attempts at forecasting prophetic dates. The interested reader will find a helpful summary

on the subject in The Companion Bible, Appendix 57. When we are dealing with the

statements of Scripture, however, we are on solid ground. The Lord rode into Jerusalem,

and was acclaimed by the people as the Son of David, when it was near to Passover, and

therefore in the month Nisan (Matt. 21: 1-16), which is the same month in which the

decree was issued by Artaxerxes (Neh. 2: 1). "After" this Messiah was to be cut off. "To

be cut off" implies death by violence, e.g., "Neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by

the waters of a flood" (Gen. 9: 11). The expression is, moreover, in constant use in the

law where it is used as of the cutting off of an offender from all covenant relations, and of

the consequent bearing of his own iniquity: "That soul shall be utterly cut off, his

iniquity shall be upon him" (Num. 15: 31). It is most blessedly true that when the

Messiah was cut off it was, as the A.V. renders it, "not for Himself", but the original of

Dan. 9: 26 does not justify that translation, for it says, "and have nothing". Instead of a

throne, He had a cross. Instead of many diadems, He wore a crown of thorns. Instead of

a kingdom, He had a tomb. Of all the glories spoken of by the prophets, "He had

nothing"! We are thankful for the earlier vision of Dan. 7:, which reveals that in God's

own time He should be invested with sovereignty, but that meanwhile iniquity was to rear

its head and make its final grasp at world-wide dominion before the end came.

This is the revelation of the final week of Daniel. The people of a prince that shall

come destroy the city of Jerusalem. Is this limited to the destruction under Titus in

A.D.69?  Jerusalem was again destroyed by the Romans in  A.D.135.

Again in

A.D.559, in 636, in 1098, 1099, 1187 and 1244 was this city besieged, plundered

and destroyed, by Persian, Saracen, Crusader and Turk--all people of the coming

Gentile prince who shall be the incarnation of anti-Semitic cruelty. The focal point of

Dan. 9: 27 is the confirmation, by this mighty prince, of a league. While the word

berith usually refers to the covenants of God, it is used in a lower sense. The word is

used when the "league" between king Asa and Ben-hadad, and the breaking of a "league"

between Ben-hadad and Baasha are spoken of. In Isa. 28: 15 it is called a "covenant

with death and sheol", and inasmuch as this awful covenant was made as a refuge from a

threatened overflowing scourge, we can see that it speaks of the same prophetic period as

does Dan. 9: 27.  As the apostle Paul has declared, covenant breaking belongs to the

time of the end (Rom. 1: 31; II Tim. 3: 3). Apostates shall forsake the holy covenant,

and do wickedly against it (Dan. 11: 30-32), and deceitful dealings, even after a league

has been made, are spoken of in Dan. 11: 23.

Apparently, the little horn, the final Satanic king, will enter into an agreement with

Israel at the opening of Daniel's last week. At the expiry of 3½ years he breaks his word,

turns round upon this people and their worship, and attempts to blot out all sign and

evidence of Israel's God and worship. What has been going on in Russia is a faint

foreshadowing of his policy:--

Al kanaph, "overspreading", means "a wing". Ginsburg, whose authority in matters

of the Hebrew text is beyond our estimation, suggests that the true reading should be