Daniels seventy weeks is a framework for prophetic end-time events. Like so much of Bible prophecy, the term seventy weeks is in itself symbolic. Seventy weeks doesn’t mean four-hundred-ninety days but rather four-hundred-ninety-years. How do we really know that? In this blog post, we lay out scriptural proof to this end. Rest assured, the Bible speaks for itself. It proves itself out. You don’t need outside sources or a reliance on guesswork or men’s imaginations to grasp the intent of God’s Word.

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Daniel 9:24 (ESV) — 24 “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.

The Decree of Seventy Sevens

• The two words ‘seventy weeks’ in the Hebrew is literally ‘weeks of seventy’.
• These are not literal weeks of days but ‘weeks of years’: seventy weeks of years or 490 years.
• One reason we know that Daniel is prophesying of weeks of years instead of weeks of days is because of what we read in Daniel 10:2.

Daniel 10:2 (KJV) — 2 In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks.

• The Hebrew for ‘weeks’, ‘sabu yom’, in this passage means weeks of days.
• So, the Hebrew word here for ‘weeks’ in Daniel 10:2 is different than the word used for weeks in Daniel 9:24.
• This is not the first time in scripture that ‘weeks’ did not literally mean a seven day period but rather ‘weeks of years.’

The Twelve Spies and the Judgment of Weeks of Years

Numbers 14:34 (KJV) — 34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

• You remember back in Numbers thirteen, Moses sent the spies into the land of Canaan.
• God had given Israel the land by Covenant promise.
• Ten of the spies brought back an evil report of the land.
• It was evil because the report contradicted the one God gave.
• You should always take God’s side, always.
• He is always right and just and true.
• The Lord told Israel to occupy the land he had promised to give them.
• That automatically means that they were able to do it.
• The Lord never asks you to do something that you couldn’t do if you believe and trust Him.
• All things are possible to Him who believes the Word of the Lord.
• Instead of latching on with faith to God’s Word, the spies, excepting Joshua and Caleb, convinced the people that the Lord was wrong and that they were unable to conquer the land because of the giants who lived there.
• Judgment came upon the unbelieving spies as well as the unbelieving people.
• What was the judgment? – forty days.
• But, not forty literal days but one day for a year or forty years.
• This concept of a day for a year is also found in the writings of the prophet Ezekiel.

Ezekiel and the Judgment of Israel

Ezekiel 4:4–6 (ESV) — 4 “Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their punishment. 5 For I assign to you a number of days, 390 days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment. So long shall you bear the punishment of the house of Israel. 6 And when you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah. Forty days I assign you, a day for each year.

• The book of Ezekiel details another period of judgment the Jews experienced because of their unbelief.
• One hundred and fifty years before this time, Israel had gone into captivity at the hands of the Assyrians because of their failure to follow God’s Word.
• Sin will find you out, that’s a Bible fact.
• The splinter kingdom of Judah ignored this lesson from their northern brethren.
• Judah plunging headlong into idolatry and King Zedekiah’s rebellion against the Babylonians form the backdrop of the book of Ezekiel.
• The first 24 chapters detail the Babylonians attacking Jerusalem as a judgment against the nation.
• As part of that, God instructs Ezekiel, His prophet on the scene, to lie on his left side for three-hundred-ninety days and then afterward forty days on his right side as a sign to the children of Israel.
• During this time on his side, the Lord instructed Ezekiel to tie himself with ropes.
• Of course, it’s all symbolic.
• One day on his side was equivalent to one year.
• The first set of three-hundred-ninety days refers to three-hundred-ninety years of Israel’s sin.
• The second set of forty days refers to forty years of Judah’s sin.
• This is the life of a prophet.
• There are many self-appointed prophets who are running around the church world with a title intending to impress people with their supposed deep spirituality who have no clue what the prophet’s office is really about.
• While we are looking at some side points along the way, the main one for today’s blog point is one day is equal to one year in certain Bible passages.

Daniel 9:25–27 (ESV) — 25 Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. 26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. 27 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”

• So using the one day equals one year, we have a total time period of four-hundred-eighty-three years.
• Here’s the prophetic timeline as given to Daniel.
• It consists of one forty-nine year period plus one four-hundred-thirty-four year period.
• That would give us sixty-nine years of weeks.
• But Daniel said, seventy weeks are determined.
• That leaves one week of years or seven years.
• What are all of these time periods and how do they fit into the prophetic timeline?
• We will take a look at that in next week’s blog.

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