Daniel 9.2-Daniel Understood Through the Word of the Lord to the Prophet Jeremiah that the Desolation of Jerusalem Would Be Seventy Years
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday September 18, 2013
Daniel: Daniel 9:2-Daniel Understood Through the Word of the Lord to the Prophet Jeremiah That the Desolation of Jerusalem Would Be Seventy Years
Lesson # 257
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 9:1.
Daniel 9:1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. (NASB95)
“In the first year of his reign” denotes that during the first year of Darius the Mede’s reign as king of Babylon, Daniel understood from the Scriptures according to the word of the Lord communicated through Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
“Observed” is the verb bîn (בִּין) (bene), which means “to understand, to knowledge of a particular subject” and is used with reference to Jeremiah’s prophecy regarding the seventy years in which Jerusalem would lie abandoned and desolate due to God disciplining Israel for not keeping the Sabbath for the land.
“In the books” is composed of the preposition bĕ (בְּ) (beh), “in” and its object is the noun sē∙p̄ěr (סֵפֶר) (say-fer), “the books.”
This noun is an Akkadian loan word which means “scroll, document” or “letter.”
In ancient times, clay tablets, clay cylinders, flat stones, cylindrical stones, papyrus, leather, and vellum were used for books.
Leather or paper scrolls were used to make records.
In Daniel 9:2, the noun sē∙p̄ěr means “scrolls” referring to the scrolls which composed the Old Testament canon in the sixth century B.C. and does not mean “books” since they were not invented until the first century A.D.
The articular construction of the word indicates that these are a particular group of scrolls familiar to Daniel’s Israelite readers.
These scrolls were the Old Testament at that time in the sixth century B.C.
The noun sē∙p̄ěr is the object of the preposition bĕ, which is functioning as a marker of means indicating that Daniel understood “by means of” the scrolls, that Jerusalem would lie desolate and abandoned for seventy years as a result of God disciplining Israel for not keeping the Sabbath for the land.
“The word of the LORD” is composed of the noun dā∙ḇār (דָּבָר) (daw-bawr), “the word of” which is modified by the proper noun yhwh (יהוה) (yeh-ho-vaw´), “the Lord.”
The noun debar means “message” referring to what Yahweh said to the prophet Jeremiah.
The content of this message is recorded in Jeremiah 25:11-12 and 29:10-14.
The exact manner in which Jeremiah received this message is not given by Daniel or Jeremiah.
The proper noun Yahweh, “Lord” is the personal name of God emphasizing that He is the redeemer of mankind and is used in His relationship to His covenants or contracts with men.
It is the covenant-keeping personal name of God used in connection with man’s salvation and emphasizing the personal relationship that Jeremiah, Daniel and the nation of Israel had with the Lord and the revelation that Jeremiah received from God.
This is emphasizing the “immanency” of God meaning that He involves Himself in and concerns Himself with and intervenes in the affairs of men.
Therefore, in Daniel 9:2, we have the term Yahweh, “Lord” employed under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in order to emphasize God’s concern for the nation of Israel and that He intervenes in the affairs of this nation.
The expression “the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet” emphasizes with the reader that Jeremiah received divine authority to proclaim a message to Israel, which Daniel read in a scroll.
“Jeremiah the prophet” refers to the prophet from Anathoth whose ministry is recorded in the book of Jeremiah.
He was the son of Hilkiah according to Jeremiah 1:1 and his prophetic call came in the thirteenth year of King Josiah in 627 B.C.
This suggests that he was born early in Josiah’s reign or even during that of his predecessor Manasseh.
This prophet’s ministry spanned some forty years during the reigns of the final five kings of Judah who were Josiah, Johoahaz, Jehoiachin, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah from 628-585 B.C.
He was permitted by Nebuchadnezzar to remain in Judah with the poor of Israel.
He was forced to flee to Egypt after the assassination of the Babylonian governor Gedaliah.
“For the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years” is a reference to the number of years Jerusalem would lie desolate as a result of God disciplining Israel for not obeying His command to give the land a rest every seven years.
Daniel 9:2 During the first year of his reign, I myself, Daniel understood by means of the scrolls the specific number of years which the word of the Lord communicated to Jeremiah the prophet for completing devastating Jerusalem-seventy years. (My translation)
Daniel informs the reader that during the first year of Darius the Mede’s reign as king over Babylon, he was studying the scrolls which constituted the Old Testament Scriptures in the sixth century B.C.
He was specifically studying prophecies by a contemporary of his, namely the prophet Jeremiah.
The specific prophecy Daniel was studying was that Jerusalem would lie in ruins for seventy years as a result of disobeying the Lord’s command to give the land a Sabbath rest every seven years. This prophecy is recorded in Jeremiah 25:11-12 and 29:10-14.
2 Chronicles 36:21 speaks of Jeremiah’s prophecy concerning the Babylonian exile and it indicates quite clearly that the exile would last 70 years.
The seventy years of captivity were the specific penalty for violating seventy sabbatic years, which would be seventy sevens, a total of seventy years.
Seven days are in one week and every seventh year was a Sabbath rest and seventy sevens brought them to the year of Jubilee which is noted in Leviticus 25:8-12.
The provisions for the land’s Sabbath rest are recorded in detail in Leviticus 25:2-4, 26:32-35, 43 but in those 490 years, Israel had violated exactly seventy sabbatic years so they would go into captivity for seventy years to make amends (cf. Exodus 23:10-13).
One of the reasons why Israel was deported from the land for seventy years was to give the land rest (cf. 2 Chronicles 36:20-21; Deuteronomy 15:1-3).
These seventy years of discipline from God began in 605 B.C. with Nebuchadnezzar’s first of three invasions of Israel and it would end in 535 A.D.
God also disciplined the nation in order to rid her of her idolatry.
So in Daniel 9:2, Daniel tells the reader that he was studying the prophecy of Jeremiah in which the prophet predicts that the Jews would return from Babylon to the land of Israel after seventy years of discipline.
It appears that the Medo-Persian victory over the Babylonian Empire meant the termination of this seventy year exile in Babylon.
Furthermore, Daniel knew that Cyrus had a policy of allowing exiles to return to their homeland.
He knew that in two short years the seventy years would be over and that a remnant would return to the land from Babylon.
Daniel knew first hand the starting time for this prophecy, namely 605 B.C. when Nebuchadnezzar deported him as well as some of the royal family in Israel and some of the nobles.
Therefore, by knowing when the seventy years began and knowing that Jeremiah prophesied of a seventy year exile, Daniel could simply count the years and know the exact year when the Jewish exiles would return to Israel.
When Daniel received this vision, he says it was in the first year of Darius the Mede’s reign over Babylon which would be 538 or 539 B.C.
The seventy years was to be completed by 535 B.C. and thus Daniel knew there were only a few shorts years left of the exile in Babylon.