שָׁבֻעִים שִׁבְעִים נֶחְתַּךְ עַל־עַמְּךָ וְעַל־עִיר קָדְשֶׁךָ לְכַלֵּא הַפֶּשַׁע (וּלַחְתֹּם) [וּלְהָתֵם] (חַטָּאֹות)    9:24

 חַטָּאת] וּלְכַפֵּר עָוֹן וּלְהָבִיא צֶדֶק עֹלָמִים וְלַחְתֹּם חָזֹון וְנָבִיא וְלִמְשֹׁחַ קֹדֶשׁ קָדָשִׁים׃

Dani. 9:24   “Seventy seventies have been decreed for your people and for your holy city to finish the transgression and to close off sinning and to atone for iniquity and to bring everlasting righteousness and to seal vision and prophet and to anoint the holy of holies.”

As I translate the two words alleged to be errors, they seem correct, and the “corrections” are not necessary.  Next, the phrase I translate as “seventy seventies” is translated variously as “seven sevens,” “seventy sets of seven,” “seventy weeks” (the most numerous translation), and “seventy sets of seven time periods” in the popular bibles.  No one else translates it as I do, although mine is a valid translation.  In fact, it is supported by vss. 9:25, 26, and (especially) 27.  This mysterious phrase is the source of much discussion and various interpretations.  I dare say, no one knows precisely what the phrase means -- thus the discussions and conjecture.  In fact, some scholars freely admit that no theory has so far achieved any degree of consensus.  Oddly enough, the most frequent translation (seventy weeks), is most likely incorrect.  The reason?  There are numerous phrases in the bible that express precise periods of time without ambiguity.  For one example, see Levi 25:8, which contains the phrase “seven Sabbaths of weeks.”  For a phrase that is properly and precisely translated as “seven weeks,” see Deut. 16:9.  And Gene. 12:4, along with many others, contains the phrase “seventy years.”  But the first two Hebrew words in this verse, which constitute the phrase in question, appear no where else in the bible.  So what could seventy seventies mean?  If you read down further in this chapter, it seems that this prophecy is related to the end time, not in the near future.  So seventy seventies must be a long period, probably at least thousands of years, far more than seventy weeks, which is little more than a year.  However, it could conceivably be seventy periods of seven years, which adds up to 490 years.  That’s the time period between the destruction of the first Temple and the destruction of the second Temple.  This is a tempting possibility, because this period is biblically significant.  The problem is that the prophecy doesn’t fit the history of this period.  As I see it, I suspect the phrase represents 4,900 years, and 62 seventies (see vss. 9:25 and 26) represents 4,340 years. 

                                                                                            [Back]