Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Shoshanna,

> Gabriel is breaking down the 70 septets (490 years).
>  


HH: And the 70 sevens go until the end of the age: making an end of sin, 
bringing in of everlasting righteousness and completing vision and prophecy:

Dan. 9:24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy 
city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to 
make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting 
righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the 
most Holy.


> Rashi explains verse 24 as follows:  70 years of exile that have 
> passed from the Destruction of the first Temple until this vision, 
> plus the entire 420 year period of the second Temple:
>  



HH: The whole prophecy looks forward, not backward. It starts at the 
going forth of the word to return and rebuild Jerusalem. Thus it starts 
at the end of the captivity, not the beginning.


> re your question, note it does not say "from the time that Cyrus said 
> to return and rebuild Jerusalem".



HH: No, it does not mention Cyrus, but it is obviously talking about the 
return of the Israelites to their native land and the rebuilding of 
Jerusalem.


>  And it doesn't say Dibbur - word. 
> It says Davar - thing.



HH: "Davar" also means "word" or "decree."



>   G-d can be the one who has decreed the 
> thing, from the moment that the first Temple was destroyed, that 
> Cyrus would become king 53 years later, and rebuild the Temple.
>  



HH: The timing goes forward from an identifiable decree that Israelites 
can isolate. Otherwise they could not count forward. There has to be a 
clear, well-known starting point. The text tells us what it is, and it 
is not the destruction of Jerusalem but a decree concerning the 
rebuilding of Jerusalem.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard