Daniel 9:
1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans—2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
Daniel knew that after seventy years of captivity, as foretold by Jeremiah— the prophet— they would go home. In the first year of the Medes, he ”saw a part of Jeremiah's prediction fulfilled, by the vengeance which the Lord had taken upon the house of Nebuchadnezzar; but he saw no appearance of that deliverance of the people of Israel which the prophet foretold.” (Thomas Coke)
3 Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
Daniel “looked up unto the hills from whence I looked for help…”(John Trapp) According to the Word of God in “Jeremiah 29:10-14, where God says, ‘Ye shall call upon me, and I will hearken unto you… and will turn away your captivity…’ here we see Daniel complied with the condition; he sought unto the Lord with all his heart, (and undoubtedly excited others to do the same,) and the Lord was found of him. With fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes — In token of humiliation, sorrow for their sins, and grief for the duration of their captivity.” (Joseph Benson)
4 And I prayed to YHWH my God, and made confession, and said,
“O YHWH, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, 5 we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. 6 Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. 7 O YHWH, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You. 8 O YHWH, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. 9 To YHWH our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. 10 We have not obeyed the voice of YHWH our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. 11 Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him. 12 And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem. 13 As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before YHWH our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. 14 Therefore YHWH has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for YHWH our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. 15 And now, O YHWH our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly! 16 O YHWH, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. 17 Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for YHWH’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. 18 O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. 19 O YHWH, hear! O YHWH, forgive! O YHWH, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”
In Babylon, God was called “the God of heaven”, but in private prayer He was still "YHWH"- God of Israel. "Outside this chapter all references to the covenant refer to the sacred covenant with YHWH (Daniel 11:22; Daniel 11:28; Daniel 11:30; Daniel 11:32). Note that Daniel, with all his experiences of the divine, does not approach God lightly. Sometimes we fail to recognise the awe and reverence we should have when we approach Him. ‘The great and dreadful God,’ (4a) the powerful and awesome One Who had allowed His city and temple to be destroyed because of men’s sin (see Deuteronomy 7:9; 7:21; 0:17).— ‘Who keeps covenant and mercy with those who love him and keep his commandments.’ (4b)— Cited from Deuteronomy 7:9 (see also Daniel 5:10). Daniel’s hope lay in the fact that God was the covenant God, and would thus respond in mercy towards those who were faithful to His covenant. (9) The word for ‘mercy’ indicates ‘covenant love’. God responds in covenant love towards those who obey the covenant commandments, not because they earn it, but because by it they reveal that they are His. Daniel here identifies himself with his people. Note the multiplying of words to express sinfulness; wandered from the right way, behaved unrighteously, falling short of God’s requirements, doing wickedly by following that which was positively known to be wrong, acting in rebellion against God, and a deliberate turning aside from His Law as revealed in the Scriptures. Yet he no doubt felt its truth about himself deeply. None are more conscious of sin than the truly righteous.” (Peter Pett)
"Daniel was a great student in the Scriptures, and well knew that “God had indeed promised Israel to restore them to Palestine after the ‘seventy years’ were ended; nevertheless, Daniel considered it most important to offer this impassioned prayer to God with the most earnest supplications and petitions that God would indeed fulfil His glorious promises to the people. The prayers of God's people are a constant necessity for the reception of those great blessings which God Himself has already promised.” (Burton Coffman) We must know the Word to pray the promises.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. “There was no readier way to speed in heaven than by putting the promises in suit. The like also was done by Jacob; Genesis 32:9; Genesis 32:12… by Eliah, 1 Kings 18:42-44 and others. If we speak in our prayers no otherwise than the Lord doth in his promises, there shall be a sweet concert of voice, begun by the Spirit in the promises, seconded in the spirit of faith by the saints’ prayers, and answered by God in his gracious providences. Daniel here took this course; and had not only what he begged, but a revelation concerning the Lord Christ beyond expectation…” (John Trapp)
Daniel 9: The Seventy-Weeks Prophecy
20 Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God, 21 yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering. 22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand. 23 At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter;
"Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel," (20a) "Daniel, though so holy and good a man, was not without sin, and thought it his duty to confess it before the Lord; and which he did in the first place, and then the sin of his people; which is the way to succeed with the Lord for the application of pardoning grace, and the enjoyment of other mercies and blessings: and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; for the temple, and the service of God in it; which was the first and principal thing that lay upon the heart of the prophet, and he was most importunate and solicitous for.” (John Gill)
“Daniel mentioned the precise hour of Gabriel's touching him, ‘about the time of the evening oblation.’ (21b) That means about the time of the evening sacrifices; but of course, there were no ‘evening sacrifices’ by God's people while they were captives in Babylon. Nevertheless, Daniel had observed the times of the prescribed sacrifices by engaging in prayer as seen here. Furthermore, we may in all likelihood suppose that this was a regular habit, marking Daniel's well-disciplined, godly life.” (Burton Coffman)
“Notice Gabriel’s greeting to Daniel. It is incredible that such a powerful archangel could speak so highly of a human being. This gives us some insight into how God views those who humble themselves before Him in sincere fasting and supplication: ‘At the beginning of your supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show you; for you are greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision’ (vs. 23).” [The Restored Church of God http://rcg.org/articles/witswp.html] Gabriel now reveals the timing of Jesus' First Coming, as well as His death and the destruction of Jerusalem with its temple.... and earthly temple service.
