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Mesopotamia.
8
years
Lo
-ammi
(3:8).
Moab
18
years
Lo
-ammi
(3:14).
Canaan
20
years
Lo
-ammi
(4:3).
Midian
7
years
Lo
-ammi
(6:1).
Philistine
40
years
Lo
-ammi
(13:1).
--
93
years
--
Of course no time can be reckoned 'lo -ammi' that is not concerned with
the whole nation; raids and bondage that affected only some of the tribes are
not included. See article Lo -ammi2.
The first principle, therefore, that we must observe when computing
prophetic periods is that which allows for the non -reckoning of 'lo -ammi'
periods. This applies in both directions; we cannot allow a period of time
to be excluded while Israel is a nation before God, any more than we can
allow a period to be reckoned when Israel is temporarily set aside. This we
shall find compels us to include the Acts of the Apostles in the seventy
weeks, and also compels us to exclude the period when Jerusalem was still
unbuilt in Nehemiah's day.
The Seventy Weeks
'Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city'
(Dan. 9:24).
If we understand the word 'week' to mean seven days, we have a period
of a little more than one year and
four months to consider, and of this a smaller period is occupied in building
and restoring Jerusalem, certainly a short time for such an operation. When,
however, Daniel wishes to make us understand literal weeks, each of seven
days, he adds the word 'days':
'I Daniel was mourning three full weeks' (literally, weeks of days)
(10:2).
'Till three whole weeks were fulfilled' (literally, weeks of days)
(10:3).
To make the matter certain, the angelic visitor declares that on the
first day of Daniel's fasting his words had been heard and the angel sent,
but that for 'one and twenty days' he had been withstood. This carefulness
on Daniel's part is one argument in favour of the view that ordinary weeks of
days are not intended in Daniel 9. A further argument is that Daniel had
been occupied with prophecies that dealt with a period of seventy years, and
the angelic announcement of the seventy weeks seems but an expansion.
Another argument in favour of the years interpretation is provided by
the Scriptural treatment of the last week. It will be observed that this
last of the seventy weeks is divided into two parts:
'He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst
of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease'
(9:27).