book of Daniel, and was familiar with the writings of Daniel and Jeremiah, and of other prophets, so that he imitated them.
This statement, that the pseudo-Baruch in ch. 1:15-3:8 presents an extended imitation of Daniel's prayer, Ewald has not refuted, and he has brought forward nothing more in support of his view than the assertion, resting on the groundless supposition that the mention of the “judges” in Daniel 9:12 is derived from Bar. 2:1, and on the remark that the author of the book of Baruch would have nothing at all peculiar if he had formed that long prayer out of the book of Daniel, or had only wrought after this pattern - a remark which bears witness, indeed, of a compassionate concern for his protége, but manifestly says nothing for the critic.) The prayer is divided into two parts.
Daniel 9:4-14 contain the confession of sin and guilt; Daniel 9:15-19 the supplication for mercy, and the restoration of the holy city and its sanctuary lying in ruins. The confession of sin divides itself into two strophes. Daniel 9:4-10 state the transgression and the guilt, while Daniel 9:11-14 refer to the punishment from God for this guilt. Daniel 9:3 forms the introduction. The words, “Then I directed my face to the Lord,” are commonly understood, after Daniel 6:11 , as meaning that Daniel turned his face toward the place of the temple, toward Jerusalem. This is possible.
The words themselves, however, only say that he turned his face to God the Lord in heaven, to האלהים אדני , the Lord of the whole world, the true God, not to יהוה , although he meant the covenant God. “To seek prayer in (with) fasting,” etc.
“Fasting in sackcloth (penitential garment made of hair) and ashes,” i.e., sprinkling the head with ashes as an outward sign of true humility and penitence, comes into consideration as a means of preparation for prayer, in order that one might place himself in the right frame of mind for prayer, which is an indispensable condition for the hearing of it - a result which is the aim in the seeking.
In regard to this matter Jerome makes these excellent remarks: ” In cinere igitur et sacco postulat impleri quod Deus promiserat, non quod esset incredulus futurorum, sed ne securitas negligentiam et negligentia pareret offensam.” תּפלּה and תּחנוּנים = תּחנּה , cf. 1 Kings 8:38 , 1 Kings 8:45 , 1 Kings 8:49 ; 2 Chronicles 6:29 , 2 Chronicles 6:35 . תּפלּה is prayer in general; תּחנוּנים , prayer for mercy and compassion, as also a petition for something, such as the turning away of misfortune or evil ( deprecari ).
The design of the prayer lying before us is to entreat God that He would look with pity on the desolation of the holy city and the temple,and fulfil His promise of their restoration. This prayer is found in Daniel 9:15-19 .
Daniel 9:4 Since the desolation of the holy land and the exile of the people was a well-deserved punishment for their sins, and a removal of the punishment could not be hoped for without genuine humiliation under the righteous judgment of God, Daniel begins with a confession of the great transgression of the people, and of the righteousness of the divine dealings with them, that on the ground of this confession he might entreat of the divine compassion the fulfilment of the promised restoration of Jerusalem and Israel. He prays to Jehovah אלהי , my God.
If we wish our prayers to be heard, then God, to whom we pray, must become our God. To אתודּה ( I made confession ) M. Geier applies Augustine's beautiful remark on Psalms 29:1-11 : ”Confession gemina est, aut peccati aut laudis. Quando nobis male est in tribulationibus, confiteamur peccata nostra; quando nobis bene est in exultatione justitiae, confiteamur laudem Deo: sine confessione tamen non simus.” The address, “ Thou great and dreadful God, who keepest the covenant,” etc., points in its first part to the mighty acts of God in destroying His enemies (cf.
Deuteronomy 7:21 ), and in the second part to the faithfulness of God toward those that fear Him in fulfilling His promises (cf. Deuteronomy 7:9 ). While the greatness and the terribleness of God, which Israel had now experienced, wrought repentance and sorrow, the reference to the covenant faithfulness of God served to awaken and strengthen their confidence in the help of the Almighty. Daniel 9:5 God is righteous and faithful, but Israel is unrighteous and faithless. The confession of the great guilt of Israel in Daniel 9:5 connects itself with the praise of God.
This guilt Daniel confesses in the strongest words. חטא , to make a false step, designates sin as an erring from the right; עוה , to be perverse, as unrighteousness; רשׁע , to do wrong, as a passionate rebellion against God.
To these three words, which Solomon ( 1 Kings 8:47 ) had already used as an exhaustive expression of a consciousness of sin and guilt, and the Psalmist ( Psalms 106:6 ) had repeated as the confession of the people in exile, Daniel yet further adds the expression מרדנוּ , we have rebelled against God, and סור , are departed, fallen away from His commandments; this latter word being in the inf. absol. , thereby denotes that the action is presented with emphasis.
Daniel 9:6 The guilt becomes the greater from the fact that God failed not to warn them, and that Israel would not hear the words of the prophets, who in His name spoke to high and low, - to kings and princes, i.e., the heads of tribes and families, and to the great men of the kingdom and to the fathers, i.e., to their ancestors, in this connection with the exclusion of kings and chiefs of the people, who are specially named, as Jeremiah 44:17 , cf. Nehemiah 9:32 , Nehemiah 9:34 ; not perhaps the elders, heads of families (Cocceius, J. D. Michaelis, and others), or merely teachers (Ewald).
To illustrate the meaning, there is added the expression “the whole people of the land,” not merely the common people, so that no one might regard himself as exempted. Compare כּל־עמך , Nehemiah 9:32 . This expression, comprehending all, is omitted when the thought is repeated in Daniel 9:8 . Daniel 9:7 Thus to God belongeth righteousness, but to the sinful people only shame. הצדקה לך does not mean: Thine was the righteous cause (Hitzig).