In 4004 BC, the Lord Jesus "created all of these things in six literal, 24-hour days. Yet as the earth’s Maker surveyed the landscape of His superb new world, He realized that one more thing remained to be done… ‘And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made (Genesis 2: 2, 3).’” (Steve Wohlberg) And He has invited mankind to observe a special rest every seventh day since. “Martin Luther wrote: ‘ADAM . . . held the 'seventh day' sacred; that is, he taught on that day his own family.’ Luther is right. Having been told by God that the Sabbath was [sanctified by the LORD and] to be observed, he not only did so himself, but he certainly would have taught his family by precept and example to do the same. This is proven in Genesis 4:3-4: ‘And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD, and Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof.’ The words ‘in process of time’ are translated from the Hebrew mikkets yamim, meaning ‘at the end of the days.’ This can only be telling us that on the Sabbath, Cain and Abel, with the rest of Adam's family, gathered to worship God. Adam Clarke says, ‘it is more probable that it means the Sabbath, on which Adam and his family undoubtedly offered oblations to God, as the divine worship was certainly instituted, and no doubt the Sabbath properly observed in that family.’ Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown say it was ‘probably on the Sabbath.’ Another commentary has this to say: ‘More likely this phrase denotes the Sabbath . . . the end of the weekdays…" (Jacobus’ Notes) it is a test of faithfulness.
For the nation of Israel, God gave a similar test.
Upon entry into the earthly land of Canaan. Yahweh God required a Sabbath year’s rest for the ‘promised’ land every seventh year. “Here is the text: ‘[Moses,] Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath to the LORD. For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a Sabbath of rest, a Sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest….’ (Lev 25:2-7)... the Sabbath rest had nothing to do with agricultural improvement since the largest harvest was during the sixth year, at the end of the growing cycle. (Leviticus 25:20-22) God did not establish a Sabbath rest for the land for the sake of the land. No, God designed a Sabbath rest for the land to test the faith of an agricultural nation every seven years. Would they obey Him or not?" (Larry W. Wilson)
"God warned Israel that if they failed to give the land its Sabbath rest, He would remove them from the land so that it might get the Sabbath rest it missed. Here is the text: ‘And if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant... I will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled. I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins. Then the land will enjoy its Sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the Sabbaths you lived in it.’ (Lev 26:14;32-35) ...
Because Israel had violated Sabbath years… ‘Nebuchadnezzar … carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power. The land enjoyed its Sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah.’ (2 Chron 36:17-21) Do you see the fulfillment of God’s promise for the land? The land enjoyed its Sabbath rests! Now, this text does not prove that Israel violated 70 Sabbath years, but it does give a hint.” (Larry W. Wilson)
But there is indeed proof that the issue at hand was that Israel as a whole violated 70 Sabbath years. “Notice the following text. (Keep in mind that the following conversation took place between the Lord and Ezekiel after Ezekiel had been a captive in Babylon for several years.) This will be a sign to the house of Israel. Then lie on your left side and put the sin of the house of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their sin for the number of days you lie on your side. I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin. So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the house of Israel. After you have finished this, lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the sin of the house of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year.” (Ezekiel 4:3-6)… So, God told Ezekiel to demonstrate His displeasure with both parts of the nation by lying down for a total of 430 days. (Lying down reflects a position of sickness, death or vulnerability — the condition of Israel at the time.) Now, this is the point: In 430 years, there are exactly 70 Sabbath years!” (Larry W. Wilson)
Finally: Yahweh had given the faithful remanent of each generation a third measure of time. In it is a picture of the consummation. When Israel entered the land that had been ‘promised’ to Abraham (Genesis 15:18), it was divided among the tribes. "Large tribes received much land, smaller tribes received smaller sections of land. The land was considered an asset and a family could ‘sell’ their inheritance (the land) to other Israelites during a 49 year Jubilee cycle. (Leviticus 25:14,15) However, when the seventh Sabbath year ended, during the first seven months of the first year of the next cycle (the Jubilee year), God required that the land be given back to the original family/owner without charge. The transaction of giving the land back to its original owner had to be completed before the 10th day of the 7th month (Day of Atonement) or God’s displeasure would rest upon the nation… The basic concept for the Jubilee Calendar is elegant: God wanted each generation to experience the joy of receiving the land (the inheritance promised to Abraham) for free.” (Larry W. Wilson )
23b And understand the vision 24 “Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.
