After Sixty-Two Weeks

The final “week” culminates in the desecration of the Temple and the cessation of the daily burnt offerings. In Daniel, the focus is on the sanctuary and its ritual pollution. The described events occurred in Jerusalem, most pivotally, the “abomination that desolates.” The latter was installed by the figure who “corrupts” many of the “people.”

Whatever the “abomination” is, it desecrates the sanctuary and does not destroy it or the city. Implicit is the predetermined endpoint of the “desecration,” the restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple. When and how that is achieved is not stated in the passage.

• (Daniel 9:26) - “And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one will be cut off and have nothing, and the leader will corrupt the city and the sanctuary, and so will his end come with an overwhelming flood, howbeit, up to the full end of the war are decreed astounding things.”

THE SEVENTIETH WEEK

The Hebrew preposition rendered “after” locates this next set of events in the seventieth “week,” presumably, another period of seven years. At that time, an “anointed one” is cut off - “After the sixty-two weeks.”

The final “week” is the third and last subdivision of the “seventy weeks,” and that means the “anointed” figure that appears is not identical to the “anointed leader” that followed the first “seven weeks” or forty-nine years. The two figures are separated by centuries.

The chronological reference does not include the initial “seven weeks” of the prophecy. It states only that the “anointed one” is “cut off” after the second subdivision or the “sixty-two weeks.”

Why the angel does not combine the first “seven weeks” with the second “sixty-two weeks” for a total of “sixty-nine weeks” is not clear. Possibly, the first “seven weeks” run concurrently with the “sixty-two weeks”; that is, both subdivisions commence with the “word to return and build Jerusalem.” If so, then the “anointed one” is “cut off” after 434 rather than 483 years.

And this “anointed one will be cut off, and the leader will corrupt the city.” The first “anointed one” who appeared at the end of the first "seven weeks" was called a “leader, a nagid. But he is distinct from the “anointed one” in verse 26 who is “cut off” during the final “week.” This “anointed one” is not identified as a “leader” or nagid. In verse 26, the “leader” is a separate figure who corrupts the city. In other words, the “anointed one” and the “leader” in verse 26 are not identical.

ANOINTED ONE CUT OFF

The term rendered “cut off” may refer to death but not necessarily so. The Hebrew verb means “cut.” Elsewhere, it is used for the “cutting” of a covenant, and it can signify “cutting” something into pieces. But it is applied often to someone who is “cut” or separated from the covenant of Yahweh. For example, the book of Leviticus warns repeatedly that the man who violates ritual regulations will be “cut off” from the covenant - (Genesis 15:18, 17:14, Leviticus 7:20-27).

And he will “have nothing.” The Hebrew text more accurately reads, “an anointed one is cut off, not the city and the sanctuary.” No verb is supplied with the second clause. The sense is that the “anointed one” is “cut off” from the city and Temple, and so he “has nothing.” This man loses his place or function in the city and the sanctuary.

The “sanctuary” or qôdesh refers to the sanctuary proper, not to the entire Temple complex. It includes the altar for the daily burnt offerings that were offered before the “Holy of Holies.” Its desecration was predicted in the vision of the Ram and the Goat - (Daniel 8:13-14).

“The coming leader was corrupting the people.” The Hebrew term for “corrupt” does not mean “destruction” but “corruption.” The idea of the “destruction” of the sanctuary makes no sense since the “leader” also installs the “abomination that desolates” in it. The verb means “decay, spoil, ruin, corrupt, pervert.”

The same verb was applied earlier to the malevolent king who “CORRUPTED mighty ones and the people of holy ones.” The point is the “corruption” of the people and the city - (Daniel 8:24-25).

In the Hebrew clause, “leader” is modified by the participle rendered “coming,” which also has the definite article or “the.” He is “the leader, the coming one.” Based on the verbal links, he is identical to the figure represented by the “little horn” and the “king of fierce countenance” in the preceding visions - (Daniel 7:7-8, 8:8-14).

THE INDIGNATION’S END

And “his end will come with an overwhelming flood.”  This is the only mention of any “flood” in Daniel. Most likely, it is used metaphorically to mean “overwhelming” and provides a verbal link to the last vision of the book:

• (Daniel 11:21-22) – “And in his place shall stand up a contemptible person, to whom they had not given the honor of the kingdom: but he shall come in time of security and shall obtain the kingdom by flatteries. And the overwhelming forces shall be overwhelmed from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the leader of the covenant.”

The term rendered “his end” provides another link to the interpretation of the vision of the Goat – the “end” of the appointed “indignation” or “desolation” - (Daniel 8:18-19).

The term rendered “desolations” or shamem (Strong’s - #H8074) is the same word applied four times in Daniel to the “abomination that desolates.” The Hebrew word does not mean “destroy” but “desolate,” that is, the abandonment of something, leaving it desolate or deserted - (Daniel 8:13, 11:31, 12:11).

In chapter 8, the “little horn” removed the daily sacrifices and defiled the sanctuary, the “transgression that desolates.” Likewise, in chapter 11, the malevolent king “polluted the sanctuary, took away the daily sacrifices, and placed the abomination that desolates,” not to destroy the Temple, but to desecrate it, causing the presence of Yahweh to depart.

The Hebrew word rendered “decreed” or “determined” (harats) means “to sharpen, decide, determine, decree” (Strong’s - #H2782). It occurs with the “abomination that desolates” in one other passage in the book:

• (Daniel 11:31-36) - “And forces shall stand on his part, and they shall profane the sanctuary, even the fortress, and shall take away the continual burnt-offering, and they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate… And the king will do according to his own pleasure, and will exalt himself, and magnify himself against every GOD, yea, against the GOD of GODS will he speak wonderful things, and will succeed until exhausted is the indignation, for what is DECREED must be done.”

Thus, the focus of the passage is on the “leader” who “corrupts” the people and sanctuary. The “cutting off” of the “anointed one” at the start of the passage is a chronological marker for the start of the final “week.”

The “abomination of desolation” will bring great “indignation” to the city of Jerusalem; however, that dark period will not last forever, but only until the time allotted by God reaches its predetermined end.

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