The interpolation of the was is arbitrary, and צדקה predicated of God is not righteous cause, but righteousness as a perfection which is manifested in His operations on the earth, or specially in His dealings toward Israel. הפנים בּשׁת , shame which reflects itself in the countenance, not because of disgraceful circumstances, Ezra 9:7 (Kranichfeld), but in the consciousness of well-deserved suffering. הזּה כּיום does not mean: at this time, to-day, now (Häv., v. Leng., and others); the interpretation of כ in the sense of circa stands opposed to the definite הזּה .
In the formula הזּה כּיום the כ has always the meaning of a comparison; also in Jeremiah 44:6 , Jeremiah 44:22-23 ; 1 Samuel 22:8 , and everywhere the expression has this meaning: as it happened this day, as experience has now shown or shows. See under Deuteronomy 2:30 . Here it relates merely to הף/ ot yl בּשׁת לנוּ ( to us shame , etc.), not also the first part of the verse.
The לנוּ is particularized by the words, “the men of Judah” ( אישׁ collectively, since the plur. אישׁים in this connection cannot be used; it occurs only three times in the O.T.), “and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” Both together are the citizens of the kingdom of Judah. ישׂראל , the whole of the rest of Israel, the members of the kingdom of the ten tribes. To both of these the further definition relates: “those that are near, and those that are far off, etc.” With m' אשׁר בּמעלם ( because of their trespass which ,” etc.), cf. Leviticus 26:40 .
Daniel 9:8 In this verse Daniel repeats the thoughts of Daniel 9:7 in order to place the sin and shame of the people opposite to the divine compassion, and then to pass from confession of sin to supplication for the sin-forgiving grace of the covenant-keeping God. Daniel 9:9-10 Compassion and forgiveness are with the Lord our God; and these we need, for we have rebelled against Him. This thought is expanded in Daniel 9:10-14 .
The rebellion against God, the refusing to hear the voice of the Lord through the prophets, the transgression of His law, of which all Israel of the twelve tribes were guilty, has brought the punishment on the whole people which the law of Moses threatened against transgressors. Daniel 9:11 ותּתּך with ו consec .: therefore has the curse poured itself out, and the oath, i.e., the curse strengthened with an oath. נתך , to pour forth, of storms of rain and hail ( Exodus 9:33 ), but especially of the destroying fire-rain of the divine wrath, cf.
Nahum 1:6 with Genesis 19:24 , and Jeremiah 7:20 ; Jeremiah 42:18 ; Jeremiah 44:6 . האלה is used, Deuteronomy 29:18 ., of the threatenings against the transgressors of the law in Leviticus 26:14 ., Deuteronomy 28:15 ., to which Daniel here makes reference. To strengthen the expression, he has added השּׁבעה ( and the oath ) to האלה , after Numbers 5:21 ; cf. also Nehemiah 10:30 . Daniel 9:12 In this verse the Kethiv דּבריו , in harmony with the ancient versions, is to be maintained, and the Keri only as an explanation inferred from the thought of a definite curse.
“Our judges” is an expression comprehending the chiefs of the people, kings and princes, as in Ps. 20:10; Psalms 148:11 .
Daniel 9:13 The thought of Daniel 9:11 is again taken up once more to declare that God, by virtue of His righteousness, must carry out against the people the threatening contained in His law. את before כּל־הרעה is not, with Kranichfeld, to be explained from the construction of the passive כּתוּב with the accusative, for it does not depend on כּתוּב no , but serves to introduce the subject absolutely stated: as concerns all this evil, thus it has come upon us, as Ezekiel 44:3 ; Jeremiah 45:4 ; cf. Ewald's Lehrb . §277 d . Regarding את־פּני חלּינוּ ( we entreated the face , etc.), cf.
Zechariah 7:2 ; Zechariah 8:21 . להשׂכּיל בּאמתּך is not to be translated: to comprehend Thy faithfulness (Hitzig), for the construction with ב does not agree with this, and then אמת does not mean faithfulness ( Treue ), but truth ( Warheit ). The truth of God is His plan of salvation revealed in His word, according to which the sinner can only attain to happiness and salvation by turning to God and obeying His commands. Daniel 9:14 Because Israel did not do this, therefore the Lord watched upon the evil, i.e., continually thought thereon - an idea very frequently found in Jeremiah; cf.
Jeremiah 1:12 ; Jeremiah 31:28 ; Jeremiah 44:27 . צדּיק with על following, righteous on the ground of all His works - a testimony from experience; cf. Nehemiah 9:33 (Kranichfeld). Daniel 9:15-19 After this confession, there now follows the prayer for the turning away of the wrath ( Daniel 9:15 and Daniel 9:16 ) of God, and for the manifestation of His grace toward His suppliant people ( Daniel 9:17-19 ). Daniel 9:15 This prayer Daniel founds on the great fact of the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, by which the Lord made for Himself a name among the nations.
Jerome has here rightly remarked, not exhausting the thought however: ”memor est antiqui beneficii, ut ad similem Dei clementiam provocet.” For Daniel does not view the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt merely as a good deed, but as an act of salvation by which God fulfilled His promise He had given to the patriarchs, ratified the covenant He made with Abraham, and by the miracles accompanying the exodus of the tribes of Israel from the land of Egypt, glorified His name before all nations (cf.
Isa. 63:32, 13), so that Moses could appeal to this glorious revelation of God among the heathen as an argument, in his prayer for pardon to Israel, to mitigate the anger of God which burned against the apostasy and the rebellion of the people, and to turn away the threatened destruction, Exodus 32:11 ., Numbers 14:13 . Jeremiah, and also Isaiah, in like manner ground their prayer for mercy to Israel on the name of the Lord, Jeremiah 32:20 ., Isaiah 63:11-15 .
Nehemiah ( Nehemiah 1:10 and Nehemiah 9:10 ) in this agrees with Jeremiah and Daniel. הזּה כּיום , in the same connection in Jer 50, does not mean, then , at that time , but, as this day still : (hast gotten Thee) a name as Thou hast it still. In order to rest the prayer alone on the honour of the Lord, on the honour of His name, Daniel again repeats the confession, we have sinned , we have done wickedly ; cf. Daniel 9:5 .
