The Jesus Institute Forum

Toward a Levitic-Covenantal Apocalyptic – Parts I-III:

Covenant foundations in Daniel, 11Q13, and Hebrews

A suggested Christocentric and exegetical clarification of prophetic interpretation

Lee F. Greer, III
Loma Linda, California
© 2001

(Last updated June 2005)

The materials in this lengthy paper have accumulated over several years, and for better access and clarity are intended for
 eventual reposting / expansion in a series of short papers with more extensive bibliography and references (April 2004).

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Introduction to all three parts of Toward a Levitic-Covenantal Apocalyptic. These three parts were first presented at the 1st Symposium of the Jesus Institute Forum in April of 2001, and again with revisions and updates at the 2nd Symposium of the Jesus Institute Forum in November of 2001. The Revised and Updated versions are linked from the schedules of both symposia (except the order of Parts II and III are inverted in the 2nd Symposium to follow a chronological format).

Toward a Levitic-Covenantal Apocalyptic:


Abstract. Bible prophecy has been for many centuries interpreted by the historicist method especially among Protestants. Of all the methods the historicist school has attempted to be the most consciously faithful to Scripture. (In recent centuries of course the preterist and futurist approaches have been added). However none of these post-Biblical methods have adequately taken into account the explicitly Levitic-Covenantal framework within which the prophets wrote. Hence none of these methods adequately include the Covenant-conditional nature of prophecy (Deut. 28-34, Lev. 25-26, Jer. 18) and none portray the intimate link between eschatology and soteriology – i.e., the centrality and NT eschatological nature of justification by faith. However by restoring the Levitic Covenant-conditional framework of the prophets, the organic relation between eschatology and soteriology, their Gospel root, is discovered, the true conditional nature of prophecy is incorporated, and the best insights of the three schools are honored and preserved (with none of their corresponding negatives)! In three parts, we develop this in outline in Daniel (Part I), Hebrews (Part III), and in the ascension and enthronement of Christ – i.e., the New Testament treatment of this in its 1st century setting as further exemplified in Dead Sea Scroll fragment 11Q13 (Part II). Revelation in its consummative summation of the prophecies of Daniel, Zechariah, Ezekiel, and Jesus' Olivet Discourse (Mark 13 = Matt. 24 = Luke 21) brings us down to the Second Advent and Final Judgment at Millenium's end.

In brief, all the post-biblical methods attempt to use history, speculation, or ideology to exegete prophecy, rather than first exegeting prophecy making use of its Levitic-Covenantal framework, and then allowing prophecy to illuminate history and theology.
 

Overall introduction to Covenant righteousness

What is God’s Covenant? All the covenants of Scripture, from the Edenic covenant, to the covenant with Noah and all living things, the Abrahamic covenant, the covenant with Isaac, the covenant with Israel, the Davidic covenant, and the new covenant or new testament are all based on God’s everlasting Covenant. The everlasting Covenant is God’s eternal unchanging righteousness. There are 45 texts that speak of the Ark of the Covenant or the Ark containing the Covenant. There are 16 texts that reference the Ark of the Testimony. Finally, there is one NT text which speaks of the Ark of His Covenant on the final judgment day of reward and wrath: “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there appeared the Ark of His Covenant, and [there] came lightnings and voices and thunders and an earthquake and a great hail” (Rev. 11:19).

What did the Ark contain? God’s eternal Law. God’s eternal Law of righteousness is the everlasting Covenant. “Clouds and darkness surround Him: Righteousness and judgment [are] the foundation of His throne” (Ps. 97:2). All the individual covenants He makes are based on the everlasting Covenant. The specific promises and conditions of the various covenants may change from time to time, from Semitic nomad to Israelite king, from typical sacrifice to antitypical Sacrifice, but God’s eternal Covenant remains unchanged. And there is one Mediator of the everlasting Covenant, Messiah or Christ.

The key characteristic of the Covenant promises is conditionality. Primary conditions, the divine righteous requirements of the Covenant must be met to their fullest extent, otherwise God’s Covenant capitulates to sin. Secondary conditions, the believing sinner to whom the Covenant promises are made must have faith in their restorative provisions (propitiation and atonement) and so live accordingly. In the first, God’s will is vindicated; in the second the believing sinner is vindicated or justified and free will is restored. So whether the Covenant promise is manifest in type or prophecy, the final fulfillment is certain and inevitable because God meets the primary conditions. The when, where, how, and by whom of the fulfillment depends largely on the secondary conditions being met – the free will acceptance or rejection of the Covenant promises by the professed Covenant people. So the conditionality of promise and prophecy is a fundamental hermeneutic principle (Jer. 18:1-7-10; Jonah 1:2; 3:2, 4-10; 4:2, 11).

