Dan 9 Why were the Israelites held in captivity for 70 years? (Lev. 25:3-5).

This is one of the most astounding chapters of Scripture. The theme here is prayer and prophecy. The first 21 verses of this chapter pertain to the prayer of Daniel, and the last six verses give us the very important prophecy of the Seventy Weeks.Show more

Dan 9:24
"Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for
iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place.

"Seventy weeks" does not necessarily mean 490 days. The Hebrew word for weeks is "shabua" which means "a unit of measure of seven". This word is similar to our word dozen. A dozen can stand for twelve of anything. Gabriel is saying here that seventy "sevens" are determined for the people of Daniel. It could be seventy sevens of days, weeks, months, or years. In the context of this verse, it is plain that Daniel was reading in Jeremiah about 70 years. It would appears that what is being referred to is years. That is mostly correct, but not entirely. Why were the Israelites held in captivity for 70 years? Because they were disobedient to the Sabbath years of the land for 490 years (Lev. 25:3-5).

Lev 25:3-5
‘Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop, 4but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. 5‘Your harvest’s aftergrowth you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year.

Israel had violated the law of the sabbath pertaining to their land for 490 years. They did not let their land rest on the seventh year as Elohim had commanded. Elohim let them know He meant what He said. He let them be held captive to make up for the 70 Sabbath years they had missed.

2 Chron 36:20-21
And those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, 21to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete.

The 70 weeks spoken of here is broken up into three segments: 7 weeks, 62 weeks, and 1 week. Daniel must be puzzled here as to how the end of the 70 years of captivity would fit into the long period of Gentile domination over Israel shown in the previous visions in chapters 2, 7, & 8. Daniel had to think that at the end of the 70 years of Israel captivity his people would return to the land, the promised Messiah would come, and the kingdom which had been promised to David would be established. But what about these Gentile empires in Nebuchadnezzar's dream and the beasts that he had dreamt of in chapter 7? These had to be seemingly irreconcilable contradictions to Daniel. It says "Seventy weeks are determined for your people,..." The Hebrew word for "determined" here literally means "cutting off". The seventy sevens are to be cut off, or cut out, for Israel, as the following verses will indicate. The seventy sevens for Israel and the Time of the Gentiles will come to a close at the same time, which is at the return of Messiah. The seventy weeks concern "your people". It concerns Israel. They also concern "your holy city", which is Jerusalem. This verse is a summary of the prophecy of the seventy weeks.

Beit Yeshua Torah Assembly
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