Daniel 9:16 The prayer for the turning away of God's anger follows, and is introduced by a repetition of the address, “O Lord,” and by a brief condensation of the motive developed in Daniel 9:15 , by the words כּכל־צדקתיך . צדקות does not mean in a gracious manner, and צדק is not grace, but proofs of the divine righteousness.
The meaning of the words כּכל־צדקתיך is not: as all proofs of Thy righteousness have hitherto been always intimately connected with a return of Thy grace, so may it also now be (Kran.); but, according to all the proofs of Thy righteousness , i.e., to all that Thou hitherto, by virtue of Thy covenant faithfulness, hast done for Israel. צדקות means the great deeds done by the Lord for His people, among which the signs and wonders accompanying their exodus from Egypt take the first place, so far as therein Jehovah gave proof of the righteousness of His covenant promise.
According to these, may God also now turn away His anger from His city of Jerusalem! The words in apposition, “Thy holy mountain,” refer especially to the temple mountain, or Mount Zion, as the centre of the kingdom of God. The prayer is enforced not only by כּל־צדקריך , but also by the plea that Jerusalem is the city of God ( Thy city). Compare Psalms 79:4 and Psalms 44:14 . Daniel 9:17 In this verse the prayer is repeated in more earnest words. With פּניך האר ( cause Thy face to shine ) compare Psalms 80:4 and Numbers 6:25 . אדני למען , because Thou art Lord , is stronger than למענך .
As the Lord κατ ̓ἐχοχήν , God cannot let the desolation of His sanctuary continue without doing injury to His honour; cf. Isaiah 48:11 . Daniel 9:18-19 The argument by which the prayer is urged, derived from a reference to the desolations, is strengthened by the words in apposition: and the city over which Thy name is named; i.e., not which is named after Thy name, by which the meaning of this form of expression is enfeebled. The name of God is the revelation of His being.
It is named over Jerusalem in so far as Jehovah gloriously revealed Himself in it; He has raised it, by choosing it as the place of His throne in Israel, to the glory of a city of God; cf. Psalms 48:2 ., and regarding this form of expression, the remarks under Deuteronomy 28:10 . The expression: and laying down my supplication before God (cf. Daniel 9:20 ), is derived from the custom of falling down before God in prayer, and is often met with in Jeremiah; cf. Jeremiah 38:26 ; Jeremiah 42:9 , and Jeremiah 36:7 .
The Kethiv פּקחה ( Daniel 9:18 , open ) is to be preferred to the Keri פּקח , because it is conformed to the imperative forms in Daniel 9:19 , and is in accordance with the energy of the prayer. This energy shows itself in the number of words used in Daniel 9:18 and Daniel 9:19 . Chr. B.
Mich., under Daniel 9:19 , has well remarked: ”Fervorem precantis cognoscere licet cum ex anaphora, seu terna et mysterii plena nominis Adonai repetitione, tum ex eo, quod singulis hisce imperativis He paragogicum ad intensiorem adfectum significandum superaddidit, tum ex congerie illa verborum: Audi, Condona, Attende, reliqua.”
Verses 20-21 The granting of the prayer. - While Daniel was yet engaged in prayer ( הר ק על , on account of the holy mountain, i.e., for it, see under Daniel 9:16 ), an answer was already communicated to him; for the angel Gabriel came to him, and brought to him an explanation of the seventy years of Jeremiah, i.e., not as to their expiry, but what would happen after their completion for the city and the people of God. האישׁ , the man Gabriel, refers, by the use of the definite article, back to Daniel 8:15 , where Gabriel appeared to him in the form of a man.
This is expressly observed in the relative clause, “whom I saw,” etc. Regarding בּתּחלּה ( at the first , Daniel 9:21 ) see under Daniel 8:1 . The differently interpreted words, מעף בּיעף , belong, from their position, to the relative clause, or specially to ראיתי ( I had seen ), not to נגע , since no ground can be perceived for the placing of the adverbial idea before the verb.
The translation of מעף בּיעף by τάχει φερόμενος (lxx), πετόμενος (Theodot.), cito volans (Vulg.), from which the church fathers concluded that the angels were winged, notwithstanding the fact that rabbis, as e.g., Jos. Jacchiades, and modern interpreters (Häv., v.
Leng., Hitz.) maintain it, is without any foundation in the words, and was probably derived by the old translators from a confounding of יעף with עוּף . יעף means only wearied , to become tired , to weary oneself by exertion, in certain places, as e.g., Jeremiah 2:24 , by a long journey or course, but nowhere to run or to flee. יעף , weariness - wearied in weariness, i.e., very wearied or tired.
According to this interpretation, which the words alone admit of, the expression is applicable, not to the angel, whom as an unearthly being, we cannot speak of as being wearied, although, with Kranichfeld, one may think of the way from the dwelling-place of God, removed far from His sinful people, to this earth as very long.
On the contrary, the words perfectly agree with the condition of Daniel described in Daniel 8:17 ., 27, and Daniel mentions this circumstance, because Gabriel, at his former coming to him, not only helped to strengthen him, but also gave him understanding of the vision, which was to him hidden in darkness, so that his appearing again at once awakened joyful hope. אלי נגע , not he touched me, but he reached me, came forward to me. For this meaning of נגע cf. 2 Samuel 5:8 ; Jonah 3:6 .
“About the time of the evening sacrifice.” מנחה , properly meat-offering, here comprehending the sacrifice, as is often its meaning in the later Scriptures; cf. Malachi 1:13 ; Malachi 2:13 ; Malachi 3:4 . The time of the evening oblation was the time of evening prayer for the congregation.
Verses 22-23 ויּבן , he gave understanding , insight , as Daniel 8:16 . The words point back to Daniel 9:2 . First of all Gabriel speaks of the design and the circumstances of his coming. עתּה יצאתי , now , viz., in consequence of thy morning prayer, I am come , sc. from the throne of God. להשׂכּילך בינה , to instruct thee in knowledge . This is more particularly declared in Daniel 9:23 .