The following paradigm of 'promise, fulfillment, and consummation' recurring throughout prophecy in Scripture has become widely known because of George Eldon Ladd. We wish to note that the same pattern recurs with the sacrificial types:

God’s Law-Covenant: Perfect Creation – The Fall into sin (broken Law-Covenant) – God’s Law-Covenant Promise: Perfect Redemption through Propitiation

The Covenant promises of redemption – Founded in righteousness
Messiah’s 1st Advent
Messiah’s 2nd Advent & the Final Judgment following the Millenium of Rev. 20
God’s Law-Covenant promises in Sacrificial-Sanctuary types Fulfillment Consummation
God’s Law-Covenant promises in Prophetic Oracles & Writings Inaugural fulfillment Consummated fulfillment

The Covenant forges the link between eschatology and justification. "The heart of primitive Christian apocalyptic. . . . is the accession to the throne of heaven by God and by His Christ as the eschatological Son of manan event which can be characterized as proof of the righteousness of God. . . . That is why the Pauline doctrine of the righteousness of God and our own justification must be derived from apocalyptic" (Koch, 1972 quoting Ernst Kasemann).

Our desire is to informally suggest a prophetic model of interpretation which we believe is implicit and often explicit in Scripture and which forges an organic link between eschatology and soteriology. It includes the incidental positives but excludes the inherent negatives of the various post-Biblical schools of prophetic interpretation: (a) historicist, (b) preterist, (c) futurist, or (d) idealist.


Toward a Levitic-Covenantal Apocalyptic – Part I:

Covenant foundations: Exegesis
of the vision of Daniel 8:1-14 in outline

Lee F. Greer III
Loma Linda, California

Abstract. By incorporating a Levitic-Covenental approach to the prophecies of Daniel, rather than the post-Biblical preterist, historicist, or futurist models, we immediately find a few vital results. (1) The Covenant-conditional nature of all prophecy is incorporated (Deut. 28-34, Lev. 25-26, Jer. 18). (2) All the prophetic sections of Daniel (chs. 2, 7, 8-9, 10-12) go from Daniel's time until the kingdom of God including Daniel 9, the Messianic section. (3) Daniel 9 provides the Levitic-Covenantal foundation, chronology, (Leviticus 25-26, II Chron. 36) and hence interpretive framework for all of the sections. (4) The central, pivotal vision of Daniel 8:1-14 is entirely explicated in chapters 8-12 within the 70 sabbatical 'weeks of years' framework. (5) Daniel 8:14 is the central symbolic text of Daniel followed by explanation (chs. 8-12). Also Daniel 8:14 is alluded to and explicated more than once in the NT.

When we exegete Daniel and all the prophets in their native Levitical-Covenantal framework, we are brought closer to the conclusion that the heart of the New Testament proclamation rests exegetically on the Hebrew Scriptures.

In this paper we will attempt to briefly show how the underlying principles of a Levitic-Covenantal Conditional model of prophetic interpretation allow us to deal exegetically rather than arbitrarily with the vision of Daniel 8:1-14. Such a model explains unifying features of the vision unaccounted for in any other approach. A fuller development of how a Levitic-Covenantal model would unify and Scripturally systematize Biblical prophetic interpretation is reserved for future papers.

A note on preterist or historicist interpretations. Our adherence to the text of Daniel in what follows is simply a recognition that exegesis (even if only in bare outline as below) is a requirement before any attempts to interpret from our standpoint 2,500 years later. Attempting to insert 'preterist or historicist interpretations' may not be legitimately attended to until after we have fulfilled our primary task to critically “hear the text” in its own historical context, apart from our own concerns and traditions.
 

Introduction

In order to understand the prophecies of Daniel in their biblical context, it is necessary to see them in their Covenant context (esp. Lev. 25-26). Daniel is set in a time of captivity that was the result of Israel’s abandonment of God’s Covenant and statutes – the Babylonian captivity (II Chronicles 36, Jeremiah, Lamentations). Their sins occasioned the destruction and desolation of their land, their city, and the temple of God built by Solomon. The heathen Babylonians actually did the desolating, but the sins of God’s people were largely responsible. They were not cast off however, since God's everlasting Covenant purposes were being worked out toward ultimate fulfillment and consummation.