“Seventy weeks are determined - The Jews had Sabbatic years, Leviticus 25:8, by which their years were divided into weeks of years, as in this important prophecy, each week containing seven years. The seventy weeks therefore here spoken of [in this prophecy] amount to four hundred and ninety years.” (Adam Clarke)
“In Daniel 9:24; there are six events mentioned which should be the consequences of the incarnation of our Lord: -
I. To finish (לכלא lechalle, to restrain), the transgression which was effected by the preaching of the Gospel, and pouring out of the Holy Ghost among men.
II. To make an end of sins; rather חטאות ולהתם ulehathem chataoth, ‘to make an end of sin-offerings,’ which our Lord did when he offered his spotless soul and body on the cross once for all.
III. To make reconciliation (ולכפר ulechapper, ‘to make atonement or expiation’) for iniquity; which he did by the once offering up of himself.
IV. To bring in everlasting righteousness, עלמים צדק tsedek olamim, that is, ‘the righteousness, or righteous One, of ages;’ that person who had been the object of the faith of mankind, and the subject of the predictions of the prophets through all the ages of the world.
V. To seal up (ולחתם velachtom, ‘to finish or complete’) the vision and prophecy; that is, to put an end to the necessity of any farther revelations, by completing the canon of Scripture, and fulfilling the prophecies which related to his person, sacrifice, and the glory that should follow.
VI. And to anoint the Most Holy, קדשים קדש kodesh kodashim, ‘the Holy of holies.’ משיח mashach, to anoint, (from which comes משיח mashiach, the Messiah, the anointed one), signifies in general, to consecrate or appoint to some special office. Here it means the consecration or appointment of our blessed Lord, the Holy One of Israel, to be the Prophet, Priest, and King of mankind.” (Adam Clarke)
The Jews were thereafter subject to foreign powers as the Book of Daniel has abundantly testified; yet "after their seventy years’ captivity, have seven seventies of years (490 years) granted for the enjoying of their own country..., besides the mercy of mercies, the grace of the Messiah." (Trapp) But Israel as a nation of priests “never recovered its full freedom down to its entire suspension by Rome…” (Jamieson-Faucet-Brown)
God’s revelation to Daniel uses the jubilee cycle, but there is much controversy calculating them. A good estimation of the year of the crossing of the Jordan is 1406 BC, based on 1 Kings 6:1— ”And it came to pass in the 480th year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.” One study concludes that “the date of the Exodus must be 480 years prior to 966 BCE, or 1446 BCE. Since the Crossing of the Jordan took place 40 years later, that dates it to 1406 BCE.” “However,” Dr. Nolan Floyd points out, “the year of Jubilee did not have to do with merely being in the land but with its actual possession and cultivation (Lev. 25)…. From the base camp at Gilgal, Joshua then gave the tribes of Judah and Joseph their portions… the tabernacle was moved to Shiloh. The rest of the land west of the Jordan was then divided among the remaining seven tribes, and the men from the two-and-a-half tribes east of the Jordan returned home. Until this, Israel had lived off of the crops of the Canaanites, volunteer crops and supplies from the eastern two-and-a-half tribes (Josh. 24:13).” Thus, according to this date, after seven years of conflict with the Canaanites, the wars ended in 1399. Hence, from this year are reckoned the Sabbatic and Jubilee years.
“By divine decree, God forced Israel to abandon their use of the Egyptian calendar (a summer-to-summer calendar) when He imposed His spring-to-spring Jubilee Calendar (Exodus 12;1-2)…. If one Jubilee year is known, then Jubilee cycles can be calculated forward and backward like days of the week. Fortunately, there is one Jubilee year that is easily identified. It occurred during the fifteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign. [Isaiah 37:30] Since Jubilee years always fell on Sunday years, this forces Hezekiah’s Jubilee year to be 702 B.C. All other dates have to be eliminated…” (Larry W. Wilson)
We can extrapolate forwards and backwards from this date of 702 BC. Thus calculated, here are beginning dates for jubilee cycles up from the first until the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem: 1388; 1339; 1290; 1241;1192;1143; 1094; 1045; 996; 947; 898; 849; 800; 751; 702; 653; 604; 555; 506; 457.
25a Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times.
The command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem— “There are four decrees concerning the rebuilding of Jerusalem that Scripture records. The first was Cyrus' decree to rebuild the temple in 538 B.C. (2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-4; Ezra 6:2-5). The second was Darius I's decree in 512 B.C. confirming Cyrus' earlier one (Ezra 6:1; Ezra 6:6-12). The third was Artaxerxes' decree in 457 B.C. (Ezra 7:11-26).” (Dr Thomas B. Constable ) “This decree fits the prophetic specifications better than did the previous ones because it commissioned Ezra to appoint magistrates and judges.” (Ranko Stefanovic) Just as the church is not a building, the rebuilding of the walls is spiritual. The judges and magistrates were in place and therefore it was sure and established.
“Note that 457 B.C. is both a Sunday year and a Year of Jubilee. (Remember, the Year of Jubilee is the fiftieth year of the old Jubilee cycle, and it is also the first year of the new Jubilee cycle.) None of the other decrees to restore and rebuild Jerusalem can satisfy the synchrony that God indicates in Daniel 9. Therefore, none of the other decrees can meet the ‘seven weeks and sixty-two weeks’ requirement that Gabriel specified.” (Larry W. Wilson)
From then “until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times.
"There shall be seven weeks [of years]“- 49 years - 405 BC ”To this work of restoration seven weeks are allotted. As we reach the end of this first division, seven weeks from the beginning, we are to find Jerusalem restored in its material aspect, the work of building the street and the wall fully accomplished." (Uriah Smith)
And sixty two [more] weeks [of years]— If 457 B.C. is the correct decree…, then we should expect the appearing of Messiah ‘seven and sixty-two weeks later’ (the first 7+ another 62 = 69 x 7 = 483 years), in the Sunday year of A.D. 27. History precisely confirms this to be the case! Jesus waited until His thirtieth birthday, which occurred in the Fall of A.D. 27., to begin His ministry. Notice how Luke documents the year of Jesus’ baptism: ‘In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene… The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ.’ (Luke 3:1,15) Have you wondered why people thought John the Baptist might be the Christ? I believe some people were expecting Christ because they knew that 483 years had lapsed since the decree of Artaxerxes. The year had come for the Messiah to appear and John the Baptist, a forerunner of Messiah, was attracting a lot of attention because the power of the Holy Spirit rested on him. (Luke 1:17) Within this context Luke wrote, ‘When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’ Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry.’ (Luke 3:21-23)” (Larry W. Wilson)
26a "And after the sixty-two weeks [a total of 69 weeks] Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;
“… Jesus fulfilled Daniel’s prophecy when he died in the middle of the seventieth week!!… (26a) Counting from the decree of Artaxerxes, notice that A.D. 30 is in the middle of the seventieth week. Notice also that A.D. 30 occurs in the middle of the 210th week counting from the Exodus in 1437 B.C. Notice that the seventy weeks of Daniel 9 began at the beginning of the 141st week (or 987 years) since the Exodus, and also notice that the seventieth week terminates 210 weeks of years, which is exactly thirty Jubilee cycles since the Exodus.” (God’s Perfect Timing - Larry W. Wilson)
26b “And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, and till the end of the war desolations are determined. 27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.”
Some say the there is a GAP in the 70 week of years prophecy and the words here are attributed to antichrist- the prince to come – and his work, but I think the focus here rightly remains on First Coming.
