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Answering Daniel 9 Questions From the Hebrew Text

1.0 What unit of time is the prophecy using?

The first word is printed here without the vowels because there are two possibilities. The vowel points could be the traditional text שָׁבֻעִ֨ים, and it would mean "seven-periods" or it could be a plural of the number seven שֶׁבַעִים, and it could mean the plural of something counted with the number seven, "sevens." Or in the same form, it could be an intensive plural and mean "seven-mosts," that is, be the plural of the ordinal number seventh.

You will notice that I did not supply "weeks" as a choice. This is because "weeks" in English means a seven day period, and its use for any other time period analogous to it would be figurative. The traditional "seventy weeks" in the King James Version is understood figuratively. But the Hebrew is only disposed to literally mean seven days if the context requires it. Otherwise, it literally means seven of something else, and when it does, the usage is not figurative.

The prophecy obviously covers a span of time that can only be measured in years, and so literal "weeks" is out of the question. What then is the unit of time? Daniel 9:2 gives the nearest clue, "Seventy Years." This suggests the "sevens" which are seventy, are years. By simple parallelism, "seventy years" corresponds to "seventy sevens" or "seventy sevenths." This means the "sevens/sevenths" are years. The norm of context and parallelism suggest the default answer. And it will prove to be correct in the end.

Daniel 9:2 gives a further clue, namely 70 years for the end of the desolations of Jerusalem. And this will point us to 2 Chronicles 36:21, where it is noted that the 70 years are to pay off 70 land Sabbaths that Israel did not keep, which is according to the judgment in Leviticus 26:34.

So the prophecy of Daniel 9 is directly related to the Sabbath years. More specifically, the year of release, the shemittah year, is called, "the year of the seven" in Deut. 15:9.

So to answer the question according to the two variations of vowel pointing, the prophecy is in terms of the plural of the year of seven, or shemmitah years. It is seventy seventh years. Or it is the plural of a seven-period, that is, seventy sabbatical cycles.

It should be noted that most interpreters are not concerned about the details presented here, and proceed to to explain the passage as 490 years without respect to the seventh year or when it occurs. This oversight has led Christian interpreters into deception and false teaching according to their predisposition to disregard the Torah.

2.0: Is the prophecy completed yet?

Seven items are listed for the time period of the prophecy. So we can ask the question for each of the items in turn. Are the seven items completed?

First, it says, "to make to be restrained the transgression." The question must be asked with respect to Daniel's "holy city" and his "people." A fruit inspection of Israel today and Jerusalem gives a definitive answer of NO.

Second, it says "to seal up great Sin." Notice the vowel points are missing in the printed text. The scribes wish for us to change the heth ח in the first word to a heh ה so that the meaning changes from, "and to seal up" to "and to make end." And they also wish for us to delete the waw ו in the second word, changing the meaning of the word from plural "sins" to singular "sin." As these alteratives regard the consonant text, and not the vowel points, I regard them as open to suspicion. Good sense may be made if we supply vowel points that go with the consonant text as written. For the first word it was be, וְלַחְתֹּם, "to seal up" and for the second, חַטָּאוֹת, "sins."

I take the plural "sins" to be an intenstive plural, meaning "great sin." When we look in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 we find "the man of sin," and in Revelation 19:20 we find the beast and false prophet are taken alive, and the human counterpart to the beast is slain. And we find that Satan who is behind it all is sealed in the abyss in Rev. 20:1-3. If we allow that "great sin" refers to Satan, then we can make sensse of the phrase as written in the Hebrew, "to seal up great sin." Since Sin, personified by Satan, has not yet been sealed away according to Revelation, this item on the list has not yet been completed either.

Third, it says "for making purged iniquity." While this can be claimed for the faithful in terms of forgiveness, and also claimed for the faithful in terms of cleansing from sin, it cannot be claimed to the point of perfection. And it certainly cannot be claimed for the holy city or Israel in a general sense. So we cannot check this item off either. It remains incompleted.

In a previous video, I overlooked mentioning a key point, and so I will bring it up now with respect to the faithful. Here is the Hebrew interlinear for Leviticus 16:30:

I am speaking of the Day of Purging, also called Yom Kippurim. I mentioned in that video an eschatological fulfillment of the passage. I mentioned there that something cannot be declared so that is not so. And in respect of forgiveness and cleansing of the heart through repentance, the worshipper is purged and also declared so. But the faithful are not yet perfected. However, a promise can be declared to be a promise. The promise is declared so for the faithful, because the promise is so. Implied in the declaration is a latent promise "for making be cleansed ye from all the sins of ye." So part of the declaration is a promise of future cleansing. The infintive form "for making to be cleansing" can be taken without respect to time, as we might take a timeless present tense. The declaration of purging therefore is with respect to all time that actual purging takes place, including the promise of it before it is so.

I was reminded of my neglect of this point after I made that video. I was then focusing on the abuse of the Reformers in declaring things so that were not so, but then it did occur to me that something can be declared to happen as a future promise, so it will be necessary to modify the explanation of the PIEL declarative to mean something that is promised to be later. In this sense when the Most High "declares to be holy" the seventh day, he is promising that all seventh days that have not happened yet are holy.

This observation brings Leviticus 16:30 into agreement with 1 John 1:7, "and the blood of Yeshua his Son cleanses us from all sin, " and 1 John 1:9, "so that he shall have forgiven us our sins and shall have cleansed us from all unrighteousness." The bood stands for the life of the Most High, Everlasting Life, which effects the cleansing of our hearts. Notice that it is in the present tense in vs. 7, and in the perfective future in vs. 9, i.e. aorist subjunctive in Greek.