Incarnational servanthood. It is noteworthy that the conflict between God and the forces of evil in Daniel was acted out on two different levels. The first is a horizontal level of servanthood: God’s servants versus the servants of evil. The second is a vertical, incarnational level: At crucial climaxes of the conflict, both the Incarnation of God and the incarnations of the evil one are manifested:
 

Servants of God (horizontal)
  • Daniel, Shadrach, Mesach, Abednego (ch. 1-2) 
  • Shadrach, Mesach, Abednego (ch. 3) 
  • Nebuchadnezzar, humble, forgiven (ch. 4) 
  • Daniel, faithful in rebuke (ch. 5) 
  • Daniel, faithful in prayer (ch. 6) 
  • Darius, repentant and forgiven (ch. 6)  
  • Those who are faithful to God & the Covenant even in martyrdom (ch. 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12)
Servants of the adversary (horizontal)
  • Compromising Israelite captives (ch. 1) 
  • 4 empires & divisions of the image (ch. 2) 
  • 4 empires – beasts (ch. 7) 
  • 2 empires – beasts (ch. 8) 
  • Self-exalting Nebuchadnezzar (ch. 4) 
  • Drunken, blasphemer Belshazzar (ch. 5) 
  • Plotting princes & 30-day decree (ch. 6) 
  • Darius consenting to 30-day decree (ch. 6) 
  • Those who compromise and forsake the Covenant (ch. 1, 2, 3, 11) 
  • King of the south
The Incarnation of God (vertical)
  • Stone [eben] cut out without hands (ch. 2) 
  • Son [ben] of God (ch. 3) 
  • Son [ben] of man (ch. 7) 
  • Prince of the host (ch. 8) 
  • Prince of princes (ch. 8) 
  • Messiah the prince (ch. 9) 
  • Michael the great prince standing on behalf of God’s people (ch. 12)
Incarnations of the adversary (vertical)
  • Nebuchadnezzar seized with demonic fury (ch. 4) 
  • Little horn with eyes like a man (ch. 7) 
  • Little horn – fierce-faced king (ch. 8) 
  • ‘… a coming prince’ (ch. 9) 
  • ‘the desolator’ (ch. 9) 
  • King of the north (ch. 11)

In Daniel we find a very distinctive motif where in the ephemeral ebb and flow of human kingdoms, the God of heaven ultimately intervenes within history to set up an everlasting kingdom (2:44-45; 7:13-14; 8:14=9:24-27; 12:1-3).

(i) Abomination, (ii) Judgment, (iii) Kingdom. It is significant that Daniel 1, 8-12 were written in Hebrew, while chapters 2-7 were written in Aramaic and are fraught with idols, images of heathen worship, and ceremonially unclean beasts. Correspondingly in ch. 2-7, the center of focus is the broad sweep of Gentile world empires and events, although the Covenant people are not forgotten. By contrast, Daniel 1, 8-12 were written in Hebrew and are replete with ritually clean, sacrificial, Day of Atonement beasts and allusions to Hebrew worship. The center of focus is more specifically the journey and ultimate vindication of the Covenant people. The recurring sequence motif in both the Aramaic and the Hebrew sections is (i) abomination, (ii) judgment-justification, and (iii) kingdom.
 

(i) Abomination which desolates (Self-exalting and desolating)
(ii) Judgment of justification (+) and condemnation (–)
(iii) Kingdom for the vindicated-justified
Dan. 1 – Babylonian captivity

1st test – king’s meat & drink

(+) Daniel & friends healthier & 10X wiser than all the wise of Babylon

(–) Compromised & heathen put to shame

(+) Daniel & three friends exalted to ‘stand before the king’ 
Dan. 2 – King dreams, forgets, & demands dream + interpretation: Magi & astrologers try guile to maintain their deceit: King sentences them all (incl. Daniel and friends) to death (+) Daniel with friends is vindicated by receiving the dream & interpretation

(–) Magi & astrologers unmasked in their deception, rendered dependent on Daniel & friends to spare their lives

(+) King acknowledges God of heaven as Revealer and Ruler: Daniel is appointed chief-prefect of Babylon & his friends were placed over the affairs of the province of Babylon
Dan. 2 – The image of 4 self-exalting world empires & its divisions (+) ‘Stone cut out without hand’ 

(–) strikes & destroys the image

(+) The ‘Stone’ becomes a great mountain & fills the whole earth – God’s eschatological kingdom
Dan. 3 – Great golden image to be worshipped on pain of death by fire. King stirred by satanic fury throws God’s faithful children in to the fiery furnace heated 7 times hotter  (+) ‘Son of God’ ‘intercedes’ in the fire before the heathen king & three faithful Hebrews delivered 