"and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, and till the end of the war desolations are determined." (26b) Jesus Himself predicted the second temple would be destroyed when He said to His disciples, “Do you see all these things [pointing toward Jerusalem and the temple]?’ he asked. ‘I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.’ (Matthew 24:2)
"As Keil said, ‘Most of the church fathers and the older orthodox interpreters find prophesied here the appearance of Christ in the flesh, His Death, and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70.’ That this is indeed the true interpretation is plainly indicated by the words of Jesus Christ who definitely applied ‘the abomination’ spoken of by Daniel as an event that would occur in the siege of Jerusalem, as prophesied by Christ repeatedly in Matthew 24; Mark 13; and Luke 21. Furthermore, Christ warned the Christians that, ‘When therefore ye see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, then let them that are in Judea flee unto the mountains’ (Matthew 24:15,16). Many Christian commentators have pointed out that the Christians indeed heeded that warning. Eusebius tells how the Christians fled from Jerusalem when the Romans most unpredictably lifted their siege, a fact that even Josephus noted. [The Life and Works of Josephus Flavius] No Christian is said to have lost his life in the final destruction of Jerusalem. Now, for the believer in Christ, one such indication from our Lord and Redeemer is worth more than thousands of human opinions. Since, therefore, Jesus Christ himself related this vision to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, that settles it; and we may therefore reckon the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D. as an event that was indeed accomplished within the prescribed ‘seventy weeks’ of this vision. That is what these verses actually say.” (Burton Coffman)
The end of it shall be with a flood— "namely, of war (Psalms 90:5, 'Thou carriest them away as with a flood;' Isaiah 8:7-8, 'Behold the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria;' Isaiah 28:18). Implying the completeness of, the catastrophe, 'not one stone left on another' (Luke 19:44)… ["and till the end of the war desolations'- against the once holy people of God and once holy place — 'are determined.'] "by God's decree (Isaiah 10:23; Isaiah 28:22)." (Jamieson, Faucett, Brown)
"Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week…" (27a) "The true fulfillment, it seems to me, is to be found in the bearing of the work of the Saviour on the Hebrew people - the ancient covenant people of God - for about the period of seven years after He entered on His work. Then the particular relation of His work to the Jewish people ceased...They are such as these:
(1) The ministry of the Saviour himself was wholly among the Jews, and His work was what would, in their common language, be spoken of as ‘confirming the covenant’ that is, it would be strengthening the principles of religion, bringing the Divine promises to bear on the mind, and leading men to God, etc.
(2) This same work was continued by the apostles as they labored among the Jews. They endeavored to do the same thing that their Lord and Master had done, with all the additional sanctions, now derived from his life and death. The whole tendency of their ministry would have been properly expressed in this language: that they endeavored to ‘confirm the covenant’ with the Hebrew people; that is, to bring them to just views of the character of their natural covenant with God; to show them how it was confirmed in the Messiah; to establish the ancient promises; and to bring to bear upon them the sanctions of their law as it was now fulfilled, and ratified, and enlarged through the Messiah. Had the Saviour himself succeeded in this, or had his apostles, it would have been, in fact, only ‘confirming the ancient covenant’ - the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the covenant established under Moses, and ratified by so many laws and customs among the people. The whole bearing of the Saviour‘s instructions, and of his followers, was to carry out and fulfill the real design of that ancient institution - to show its true nature and meaning, and to impress it on the hearts of men.
(3) This was continued for about the period here referred to; at least for a period so long that it could properly be represented in round numbers as 'one week,' or seven years. The Saviour‘s own ministry continued about half that time; and then the apostles prosecuted the same work, laboring with the Jews for about the other portion, before they turned their attention to the Gentiles, and before the purpose to endearour to bring in the Jewish people was abandoned. They remained in Jerusalem; they preached in the synagogues; they observed the rites of the temple service; they directed their first attention everywhere to the Hebrew people; they had not yet learned that they were to turn away from the ‘covenant people,’ and to go to the Gentiles...
(4) When this occurred; when the apostles turned away from the Hebrew people, and gave themselves to their labors among the Gentiles, the work of ‘confirming the covenant’ with those to whom the promises had been made, and to whom the law was given, ceased. They were regarded as ‘broken off’ and left, and the hope of success was in the Gentile world.” (Albert Barnes)
"but in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering." (27b) "The meaning of the passage is fully met by the supposition that it refers to the Lord Jesus and His work, and that the exact thing that was intended by the prophecy was His death, or his being 'cut off,' and thus causing the sacrifice and oblation to cease." (Albert Barnes) In fact, no temple has been rebuilt.
“And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.” (27c) On account of the abominations committed in Jerusalem by the Jews against the Holy One, "He shall not only destroy the city and sanctuary (Daniel 9:25), but shall continue its desolation until the time of the consummation ‘determined’ by God (the phrase is quoted from Isaiah 10:22-23), when at last the world power shall be judged and dominion be given to the saints of the Most High (Daniel 7:26-27).”
(Jamieson-Faucet-Brown) Then there will be the New Jerusalem with no temple- Revelation 21.