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The hand.
Belshazzar's doom.
Darius the Mede.
E
6.
Den of lions. Sealed (chatham).
He Delivereth.
(2)
Prophetic Fulfilment
A
7.
Dream. The Lord's dominion. There was 'given Him'.
B
7,8. Fiery stream. Like the Son of Man.
People, nations, languages.
C
9.
Seventy times seven. Restoration.
D
10 to 11:1. Writing (kethab) explained.
The hand. Belteshazzar's strength.
Darius the Mede.
E
11:2 to 12:13.
Like a den of lions.
Book
sealed (chatham).
His People Delivered.
The two key passages of the book are chapter 2, Nebuchadnezzar's dream,
and chapter 9, the Seventy Weeks.
Nebuchadnezzar, after being raised to such eminence, quite naturally
found his thoughts turning to the future, as Daniel reminded him:
'As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed,
what should come to pass hereafter' (Dan. 2:29).
The God of heaven revealed to Daniel the secret, and through him made
known to Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days (2:28). While the
successive monarchies of Medo -Persia and of Greece were necessarily a part
of the things that should 'come to pass hereafter', Daniel makes it clear
that by this expression he refers principally to the time of the end:
'Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain
without hands, and that it break in pieces the Iron, the Brass, the
Clay, the Silver, and the Gold; the great God hath made known to the
king what shall come to pass hereafter' (Dan. 2:45).
Here the whole image, not its most remote successor nor its last phase,
is seen together, and no interpretation that ignores this Fact is worth the
paper employed in its publication. 'The latter days' and 'hereafter' refer
particularly to 'the days of these kings' (2:44). The same rapid passing
over of intermediate events, and the same concentration of the mind upon the
'end' is indicated in the opening chapter of the second section, chapter 7,
'I would know', said Daniel, 'the truth of the Fourth Beast' (7:19). See
article Beast, p. 75.
We subdivide our examination of Daniel 9 into three sections:
The
prophecy of Jeremiah (1,2).
The
prayer of Daniel (3 -19).
The
principle of computing prophetic times (20 -23) and the prophecy of
the
seventy weeks (24 -27).
The prophecy of Jeremiah (1,2)