So then, final cleansing comes on the great day of Yom Kippurim which will close out the seventy sevens. If a time period is set for cleansing, then clearly when the time period ends, the cleansing must also be complete. So concerning the third item, "for making be purged iniquity," the answer must be that it is not yet completed.

Fourth, "and for making come righteousness of time most lasting." The translations put this acceptably "everlasting righteousness." For Jerusalem and Israel this has not occurred yet. Some will claim that Yeshua brought everlasting righteousness with him. This is true, but as we will see, regarding Israel and Jerusalem, it says after he was killed that "none be for him" which is to say it wasn't true "over thy people, and over thy holy city." Note that "over" here is in the sense of "concerning" or "for." So has this happened for the city or people yet? Again the answer must be in the negative. The seventy sevens are not yet complete.

Fifth, "and to set seal to the vision." This is perhaps the most obscure item on the list. But it is made plain in Daniel 8:26, where the Prophet is told to close up this vision "for many days." He said "this vision is for the time of the end" (Dan. 8:17). This is the vision of the 2300 daily offerings in Daniel 8:14. Then in Daniel 12:4, he is told to close up and seal the words of his whole prophecy until the time of the end. Daniel is told to do something here. Obviously it did not mean leaving the visions unpublished. He says in Dan. 8:27, "And none [I am] making understand." This is to say, he left the language in the semi-obscure state he encountered it in the vision without adding anything extra that might explain it or clear it up. He added no commentary that might elucidate it. And indeed, he himself cannot have fully understood it since only historic fulfillment can reveal some elements. In Dan. 12:9 it says, "because are closed up, and being sealed the words until the time of the end." And in the previous verse, "And I be not understanding."

The word "to seal" has more than one meaning. It may mean to close up with a seal, but it also means to attest to something or to give approval to it. And what is sealed with a seal of approval is not necesarily closed up. If a seal was placed on the outside of a roll, it was closed up so that only the recipient could unseal it by breaking the seal. But a document could also be sealed by sealing the face of it below the writing. This kind of seal meant, message received, understood, and acknowledged. This we meet with in Nehemiah 10:1.

Now one only puts this kind of seal on something they understand, because they are certifying it and agreeing with it. The vision of the 2300 is true. To seal it, it must be witnessed true by the sealers. So this prophecy must be certified within the seventy sevens, as in sealing a deed of sale by the seller and the buyer. This means nothing less than that the 2300 prophecy must be finally fulfilled within the Seventy Sevens. Because only then can it be certified as fulfilled.

So has it happened yet? Examining all possibilities of a ceasing of the daily offering for 2300 offerings comes up with no fufillment yet. Since there are two offerings per day, this amounts to 1150 days from the desolation to the restoration. Since the prophecy is fulfilled in the later end (phase) of the four horns by the little horn, it cannot be fufilled before the breakup of Alexanders Empire. The time during Antiochus IV was too short. So the prophecy was not certified then. One can speculate about it happening at other times, but a speculated event cannot be sealed (certified) unless one is witness to it and records it. No one ever certified the 2300 happening by recording it after witnessing it. So the answer is "no," "to seal up the vision" has yet to occur. Jerusalem and Israel must do the sealing.

There is one more side point, I'd like to make here. Reformed Churches and Judaism takes a preterist view of Daniel 9, that is, they believe it to be fulfilled already. They then should be able to produce the attestation (sealing) of the vision in Daniel 8. But they do so before the time they end the Seventy Sevens. If the 2300 be extended beyond the end of the Seventy Sevens, then the vision is not certified according to the time limits of Daniel 9:24.

Sixth, "And to set seal to....the Prophet." The Prophet here is Messiah himself, because he is the prophet like Moses. A period of sealing remains until the end of the Seventy Sevens. This is the period of grace given for Israel, the season of repentance. John explains this, "He who has received his witness has sealed that the Almighty is true, whom indeed the Almighty has sent" (John 3:33). The people must say, "This is of a truth the Prophet, the coming one, into the world" (John 6:14), and on him "even the Almighty has set his seal" (John 6:27). Therefore, since wickedness has not yet been cut off from Israel and Jerusalem, so all Israel has not yet sealed the Anointed one. And so this part of the Prophecy has not yet been finished. And so the answer to this question is also, No. It is not done yet.

Seventh, finally "to anoint the holy of holies." One can assume that the second Temple was anointed, but one would be incorrect to assume this. According to Rashi's commentary on Exodus 30:31, the Jewish tradition was, "From here our Rabbis derived that it (the oil of anointment) was miraculously preserved in its entirety for the time to come (for the Messianic days) (Horayot 11b)." "And that oil remains in existence for the future, as it is stated: “This [zeh] shall be a sacred anointing oil unto Me throughout your generations” (Exodus 30:31). Horayot 11b. According to Horayot 12a, when the Ark was Hidden during the time of Josiah, the anointing oil was hidden with it.

So the Third Temple cannot be anointed without the ark in the holy of holies, and by this we must conclude that the Seventy Sevens have not come to an end yet. When does the ark reappear? John writes, "Measure the Temple of the Almighty" and "Then the Temple of the Almighty, who is in heaven, was opened. Then the ark of his covenant was seen in his temple, and there were flashes of lightnings and voices and thunders and an earthquake and great hail" (Rev. 11:1, 19).