From Zechariah 1:12 we have proof that the period of Judah's captivity

was seventy years and we learn from Daniel 9:2 that Daniel discovered, by

reading the prophecy of Jeremiah, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last

seventy years.  One passage which Daniel would have pondered is found in

Jeremiah 29:1 -10:

'After seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and

perform My good word toward you, in causing you to return to this

place' (Jer. 29:10).

Daniel could not but be greatly moved, moreover, to read such a

forecast as that of Jeremiah 27:7:

'And all nations shall serve him (Nebuchadnezzar), and his son, and his

son's son (Belshazzar), until the very time of his land come: and then

many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him'.

Daniel's prayer concerning the restoration of Jerusalem is dated in the

first year of the king under whose edict that restoration was commenced:

'In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the

Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans' (Dan. 9:1).

It would take us too far afield to attempt to prove that 'Darius' of

Daniel 9:1 and 'Cyrus' of Daniel 10:1 are the same person, or that Ahasuerus,

like Pharaoh, is not used exclusively of any one monarch, but is an

appellative, meaning 'venerable king'.  The reader should consult Appendixes

50 and 57 of The Companion Bible for proof of these assertions.

Daniel's prayer acknowledges that the terrible desolations that befell

Jerusalem were the consequence of Israel's rebellion against the Word of God,

sent by Him through His prophets.  The faithfulness of God to the word of His

judgment is made an argument by Daniel, that He will as surely be faithful to

His word of promise.  While Daniel was thus praying, the angel Gabriel came

and revealed to him the great prophetic period of the 'seventy sevens'.  This

prophecy of the seventy weeks is divided into three parts:

The Seventy Sevens.

The Seven Sevens and the Sixty and Two Sevens.

The One Seven and the Midst of the Seven.

A 'week' to the English reader is a period of seven days, and the

Hebrew word so translated is shabua.  Where a week of days is intended, this

word is used as a masculine plural (Exod. 34:22 and nine other passages), but

where it means a period of years it is used in the feminine plural (Dan.

9:24,25,26), except those passages which add the explanatory words 'days'

(see A.V. margin of Dan. 10:2,3).  The 'one seven' of Daniel 9:26,27 is

divided into two parts, and this corresponds with the three years and a half,

the forty and two months, the 1,260 days, the time, times and a half, of the

references to this same prophetic period found in the book of the Revelation.

Daniel had been praying concerning the seventy years.  The angel came

to direct his mind to a further period, that of 70 X 7 years.