At the beginning of Daniel's prayer a word, i.e., a communication from God, came forth, which he brought. דּבר , not a commandment, or the divine commandment to Gabriel to go to Daniel, but a word of God, and particularly the word which he announced to Daniel, Daniel 9:24-27 .
The sentence, “for thou art a man greatly beloved” ( חמוּדות = חמוּדות אישׁ , Daniel 10:11 , Daniel 10:19 , vir desideriorum, desideratissimus ), does not contain the reason for Gabriel's coming in haste, but for the principal thought of the verse, the going forth of the word of God immediately at the beginning of Daniel's prayer. המּראה stands not for revelation, but is the vision , the appearance of the angel by whom the word of God was communicated to the prophet. מראה is accordingly not the contents of the word spoken, but the form for its communication to Daniel.
To both - the word and the form of its revelation - Daniel must give heed. This revelation was, moreover, not communicated to him in a vision, but while in the state of natural consciousness.
Verse 24 Seventy weeks are determined . - שׁבעים from שׁבוּע , properly, the time divided into sevenths, signifies commonly the period of seven days, the week, as Genesis 29:27 . (in the sing.), and Daniel 10:2-3 , in the plur., which is usually in the form שׁבעות ; cf. Deuteronomy 16:9 ., Exodus 34:22 , etc. In the form שׁבעים there thus lies no intimation that it is not common weeks that are meant.
As little does it lie in the numeral being placed after it, for it also sometimes is found before it, where, as here, the noun as the weightier idea must be emphasized, and that not by later authors merely, but also in Genesis 32:15 ., 1 Kings 8:63 ; cf. Gesen. Lehrgeb . p. 698. What period of time is here denoted by שׁבעים can be determined neither from the word itself and its form, nor from the comparison with ימים שׁבעים , Daniel 10:2-3 , since ימים is in these verses added to שׁבעים , not for the purpose of designating these as day-weeks, but simply as full weeks (three weeks long).
The reasons for the opinion that common (i.e., seven-day) weeks are not intended, lie partly in the contents of Daniel 9:25 , Daniel 9:27 , which undoubtedly teach that that which came to pass in the sixty-two weeks and in the one week could not take place in common weeks, partly in the reference of the seventy שׁבעים to the seventy years of Jeremiah, Daniel 9:2 .
According to a prophecy of Jeremiah - so e.g., Hitzig reasons - Jerusalem must lie desolate for seventy years, and now, in the sixty-ninth year, the city and the temple are as yet lying waste ( Daniel 9:17 .), and as yet nowhere are there symptoms of any change. Then, in answer to his supplication, Daniel received the answer, seventy שׁבעים must pass before the full working out of the deliverance. “If the deliverance was not yet in seventy years, then still less was it in seventy weeks.
With seventy times seven months we are also still inside of seventy years, and we are directed therefore to year-weeks, so that each week shall consist of seven years. The special account of the contents of the weeks can be adjusted with the year-weeks alone; and the half-week, Daniel 9:27 , particularly appears to be identical in actual time with these three and a half times (years), Daniel 7:25 .” This latter element is by others much more definitely affirmed.
Thus e.g., Kranichfeld says that Daniel had no doubt about the definite extent of the expression שׁבוּע , but gave an altogether unambiguous interpretation of it when he combined the last half-week essentially with the known and definite three and a half years of the time of the end. But - we must, on the contrary, ask - where does Daniel speak of the three and a half years of the time of the end? He does not use the word year in any of the passages that fall to be here considered, but only עדּן or מועד , time, definite time.
That by this word common years are to be understood, is indeed taken for granted by many interpreters, but a satisfactory proof of such a meaning has not been adduced.
Moreover, in favour of year-weeks (periods of seven years) it has been argued that such an interpretation was very natural, since they hold so prominent a place in the law of Moses; and the Exile had brought them anew very distinctly into remembrance, inasmuch as the seventy years' desolation of the land was viewed as a punishment for the interrupted festival of the sabbatical years: 2 Chronicles 36:21 (Hgstb., Kran., and others).
But since these periods of seven years, as Hengstenberg himself confesses, are not called in the law שׁבעים or שׁבעות , therefore, from the repeated designation of the seventh year as that of the great Sabbath merely ( Leviticus 25:2 , Leviticus 25:4-5 ; Leviticus 26:34-35 , Leviticus 26:43 ; 2 Chronicles 36:21 ), the idea of year-weeks in no way follows. The law makes mention not only of the Sabbath-year, but also of periods of seven times seven years, after the expiry of which a year of jubilee was always to be celebrated ( Leviticus 25:8 .).
These, as well as the Sabbath-years, might be called שׁבעים . Thus the idea of year-weeks has no exegetical foundation. Hofmann and Kliefoth are in the right when they remark that שׁבעים does not necessarily mean year-weeks, but an intentionally indefinite designation of a period of time measured by the number seven, whose chronological duration must be determined on other grounds. The ἁπ . λεγ . חתך means in Chald. to cut off, to cut up into pieces, then to decide, to determine closely, e.g., Targ. Esther 4:5 ; cf. Buxtorf, Lex . talm ., and Levy, Chald. Wörterb. s.v.
The meaning for נחתּך , abbreviatae sunt ( Vulg . for ἐκολοβώθησαν , Matthew 24:22 ), which Wieseler has brought forward, is not proved, and it is unsuitable, because if one cuts off a piece from a whole, the whole is diminished on account of the piece cut off, but not the piece itself. For the explanation of the sing. נחתּך we need neither the supposition that a definite noun, as עת ( time ), was before the prophet's mind (Hgstb.), nor the appeal to the inexact manner of writing of the later authors (Ewald).
The sing. is simply explained by this, that שׁבעים שׁבעים is conceived of as the absolute idea, and then is taken up by the passive verb impersonal, to mark that the seventy sevenths are to be viewed as a whole, as a continued period of seventy seven times following each other. Upon thy people and upon thy holy city . In the על there does not lie the conception of that which is burdensome, or that this period would be a time of suffering like the seventy years of exile (v. Lengerke). The word only indicates that such a period of time was determined upon the people.
The people and the city of Daniel are called the people and the city of God, because Daniel has just represented them before God as His (Hävernick, v. Lengerke, Kliefoth). But Jerusalem, even when in ruins, is called the holy city by virtue of its past and its future history; cf. Daniel 9:20 . This predicate does not point, as Wieseler and Hitzig have rightly acknowledged, to a time when the temple stood, as Stähelin and v. Lengerke suppose.
Only this lies in it, Kliefoth has justly added, - not, however, in the predicate of holiness, but rather in the whole expression, - that the people and city of God shall not remain in the state of desolation in which they then were, but shall at some time be again restored, and shall continue during the time mentioned. One must not, however, at once conclude that this promise of continuance referred only to the people of the Jews and their earthly Jerusalem.
Certainly it refers first to Israel after the flesh, and to the geographical Jerusalem, because these were then the people and the city of God; but these ideas are not exhausted in this reference, but at the same time embrace the New Testament church and the church of God on earth. The following infinitive clauses present the object for which the seventy weeks are determined, i.e., they intimate what shall happen till, or with the expiry of, the time determined.
Although ל before the infinitive does not mean till or during, yet it is also not correct to say that ל can point out only the issue which the period of time finally reaches, only its result. Whether that which is stated in the infinitive clauses shall for the first time take place after the expiry of, or at the end of the time named, or shall develope itself gradually in the course of it, and only be completed at the end of it, cannot be concluded from the final ל , but only from the material contents of the final clauses.
The six statements are divided by Maurer, Hitzig, Kranichfeld, and others into three passages of two members each, thus: After the expiry of seventy weeks, there shall (1) be completed the measure of sin; (2) the sin shall be covered and righteousness brought in; (3) the prophecy shall be fulfilled, and the temple, which was desecrated by Antiochus, shall be again consecrated.
The masoretes seem, however, to have already conceived of this threefold division by placing the Atnach under עלמים צדק (the fourth clause); but it rests on a false construction of the individual members especially of the first two passages. Rather we have two three-membered sentences before us.
This appears evident from the arrangement of the six statements; i.e., that the first three statements treat of the taking away of sin, and thus of the negative side of the deliverance; the three last treat of the bringing in of everlasting righteousness with its consequences, and thus of the positive deliverance, and in such a manner that in both classes the three members stand in reciprocal relation to each other: the fourth statement corresponds to the first, the fifth to the second, the sixth to the third - the second and the fifth present even the same verb חתם .
In the first and second statements the reading is doubtful. Instead of לחתּם ( Keth .), to seal , the Keri has להתם , to end (R. תּמם , to complete ). In לכלּא a double reading is combined, for the vowel-points do not belong to the Keth ., which rather has לכלא , since כּלא is nowhere found in the Piel , but to the Keri , for the Masoretes hold כלא to be of the same meaning as כלה , to be ended . Thus the ancient translators interpreted it: lxx, τὰς ἀδικίας σπανίσαι ; Theod., συντελεσθῆναι , al . συντελέσαι ; Aquil., συντελέσαι τὴν ἀθεσίαν ; Vulg., ut consummetur praevaricatio .
Bertholdt, Rosenmüller, Gesenius, Winer, Ewald, Hitzig, Maurer, have followed them in supposing a passing of ה into . א But since כּלה occurs frequently in Daniel, always with ה htiw (cf. v. 27; Daniel 11:36 ; Daniel 12:7 ), and generally the roots with ה take the form of those with א much seldomer than the reverse, on these grounds the reading לכלא thus deserves the preference, apart from the consideration that almost all the Keris are valueless emendations of the Masoretes; and the parallel להתם , decidedly erroneous, is obviously derived from Daniel 8:23 .
Thus the Keri does not give in the two passages a suitable meaning.
The explanation: to finish the transgression and to make full the measure of sin, does not accord with what follows: to pardon the iniquity; and the thought that the Jews would fill up the measure of their transgression in the seventy year-weeks, and that as a punishment they would pass through a period of suffering from Antiochus and afterwards be pardoned, is untenable, because the punishment by Antiochus for their sins brought to their full measure is arbitrarily interpolated; but without this interpolation the pardon of the sins stands in contradiction to the filling up of their measure.
Besides, this explanation is further opposed by the fact, that in the first two statements there must be a different subject from that which is in the third. For to fill up the measure of sin is the work of God. Accordingly the Kethiv alone is to be adopted as correct, and the first passage to be translated thus: to shut up the transgression . כּלא means to hold back, to hold in, to arrest, to hold in prison, to shut in or shut up; hence כּלא , a prison, jail.
To arrest the wickedness or shut it up does not mean to pardon it, but to hem it in, to hinder it so that it can no longer spread about (Hofm.); cf. Zechariah 5:8 and Revelation 20:3 . In the second passage, “ to seal up sin ,” the חטּאות are the several proofs of the transgression. חתם , to seal, does not denote the finishing or ending of the sins (Theodrt. and others).
Like the Arab. chtm , it may occur in the sense of “to end,” and this meaning may have originated from the circumstance that one is wont at the end of a letter or document to affix the impress of a seal; yet this meaning is nowhere found in Hebr.: see under Exodus 28:12 . The figure of the sealing stands here in connection with the shutting up in prison. Cf. Daniel 6:18 , the king for greater security sealed up the den into which Daniel was cast. Thus also God seals the hand of man that it cannot move, Job 37:7 , and the stars that they cannot give light, Job 9:7 .
But in this figure to seal is not = to take away, according to which Hgstb. and many others explain it thus: the sins are here described as sealed, because they are altogether removed out of the sight of God, altogether set aside; for “that which is shut up and sealed is not merely taken away, entirely set aside, but guarded, held under lock and seal” (Kliefoth).
Hence more correctly Hofmann and Kliefoth say, “If the sins are sealed , they are on the one side laid under custody, so that they cannot any more be active or increase, but that they may thus be guarded and held, so that they can no longer be pardoned and blotted out;” cf. Revelation 20:3 . The third statement is, “ to make reconciliation for iniquity .” כּפּר is terminus techn ., to pardon, to blot out by means of a sin-offering, i.e., to forgive.
These three passages thus treat of the setting aside of sin and its blotting out; but they neither form a climax nor a mere συναθροισμός , a multiplying of synonymous expressions for the pardoning of sins, ut tota peccatorum humani generis colluvies eo melius comprehenderetur (M. Geier). Against the idea of a climax it is justly objected, that in that case the strongest designation of sin, הפּשׁע , which designates sin as a falling away from God, a rebelling against Him, should stand last, whereas it occurs in the first sentence.
Against the idea of a συναθροισμός it is objected, that the words “to shut up” and “to seal” are not synonymous with “to make reconciliation for,” i.e., “to forgive.” The three expressions, it is true, all treat alike of the setting aside of sin, but in different ways. The first presents the general thought, that the falling away shall be shut up, the progress and the spreading of the sin shall be prevented. The other two expressions define more closely how the source whence arises the apostasy shall be shut up, the going forth and the continued operation of the sin prevented.
This happens in one way with unbelievers, and in a different way with believers. The sins of unbelievers are sealed, are guarded securely under a seal, so that they may no more spread about and increase, nor any longer be active and operative; but the sins of believers are forgiven through a reconciliation. The former idea is stated in the second member, and the latter in the third, as Hofmann and Kliefoth have rightly remarked. There follows the second group of three statements, which treat of the positive unfolding of salvation accompanying the taking away and the setting aside of sin.
The first expression of this group, or the fourth in the whole number, is “ to bring in everlasting righteousness .” After the entire setting aside of sin must come a righteousness which shall never cease. That צדק does not mean “happiness of the olden time” (Bertholdt, Rösch), nor “innocence of the former better times” (J. D. Michaelis), but “righteousness,” requires at present no further proof.
Righteousness comes from heaven as the gift of God (Ps. 85:11-14; Isaiah 51:5-8 ), rises as a sun upon them that fear God (Mal. 3:20), and is here called everlasting , corresponding to the eternity of the Messianic kingdom (cf. Daniel 2:44 ; Daniel 7:18 , Daniel 7:27 ). צדק comprehends the internal and the external righteousness of the new heavens and the new earth, 2 Peter 3:13 . This fourth expression forms the positive supplement of the first: in the place of the absolutely removed transgression is the perfected righteousness.
In the fifth passage, to seal up the vision and prophecy , the word חתם , used in the second passage of sin, is here used of righteousness. The figure of sealing is regarded by many interpreters in the sense of confirming, and that by filling up, with reference to the custom of impressing a seal on a writing for the confirmation of its contents; and in illustration these references are given: 1 Kings 21:8 , and Jeremiah 32:10-11 , Jeremiah 32:44 (Hävernick, v. Lengerke, Ewald, Hitzig, and others). But for this figurative use of the word to seal, no proof-passages are adduced from the O.T.
Add to this that the word cannot be used here in a different sense from that in which it is used in the second passage. The sealing of the prophecy corresponds to the sealing of the transgression, and must be similarly understood. The prophecy is sealed when it is laid under a seal, so that it can no longer actively show itself. The interpretation of the object ונביא חזון is also disputed. Berth., Ros., Bleek, Ewald, Hitzig, Wieseler, refer it to the prophecy of the seventy weeks (Jer 25 and 29), mentioned in Daniel 9:2 .
But against this view stands the fact of the absence of the article; for if by חזון that prophecy is intended, an intimation of this would have been expected at least by the definite article, and here particularly would have been altogether indispensable. It is also condemned by the word נביא added, which shows that both words are used in comprehensive generality for all existing prophecies and prophets. Not only the prophecy, but the prophet who gives it, i.e., not merely the prophecy, but also the calling of the prophet, must be sealed.
Prophecies and prophets are sealed, when by the full realization of all prophecies prophecy ceases, no prophets any more appear. The extinction of prophecy in consequence of its fulfilment is not, however (with Hengstenberg), to be sought in the time of the manifestation of Christ in the flesh; for then only the prophecy of the Old Covenant reached its end (cf.
Matthew 11:13 ; Luke 22:37 ; John 1:46 ), and its place is occupied by the prophecy of the N.T., the fulfilling of which is still in the future, and which will not come to an end and terminate ( καταργηθήσεται , 1 Corinthians 13:8 ) till the kingdom of God is perfected in glory at the termination of the present course of the world's history, at the same time with the full conclusive fulfilment of the O.T. prophecy; cf. Acts 3:21 . This fifth member stands over against the second, as the fourth does over against the first.
“When the sins are sealed, the prophecy is also sealed, for prophecy is needed in the war against sin; when sin is thus so placed that it can no longer operate, then prophecy also may come to a state of rest; when sin comes to an end in its place, prophecy can come to an end also by its fulfilment, there being no place for it after the setting aside of sin. And when the apostasy is shut up, so that it can no more spread about, then righteousness will be brought, that it may possess the earth, now freed from sin, shut up in its own place” (Kliefoth).
The sixth and last clause, to anoint a most holy , is very differently interpreted. Those interpreters who seek the fulfilment of this word of revelation in the time following nearest the close of the Exile, or in the time of the Maccabees, refer this clause either to the consecration of the altar of burnt-offering (Wieseler), which was restored by Zerubbabel and Joshua ( Ezra 3:2 .), or to the consecration of the temple of Zerubbabel (J. D.
Michaelis, Jahn, Steudel), or to the consecration of the altar of burnt-offering which was desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes, 1 Macc. 4:54 (Hitzig, Kranichfeld, and others). But none of these interpretations can be justified. It is opposed by the actual fact , that neither in the consecration of Zerubbabel's temple, nor at the re-consecration of the altar of burnt-offering desecrated by Antiochus, is mention made of any anointing. According to the definite, uniform tradition of the Jews, the holy anointing oil did not exist during the time of the second temple.
Only the Mosaic sanctuary of the tabernacle, with its altars and vessels, were consecrated by anointing. Exodus 30:22 ., 40:1-16; Leviticus 8:10 . There is no mention of anointing even at the consecration of Solomon's temple, 1 Kings 8 and 2 Chron 5-7, because that temple only raised the tabernacle to a fixed dwelling, and the ark of the covenant as the throne of God, which was the most holy furniture thereof, was brought from the tabernacle to the temple.
Even the altar of burnt-offering of the new temple ( Ezekiel 43:20 , Ezekiel 43:26 ) was not consecrated by anointing, but only by the offering of blood. Then the special fact of the consecration of the altar of burnt-offering, or of the temple, does not accord with the general expressions of the other members of this verse, and was on the whole not so significant and important an event as that one might expect it to be noticed after the foregoing expressions. What Kranichfeld says in confirmation of this interpretation is very far-fetched and weak.
He remarks, that “as in this verse the prophetic statements relate to a taking away and כּפּר of sins, in the place of which righteousness is restored, accordingly the anointing will also stand in relation to this sacred action of the כפר , which primarily and above all conducts to the significance of the altar of Israel, that, viz., which stood in the outer court.” But, even granting this to be correct, it proves nothing as to the anointing even of the altar of burnt-offering.
For the preceding clauses speak not only of the כפר of transgression, but also of the taking away (closing and sealing) of the apostasy and of sin, and thus of a setting aside of sin, which did not take place by means of a sacrifice. The fullest expiation also for the sins of Israel which the O.T. knew, viz., that on the great day of atonement, was not made on the altar of burnt-offering, but by the sprinkling of the blood of the offering on the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies, and on the altar of incense in the most holy place.
If משׁח is to be explained later the כּפּר , then by “holy of holies” we would have to understand not “primarily” the altar of burnt-offering, but above all the holy vessels of the inner sanctuary, because here it is not an atonement needing to be repeated that is spoken of, but one that avails for ever. In addition to this, there is the verbal argument that the words קדשׁים קדשׁ are not used of a single holy vessel which alone could be thought of.
Not only the altar of burnt-offering is so named, Exodus 29:37 ; Exodus 40:10 , but also the altar of incense, Exodus 30:10 , and the two altars with all the vessels of the sanctuary, the ark of the covenant, shew-bread, candlesticks, basins, and the other vessels belonging thereto, Exodus 30:29 , also the holy material for incense, Exodus 30:36 , the shew-bread, Leviticus 24:9 , the meat-offering, Leviticus 2:3 , Leviticus 2:10 ; Leviticus 6:10 ; Leviticus 10:12 , the flesh of the sin-offering and of the expiatory sacrifice, Leviticus 6:10 , Leviticus 6:18 ; Leviticus 10:17 ; Leviticus 7:1 , Leviticus 7:6 ; Leviticus 14:13 ; Numbers 18:9 , and that which was sanctified to the Lord, Leviticus 27:28 .
Finally, the whole surroundings of the hill on which the temple stood, Ezekiel 43:12 , and the whole new temple, Ezekiel 45:3 , is named a “most holy;” and according to 1 Chronicles 23:13 , Aaron and his sons are sanctified as קדשׁים קדשׁ . Thus there is no good ground for referring this expression to the consecration of the altar of burnt-offering.
Such a reference is wholly excluded by the fact that the consecration of Zerubbabel's temple and altar, as well as of that which was desecrated by Antiochus, was a work of man, while the anointing of a “most holy” in the verse before us must be regarded as a divine act, because the three preceding expressions beyond controversy announce divine actions.
Every anointing, indeed, of persons or of things was performed by men, but it becomes a work of God when it is performed with the divinely ordained holy anointing oil by priests or prophets according to God's command, and then it is the means and the symbol of the endowment of equipment with the Spirit of God. When Saul was anointed by Samuel, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, 1 Samuel 10:9 . The same thing was denoted by the anointing of David, 1 Samuel 16:13 .
The anointing also of the tabernacle and its vessels served the same object, consecrating them as the place and the means of carrying on the gracious operations of the Spirit of God. As an evidence of this, the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle after it was set up and consecrated. At the dedication of the sanctuary after the Exile, under Zerubbabel and in the Maccabean age, the anointing was wanting, and there was no entrance into it also of the glory of the Lord.
Therefore these consecrations cannot be designated as anointings and as the works of God, and the angel cannot mean these works of men by the “anointing of a most holy.” Much older, more general, and also nearer the truth, is the explanation which refers these words to the anointing of the Messiah, an explanation which is established by various arguments. The translation of the lxx, καὶ εὐφράναι ἅγιον ἁγίων , and of Theod., τοῦ χρῖσαι ἅγιον ἁγίων , the meaning of which is controverted, is generally understood by the church Fathers as referring to the Messiah.
Theodoret sets it forth as undoubtedly correct, and as accepted even by the Jews; and the old Syriac translator has introduced into the text the words, “till the Messiah, the Most Holy.” (Note: Eusebius, Demonstr. Ev . viii. 2, p. 387, ed. Colon., opposes the opinion that the translation of Aquila, καὶ ἀλεῖψαι ἡγιασμένον ἡγιασμένων , may be understood of the Jewish high priest. Cf. Raymundis Martini, Pugio fidei , p. 285, ed.
Carpz., and Edzard ad Abodah Sara , p. 246f., for evidences of the diffusion of this interpretation among the Jews.) But this interpretation is set aside by the absence of the article. Without taking into view 1 Chronicles 23:13 , the words קדשׁים קדשׁ are nowhere used of persons, but only of things.