(–) Those who bound them died & compromising Israelites and heathen humiliated

(+) Decree in favor of the God of the Hebrews & three faithful Hebrews exalted in the kingdom of Babylon. King makes a decree honoring the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
Dan. 4 – Nebuchadnezzar in haughty self-glorification as leading world ruler neglects righteousness & pitying the poor. He dreams, but consults magi and astrologers again; neglects to heed Daniel’s call to repentance based on the dream  (–) ‘Great tree’ (king) in the dream is cut down by divine decree - humiliation as a animal . . . 

(+) But a restoration covenant is confirmed with the striken king for 7 ‘times’– years until he acknowledges the rulership of the Most High God on earth

(+) A humble, forgiven king who now glorifies God and confesses his sin publicly is restored to his kingdom after the 7 ‘times’– years of Covenant confirmation (1 sabbatical week of years)
Dan. 5 – Belzhazzar & revelers desecrate the sacred vessels from the temple of God & honor the idol gods in a wild drunken feast in Babylon - all this despite knowing about grandfather Nebuchadnezzar (–) Divine hand passes judgment on the wall: Weighed in the balances and wanting, kingdom divided, and given to the Medes & Persians

(+) Daniel the faithful prophet vindicated in his interpretation & rebuke

(+) Daniel vindicated as Babylon falls that very night & Darius the Mede takes kingdom. Daniel highly exalted in the Medo-Persian empire also
Dan. 6 – King Darius urged by princes signs law requiring 30 day worship of the king on pain of death by lions  (+) Faithful Daniel is thrown to the lions but is vindicated & delivered by the God of heaven

(–) Conspiring princes are condemned & fed to the lions

(+) Vindicated & delivered, Daniel is restored to his kingdom position; his enemies are discredited & destroyed. King makes a decree honoring the God of Daniel
Dan. 7 – Unclean beasts symbolize 4 Gentile world empires & divisions: Winged lion, humped bear, 4-winged/4-headed leopard, nightmare beast with 10 then 7 horns & a ‘little horn’ with human eyous & mouth which blasphemes & wars on the covenant people for 3 ½ ‘times’ – 3 ½ years which is only half of the 7 ‘times’ – years of ch. 4 (+) Heavenly judgment convened & based on books of record is presided over by the ‘Ancient of days’; the ‘Son of man’ is brought with the ‘clouds of heaven’ before God to intercede & vindicate & receive His universal kingdom of all who will serve Him

(–) Verdict of condemnation on beasts: Dominion taken, killed, burnt up completely

(+) The Covenant people, the saints are vindicated & possess the kingdom under the whole heaven
Dan.8 – Clean beasts, sacrificial and Day of Atonement beasts: Focus on the Covenant people, Israel 
  • Ram from E  
  • One-horned he-goat  
  • Division of he-goat: 4 horns toward 4 directions & self-exalting ‘little horn’  
  • (i) Desecrates heaven, casts down some of host of heaven and of the stars to ground & tramples them  
  • (ii) Self-magnifies to the Prince of the host / Prince of princes 
  • (iii) Takes away the ‘daily’ & places ‘desolating abomination’ 
  • (iv) Desecrates Sanctuary, Host, and Truth to the ground 
Great question: "Until when [ad ma’atiy] is [the duration of] the vision [of] 
  • the ‘daily’ and the desolating abomination 
  • to give both sanctuary & host to be trampled? [=process during duration]
(+) Heaven’s verdict: Until 2300 evenings-mornings, then the sanctuary will be justified [nitzedaq] – vindicated [along with the truth and the trampled host] 

(–) The ‘little horn’ will be ‘broken without hand’ in the end-time, the ‘last end of the indignation’

(+) With the vindication of the sanctuary, the ‘host’ [God’s people] will also be vindicated
Dan. 9 – ‘a coming prince’ or ‘desolator’ destroys the city and sanctuary, takes away the ‘daily’, cuts off Messiah, sets up his abominations on the outskirts  (+) Within decreed 70 weeks of years (10 Jubilees): Messiah cut off but not for Himself, i.e., the transgression [pesha] finished, an end of sins, atonement [kaphar] for iniquity, righteousness [tzedeq] everlasting ushered in, the vision [chazon] and prophecy sealed up, the Most Holy anointed (Lev. 16, 25-26; Isa. 53)

(–) That which is decreed pours out back on ‘the desolator’ (Lev. 16: 20-22)

(+) The eternal righteous kingdom of God through the propitiation of Messiah which ends evil and the evildoer 
Dan. 10-12 – ‘king of the north’ attacks the Covenant, flatters/corrupts the forsakers of the Covenant, takes away the ‘daily’, pollutes the sanctuary, and places the abomination of desolation, puts to fire, sword, captivity, and spoil those loyal to the Covenant some days [1260, 3 ½ ‘times’, ch. 12:7], and even ‘plants his tabernacles’ in the ‘glorious holy mount’ Zion (+) Michael the great Prince on behalf of God’s people stands up: All those found written in the book [justified] are delivered or resurrected to everlasting life

(–) The ‘king of the north’ comes to his end and none will help him; the wicked dead are raised to ‘shame and everlasting contempt’

(–) Kingdom: The vindicated wise ones shine like the brightness of the skies; those who turned many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

This recurring motif of abomination, judgment-justification, and kingdom is based squarely on the typical Levitical-Covenantal provisions of the Pentateuch, particularly as systematized in Leviticus.

Broad sketch: The internal coherence of Daniel. Daniel has an internally coherent world-view stretching from Daniel’s day till ‘the kingdom of God’ not only in Daniel 2, 7, 8, and 10-12, but also in 9. Chapter 9 furthermore provides the only anchored time framework in the whole book. The other prophetic chapters only provide a relative order of events – hard to realize unless we allow the text to speak for itself, instead of imposing our own historical perspective on it. Daniel gives many historical anchor points to guide us in interpreting it, but only within the Covenant framework that he also provides. Daniel describes a sequence of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia and its breakup / [Rome] and its breakup, the ‘incarnation’ of antichrist, and the kingdom of God. (Remember that the first manifestation of the antichrist power of Rome on Palestine was through a king whose father had been conquered by Rome, and who was prevented by Rome from attacking Egypt and therefore attacked Israel – Antiochus IV Epiphanes, after 168 BCE). Again, what is hard to see from our perspective is that the fourfold sequence constitutes a relative order not a chronology. The events connected with the final overthrow of the 4th kingdom under which Jesus lived could have happened a lot faster than they did. So Daniel 9 provides the Covenant time framework for what could have been had Israel and next the early church been faithful to the Covenant.
 

The Covenant

(For more the Near Eastern historical setting of the Covenant see
Atonement and the Revelation: Levitic Covenant underpinnings)

In Exodus, after the deliverance of Israel, God led them to Mt. Sinai where He spoke His moral law, the Ten Commandments prefaced by His identification as the God who delivered them from Egypt and the ‘house of bondage’ (Ex. 20; Deut. 5). The Ten Commandments are called the Covenant. Upon tables of stone, "the words of the Covenant, the Ten Commandments" are written down by God (Ex. 34:28). Also in Deuteronomy, Israel is reminded that God "declared to you His Covenant, which He commanded you to perform, [even] Ten Commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone" (Deut. 4:13). This obedience to God’s moral law is commanded of every man with a judgment to follow (Eccl. 12:13-14). What’s more, Jesus gave the ‘fine print’ on the Ten Commandments in the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (Matt. 5-7): He pointed out that their jurisdiction extended to thoughts and intents of heart. To the Ten Commandments were added ‘statutes and judgments’ for them as they went to the Promised Land. The Angel or Messenger of the Covenant was promised to lead them into the Promised Land, but they were counseled to "beware of Him, and obey His voice, provoke Him not; for He will not pardon your transgressions for My name is in Him" (Ex. 23:20-21). Despite this the people of Israel immediately agreed to obey the Covenant (Ex. 24:1-7; Deut. 5:27). YAHWEH their Suzerain replied with longing, "I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you: they have said well all that they have spoken. O that they had such a heart as this, to fear Me, and keep all My commandments all the days, that it might be well with them, and with their sons for ever!" (Deut. 5:28-29).

Dedication & Covenant. Just as immediately in Ex. 24, God gave them hope of His favor and peace with Him through a dedication of the people to Himself through substitutionary sacrifices. Upon an altar on a hill, burnt offerings and peace offerings were sacrificed to YAHWEH (Ex. 24:5-7). The blood was sprinkled on all that had to be made acceptable to God: The altar, the people, and even the book of the Covenant which Moses had written (Ex. 24:5-8). Moses said, "This is the blood of the Covenant, which YAHWEH has made with you concerning all these words." Only after this dedication, was Moses called up into the Mount to receive the actual Covenant itself, written by God on tables of stone (Ex. 24:12) where he remained 40 days and nights with God. Consecration and dedication were also described in Lev. 8-9 and Numbers 7.

Sanctuary & Covenant. During this time when He received the Covenant or "the two tables of Testimony written by the finger of God" (Ex. 31:18), Moses received directions and the pattern (Ex. 25-31) for the building of a sanctuary: "And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them" (Ex. 25:8). All of the sanctuary was a concentric arrangement to house God’s Covenant and provide the only way a righteous God could dwell among a sinful people.

On this basis alone (in type) God Himself could look down from the cloud of Shekinah glory through the blood of the substitutionary sacrifice onto His Covenant, and see justice satisfied. This way (in type) He could pardon, forgive, and be merciful to His sinful though repentant, believing and obedient Covenant people. Only through the continual ‘daily’ service and the ‘yearly’ Atonement could God make the legal determination / judgment that His people had ‘fulfilled’ the infinite Covenant commands and were thus legally entitled to His Covenant blessings. All their loyalty and obedience and worship and praise fell far short of the Covenant and could be accepted of God only through a substitutionary atonement. Only this way could the God of the Covenant live among His people on their earthly pilgrimage.

If they were to forsake the Covenant and their loyalty to Him, this whole typical service would become nothing but a mockery and a curse to condemn them. To follow it loyally was an act of faith in the antitypical Substitute to come, Messiah. After the antitype was fulfilled in Christ, then to continue following it was no longer an act of faith looking forward, but a denial based either on ignorance or unbelief of what had already been fulfilled. There is some evidence however in the book of Acts that Christians may have continued to offer sacrifices at the temple at times, perhaps as a commemorative of Christ's sacrifice.

The Covenant provisions of Leviticus (1-)16: The Day of Atonement

We return to the Day of Atonement, the crowning conclusion to the sacrificial year: "For on that day [the high priest] shall make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, [that] you may be clean from all your sins before YAHWEH" (Lev. 16:31). This day was however a culmination of many prescribed offerings and sacrifices throughout the year. All sacrifices and offerings were the only way in which a sinful, but believing Covenant people could approach and be accepted by faith before the God of the Covenant.

The sacrifices were to be without blemish. There were free will offerings for atonement, offerings by fire for an acceptable savor before the Lord, food offerings, burnings of frankincense, and sacrifices of peace offerings (Lev. 1). Then there were the sin offerings: The bullock of the sin offering for the priests and the whole congregation, the goat kid for rulers, the goat kid or a lamb for a common person (Lev. 2-4). There were also the trespass offerings of a lamb or a goat kid, or two doves or young pigeons. In every case the blood was applied in some way, usually on the altar of burnt sacrifice, but occasionally on the horns of the golden altar in the holy place or ‘before the veil’ in front of the Holiest. This way, a substitutionary atonement [kaphar] or ‘covering’ was imputed to the sinner to spare him or her from God’s justice. This way God could accept and forgive them. All of this culminated in the Day of Atonement when atonement was made for the whole congregation and for the sanctuary. The significance of the substitutionary animal sacrifice was explained in the prohibition of eating blood: "For the life of he flesh is in the blood: And I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls. For it is the blood [that] makes an atonement [kaphar, covering] for the soul" (Lev. 17:11).

The daily or continual service (hatamid) involved a morning and evening burnt sacrifice (between the evenings) which were to be kept continually smoldering (tamid) on the bronze altar of sacrifice in the court. There was a burning of incense perpetually (tamid) on the golden altar of incense before the veil. A table of 12 loaves of bread was changed and daily displayed (tamid) before the Lord before the veil. Finally the arranging and dressing of the lamps always was ordered from evening to morning (Ex. 27:20; Lev. 24:3) every day continually (tamid) by Aaron and his sons. The daily (hatamid) services were like a mini-Day of Atonement, because repeatedly when a person was ceremonially defiled, he would remain 'unclean until the evening' (Ex. 27: 20-21; 30:7-8; Lev. 24:3; cf. manna Ex. 16:6-7; daily prayer Ps. 55:17). Uncleanness was atoned for at evening (Lev. 11; 14; 15; 17; 22; Num. 19). The daily (hatamid) was furthermore like a mini-Day of Atonement judgment. Judicial satisfaction, retribution, judgment were exacted and completed at evening (Josh. 7:6; 8:29; 10:26; Judg. 20:26, 28; 21:2…). As a mini-Day of Atonement, the evening sacrifice was more prominent that the morning sacrifice. All this was accomplished in the tabernacle court and the Holy Place before the veil. Within the veil was the Most Holy Place where was the Ark containing the Covenant covered by the Mercy Seat (Propitiatory) over the Covenant where a work was to go on once a year. To this we now turn.

Yom Kippur. The Day of Atonement had specific provisions (Leviticus 16). This day came once a year in the autumn on the 10th day of the 7th month. The sacrifices of this day were unique to the high priest, who alone was to enter the Holy of holies on this day. The high priest entered:

What actually defiled the sanctuary in the Old Testament type?

The Day of Atonement justification and cleansing of the people and the sanctuary raises this question. How exactly in Scripture was the sanctuary defiled? Was it sins of omission and commission? Was it the confession of sin? The weight of evidence suggests that it was always the commission and existence of sin and evil especially open rebellion that defiled the sanctuary, not in the strictest sense the blood atonement made for sin. That blood atonement always signified cleansing and purifying. However, there is one sense in which the typical service of confession of sin transferred sins to the sanctuary and thus defiled it. That was because the blood of bulls and goats were typical and thus could never really take away sin. Hence the ‘yearly remembrance’ or Day of Atonement and the Holiest ‘within the veil’ were an explicit means by which the Holy Spirit foretold how God would deal with sin in the antitypical fulfillment in Christ (Heb. 9:7-11). Of course of central interest to us is exactly what 'defiled' or 'profaned' the sanctuary in Daniel 8.

The two words used in Hebrew to describe the desecration of the sanctuary are tameh = to be defiled, contaminated, unclean, impure (morally or ceremonially), and chalal = to pierce or wound; figuratively, to profane. Below, tameh is translated ‘defiled’ and chalal is translated ‘profaned’:
 

Text
What (1) and how (2) defiled / profaned?
Comment
  • Lev. 16:16, 19-20
  • 1. Sanctuary, tent of meeting, altar defiled:  
  • 2. By the pollutions of Israel, all their transgressions and all their sins
All confessed & unconfessed sins, because tent dwells in the midst of their pollutions…. Anyone not humbling him/herself and repenting on DA cut off (with scapegoat, i.e., their sins also removed in purifying the sanctuary on their own heads)
  • Lev. 15:31
  • 1. My tabernacle in their midst defiled:  
  • 2. By any untimely discharge or hemorrhage
Any imperfection of the flesh was unacceptable to God requiring atonement; all sacrifices to be without blemish.... Note the defiling of the tabernacle 'in their midst'
  • Lev. 20:3
  • 1. My sanctuary and My holy name defiled:  
  • 2. By offering one’s children to Molech
A deliberate sin of rebellion and idolatry; cf. Lev. 18:26 - defiling the land through detestable things
  • Lev. 21:12
  • 1. The sanctuary of God is profaned 
  • 2. By the high priest having his head uncovered, his garment torn, coming near a dead body, defiling himself, or going out of the sanctuary because the anointing oil is upon him
Compare what happened with the counterparts: Caiaphas & Jesus at his arraignment, trial, crucifixion, and burial (Mark = Matthew = Luke)
  • Num. 5:1-3
  • 1. Their camps in the midst of which I dwell defiled 
  • 2. By the leper, one with discharge, one polluted by a dead body
Note again the emphasis on the defiling of 'their camps in the midst of which I dwell' (i.e., the LORD's tent also pitched in their camp, also a sojourner) 
  • Num. 19:13
  • 1. The tabernacle of the LORD has been defiled: 
  • 2. By anyone touching a dead body and not purifying himself (via red heifer water of purification)
Required cleansing by the water of purification made with ashes of the slain red heifer 
  • Num. 19:20
  • 1. The sanctuary of the LORD has been defiled: 
  • 2. By anyone touching a bone, the slain, the dead, or the grave and not purifying himself (via red heifer water of purification)
Required cleansing by the water of purification made with ashes of the slain red heifer
  • II Chron. 36:14
  • 1. The house of the LORD which He had sanctified in Jerusalem the heads of the priests and the children [of Israel] defiled 
  • 2. By persistently acting treacherously according to all the abominations [-able idols] of the nations
 
