Daniel's prayer and the seventy sevens

Daniel 9 is dated to the first year of Darius, who is called a Mede by descent and the ruler made king over the Chaldeans. That points to the time just after the fall of Babylon to the Medes and Persians in 539 BC. The identity of 'Darius the Mede' is debated. Some scholars propose that he is another name for a governor appointed by Cyrus, others that Daniel is using a title for Cyrus himself, and critical scholars often hold that the book has a historical confusion here. All agree that the setting is the end of the exile, when the seventy years announced by Jeremiah were nearly up.

Daniel knew those years from the written word. In verse 2 he says he understood from 'the sacred books', according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. The passages are Jeremiah 25:11-12 and 29:10. The prophecy had a limit, and Daniel turns to prayer because the limit is close. He does not take the promise for granted. He asks for it.

The chapter holds two parts: Daniel's prayer (verses 3-19) and the angel Gabriel's answer (verses 20-27). The date of the book is disputed. A sixth-century date, with Daniel as the author, is the traditional view, held by the Jewish and Christian traditions. Most critical scholars place the final form in the 160s BC, in the time of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The first hearers on either date were people living under foreign rule who had to ask what the delay of the promised restoration meant.

The chapter combines two genres.

• The first is corporate prayer of confession, like those in Ezra 9, Nehemiah 9 and Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple (1 Kings 8:46-53). Daniel speaks in the first person plural, 'we have sinned', although the book gives no hint that he himself was guilty of the sins he lists. He identifies himself with his people.
• The second genre is apocalyptic prophecy given through an angel, and it uses numbers as part of its message.

The interpretive rule for the prayer is to read it against the covenant. The language comes from Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28-30: the curse written in the Law of Moses has been poured out (verse 11), and the way back is confession and return (compare Deuteronomy 30:1-3). The rule for the seventy sevens is more cautious. The passage is one of the most debated in the Bible, with a text that is compressed and in places difficult in the Hebrew. Two cautions apply.

• First, the first hearers had to be able to follow the answer to their question. Gabriel is answering a prayer about a seventy-year exile and a ruined city, so the answer should be read in that frame.
• Second, none of the main schemes explains every detail without difficulty, so a reader should state the views fairly and hold the conclusions lightly.

The interpretive question can be reduced to four decisions: whether the 490 years are literal or symbolic; where they begin; who 'the anointed one' is; and whether the seventieth week follows the sixty-ninth immediately or after a gap. The tradition note names the answers.

Verses 1–3

Daniel notices that the seventy years of Jeremiah are close to ending. His response is to pray with fasting, sackcloth and ashes, the signs of mourning and humility. This is a model of how to use a promise: the prophecy sends him to God and does not replace prayer.

Verses 4–14

The prayer begins by naming the LORD as the great and awesome God who keeps covenant love with those who love him. Then comes a long confession in which the words for sin pile up: we have sinned, done wrong, acted wickedly, rebelled, turned away. The people have not listened to the prophets (verse 6). A contrast runs through the section: righteousness belongs to the LORD, and shame to the people (verses 7, 8). Compassion and forgiveness belong to God, even though the people rebelled (verse 9). The disaster that has come on Jerusalem was written in the Law of Moses (verses 11, 13), so the LORD has been faithful to his word, even in judgment. 'The LORD our God is righteous in all He does' (verse 14). Daniel does not argue with God. He agrees with the verdict.

Verses 15–19

The petition begins with the exodus, the great act by which the LORD made a name for himself (verse 15), and asks that he act again. It is built on two appeals: his righteous acts and his compassion. Daniel asks that the anger turn from the city. He pleads that the sanctuary, desolate, be shown the face of God. The ground of the request is stated: 'not because of our righteous acts, but because of Your great compassion' (verse 18). The last verse is a rapid series: 'O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act!' and the reason given is 'for Your sake', because the city and people bear God's name. The same logic is behind Ezekiel 36:22.

Verses 20–23

While Daniel is still praying, Gabriel comes about the time of the evening sacrifice. He tells Daniel that an answer went out at the beginning of his petitions. Daniel is called 'highly precious'. The angel comes to give understanding.

Verse 24

'Seventy weeks are decreed.' The Hebrew means seventy sevens. It extends Jeremiah's seventy years into seventy sevens of years, 490, which is a sabbatical pattern: seven years is a land's sabbath, and the number seventy recalls the years of land rest in Leviticus 26:34-35 and 2 Chronicles 36:21. Many interpreters see Gabriel reading the exile through the warning of Leviticus 26, where the penalty for disobedience is multiplied sevenfold. The period is 'decreed for your people and your holy city' and has six aims: to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint a most holy place (or one). These are large goals. They go beyond the return from Babylon.

Verse 25

From the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem there will be seven sevens and sixty-two sevens until an anointed prince. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, in troubled times. Which decree is meant is disputed (see the tradition note).

Verse 26

After the sixty-two sevens an anointed one will be 'cut off' and will have nothing, or, as the Hebrew can also be read, will have no one. 'Cut off' is a word used for execution and for covenant-making. Then the people of a coming prince will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood, with war and desolation decreed.

Verse 27

'He' will confirm a covenant with many for one seven and in the middle of it will stop sacrifice and offering. On a 'wing' of the temple, a phrase that is hard in Hebrew, will come the abomination that causes desolation, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator. Who 'he' is, and how the final seven relates to the rest, is the most contested question.

Two doctrines meet in this chapter. The first is the justice and mercy of God shown in forgiveness. Daniel's prayer rests on the covenant, on confession of guilt and on the compassion of God, and not on any claim of merit. This agrees with the whole Bible's account of repentance, from Leviticus 26:40-42 to Psalm 51 and Luke 18:13. The prayer also shows that the promise of God and the prayer of the faithful work together.

The second is God's plan across history. The seventy sevens sets the end of the exile within a longer design that moves toward atonement, righteousness and the completion of prophecy. It teaches that return from Babylon was not the end of the story. The six goals of verse 24 are the language of the Day of Atonement and the age of salvation, and they were not completed by the second temple. The New Testament sees the answer in Christ. A further teaching is that the promised restoration includes the Messiah, who is cut off, and that judgment on the city and sanctuary follows. The passage holds salvation and judgment together, and gives both a timetable in God's hands.

The connection is promise, with fulfilment in the Gospels, though the way it is made is debated. The chapter names an anointed prince and an anointed one who is cut off, and the six goals centre on atonement for iniquity and everlasting righteousness. Christian readers have seen these in Christ. The New Testament says he appeared once to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself (Hebrews 9:26) and that his one offering ended the need for sacrifice (Hebrews 10:11-14). He is the one through whom the righteousness of God comes (Romans 3:21-26; 1 Corinthians 1:30). Early Christian writers such as Tertullian and Julius Africanus read the seventy sevens as pointing to his coming, though they calculated the dates differently.

The New Testament does not quote Daniel 9:24-27 in order to calculate dates, but it does use its images. Jesus speaks of the abomination of desolation that was spoken of by the prophet Daniel (Matthew 24:15), a phrase that appears in Daniel 9:27, 11:31 and 12:11, and he warns of the destruction of Jerusalem (Luke 19:41-44; 21:20). The angel who answers Daniel's prayer reappears in the Gospel of Luke, where Gabriel announces the birth of John and then of Jesus (Luke 1:19, 26). That is an echo and not a proof, but it shows the Gospel writer working in Daniel's world. A looser echo is that Daniel's prayer, with its concern for God's name, forgiveness and the coming restoration, has the same concerns as the prayer Jesus taught (Matthew 6:9-12).