This meaning lies at the foundation of the passage in the book of Chronicles referred to, “that he should sanctify a קדשׁים קדשׁ קד , anoint him (Aaron) to be a most holy thing.” Following Hävernick, therefore, Hengstenberg (2nd ed. of his Christol . iii. p. 54) seeks to make this meaning applicable also for the Messianic interpretation, for he thinks that Christ is here designated as a most holy thing. But neither in the fact that the high priest bore on his brow the inscription ליהוה קדשׁ , nor in the declaration regarding Jehovah, “He shall be למקדּשׁ ,” Isaiah 8:14 , cf.
Ezekiel 11:16 , is there any ground for the conclusion that the Messiah could simply be designated as a most holy thing. In Luke 1:35 Christ is spoken of by the simple neuter ἅγιον , but not by the word “object;” and the passages in which Jesus is described as ὁ ἅγιος , Acts 3:14 ; Acts 4:30 ; 1 John 2:20 ; Revelation 3:7 , prove nothing whatever as to this use of קדשׁ of Christ. Nothing to the purpose also can be gathered from the connection of the sentence.
If in what follows the person of the Messiah comes forward to view, it cannot be thence concluded that He must also be mentioned in this verse. Much more satisfactory is the thought, that in the words “to anoint a קדשׁים קדשׁ ” the reference is to the anointing of a new sanctuary, temple, or most holy place. The absence of the article forbids us, indeed, from thinking of the most holy place of the earthly temple which was rebuilt by Zerubbabel, since the most holy place of the tabernacle as well as of the temple is constantly called הקדשׁים קדשׁ .
But it is not this definite holy of holies that is intended, but a new holy of holies which should be in the place of the holy of holies of the tabernacle and the temple of Solomon.
Now, since the new temple of the future seen by Ezekiel, with all its surroundings, is called ( Ezekiel 45:3 ) קדשׁים קדשׁ , Hofmann ( de 70 Jahre , p. 65) thinks that the holy of holies is the whole temple, and its anointing with oil a figure of the sanctification of the church by the Holy Ghost, but that this shall not be in the conspicuousness in which it is here represented till the time of the end, when the perfected church shall possess the conspicuousness of a visible sanctuary.
But, on the contrary, Kliefoth (p. 307) has with perfect justice replied, that “the most holy, and the temple, so far as it has a most holy place, is not the place of the congregation where it comes to God and is with God, but, on the contrary, is the place where God is present for the congregation, and manifests Himself to it.” The words under examination say nothing of the people and the congregation which God will gather around the place of His gracious presence, but of the objective place where God seeks to dwell among His people and reveal Himself to them.
The anointing is the act by which the place is consecrated to be a holy place of the gracious presence and revelation of God. If thus the anointing of a most holy is here announced, then by it there is given the promise, not of the renewal of the place already existing from of old, but of the appointment of a new place of God's gracious presence among His people, a new sanctuary.
This, as Kliefoth further justly observes, apart from the connection, might refer to the work of redemption perfected by the coming of Christ, which has indeed created in him a new place of the gracious presence of God, a new way of God's dwelling among men.
But since this statement is closely connected with those going before, and they speak of the perfect setting aside of transgression and of sin, of the appearance of everlasting righteousness, and the shutting up of all prophecy by its fulfilment, thus of things for which the work of redemption completed by the first appearance of Christ has, it is true, laid the everlasting foundation, but which first reach their completion in the full carrying through of this work of salvation in the return of the Lord by the final judgment, and the establishment of the kingdom of glory under the new heavens and on the new earth, - since this is the case, we must refer this sixth statement also to that time of the consummation, and understand it of the establishment of the new holy of holies which was shown to the holy seer on Patmos as ἡ σκηνὴ τοῦ Θεοῦ μετὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων , in which God will dwell with them, and they shall become His people, and He shall be their God with them ( Revelation 21:1-3 ).
In this holy city there will be no temple, for the Lord, the Almighty God, and the Lamb is its temple, and the glory of God will lighten it ( Revelation 21:22 ). Into it nothing shall enter that defileth or worketh abomination ( Revelation 21:27 ), for sin shall then be closed and sealed up; there shall righteousness dwell ( 2 Peter 3:13 ), and prophecy shall cease ( 1 Corinthians 13:8 ) by its fulfilment. From the contents of these six statements it thus appears that the termination of the seventy weeks coincides with the end of the present course of the world.
But Daniel 9:24 says nothing as to the commencement of this period. Nor can this be determined, as many interpreters think, from the relation in which the revelation of the seventy weeks stands to the prayer of Daniel, occasioned by Jeremiah's prophecy of the seventy years of the desolation of Jerusalem.
If Daniel, in the sixty-ninth year of the desolation, made supplication to the Lord for mercy in behalf of Jerusalem and Israel, and on the occasion of this prayer God caused Gabriel to lay open to him that seventy weeks were determined upon the city and the people of God, it by no means thence follows that seventy year-weeks must be substituted in place of the seventy years prophesied of, that both commence simultaneously, and thus that the seventy years of the Exile shall be prolonged to a period of oppression for Israel lasting for seventy year-weeks.
Such a supposition is warranted neither by the contents of the prophecy of Jeremiah, nor by the message of the angel to Daniel.
Jeremiah, it is true, prophesied not merely of seventy years of the desolation of Jerusalem and Judah, but also of the judgment upon Babylon after the expiry of these years, and the collecting together and bringing back of Israel from all the countries whither they were scattered into their own land ( Jeremiah 25:10-12 ; Jeremiah 29:10-14 ); but in his supplication Daniel had in his eye only the desolation of the land of Jeremiah's prophecy, and prayed for the turning away of the divine anger from Jerusalem, and for the pardon of Israel's sins.
Now if the words of the angel had been, “not seventy years, but seventy year-weeks, are determined over Israel,” this would have been no answer to Daniel's supplication, at least no comforting answer, to bring which to him the angel was commanded to go forth in haste. Then the angel announces in Daniel 9:24 much more than the return of Israel from the Exile to their own land.
But this is decided by the contents of the following verses, in which the space of seventy weeks is divided into three periods, and at the same time the commencement of the period is determined in a way which excludes its connection with the beginning of the seventy years of the Exile.