  • Ps. 74:3
  • 1. The sanctuary [has] perpetual [tamid] desolations:  
  • 2. Because the enemy has done all evil in the sanctuary
Psalm 74 is alluded in Daniel 8-12: Heathen enemy pollutes the sanctuary, roars in the ‘set time’ or Levitical festival [mo'ed], sets up their own signs for signs, break down and destroyed, scorned and blasphemed God’s name, afflicted and ill-treated God’s people. The question is asked "Until when?" God is petitioned to arise (stand up) and contend for Your cause (Dan. 12:1).
  • Ps. 74:4
  • 1. God’s holy ‘appointed meeting time’ [mo'edek] is [profaned] 
  • 2. By the roar of Your tormenters in the midst of it 
  • 3. Look to Your Covenant because of the evil done in the world
Mo'edek is used to refer to the solemn Levitical assemblies such as Passover, Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, or Tabernacles. The very next Psalm 75 says that God will judge uprightly when He takes the ‘appointed time’ [mo'ed] which must be the Day of Atonement when He judges
  • Ps. 74:7
  • 1. Your sanctuary and the place where Your name dwells on earth profaned 
  • 2. By the enemy casting fire into the sanctuary
Chalal also used to describe the profaning of the sanctuary in Dan. 11:31.
  • Ps. 79:1
  • 1. God’s holy temple defiled: 
  • 2. By the heathen nations entering God’s inheritance, laying Jerusalem in heaps, and Israel fallen in bloodshed
This psalm appeals for redress, freedom for prisoners and thus has Jubilee Day of Atonement allusions (Lev. 25:...8-13...): "Deliver us and atone for our sins for Your name’s sake" (v. 9, 11)
  • Jer. 7:30
  • 1. The house on which My Name has been called, is consequently defiled 
  • 2. Because they set their abominable idols in it
The word for ‘abominable idols’ is derived from the masculine shikkutz as also is the ‘abomination which desolates’ in Daniel.
  • Jer. 32:34
  • 1. The house on which My Name has been called, is defiled 
  • 2. Because they set their idols in it
 
  • Ezek. 5:11
  • 1. My sanctuary you have defiled 
  • 2. By all your idolatries and abominations
Ezek. 6:5-7: Because of idolatry, the cities laid waste, high places deserted, & altars may become guilty and be broken
  • Ezek. 9:6-7
  • 1. My sanctuary, the house and the courts are defiled 
  • 2. By the judgments of the One whom the Lord sent to slay the wicked among His people, who are at His sanctuary, house and courts
One instance where the judgment activity of the Lord’s instrument of punishment defiles His own temple; cf. Isa. 47:6 where the LORD in His righteous anger profanes His inheritance
  • Ezek. 23:37-38
  • 1. Done to the Lord: My sanctuary they defiled and profaned My Sabbaths; and entered My sanctuary to profane it, profaning My house 
  • 2. By idolatry, adultery with idols, sacrificing their children and then entering God’s house
Cf. defiling neighbor’s wife, daughter-in-law, etc. (Ezek. 18:6, 11, 15; 33:26)
  • Ezek. 28:18
  • 1. The sanctuaries [holy places] of you, O covering cherub, prince/king of Tyre (wiser than Daniel) have profaned 
  • 2. By the host of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your traffic
Note the reference to Daniel and his reputation. Cf. self-exalting of Isa. 14 and Dan. 8:10-13.
  • Ezek. 43:6-8, 10-11
  • 1. Place of My throne and the place of the souls of My feet, where I dwell among the children of Israel forever, My threshold and My door post, even My holy name, they defile 
  • 2. By their fornication, the corpses of their kings in their high places, setting their thresholds by My threshold, their door post by My door post, their abominations they have done (respectively)
Cf. Ezek. 36:17-18: Defiled the land by their ways and doings, like a woman’s impurity because of the blood they shed on it, and their idols; cf. Jer. 2:7
  • Dan. 8:9-14
  • 1. The glorious [sanctuary], some of the host of heavens and stars made to fall and trampled by Little Horn (Isa. 14), even the Prince of the host (attacked), the daily taken away, the place of His sanctuary cast down, the host & daily surrendered to him, the truth cast down, the sanctuary and host trampled 
  • 2. Because of Little Horn’s self-exalting against the S, E, and Glorious [land, sanctuary, W], against the host of the heavens, the Prince of the host, the sanctuary, against the host & daily because of transgression, casting down the truth, and thus trampling the sanctuary & host
Remedy (Dan. 8:13-14): 
  • "Until when [ad'ma'atiy] is the vision [of] the daily and the desolating transgression to give both Sanctuary and Host to be trampled?" 
  • "Until [ereb-boqer] evening-mornings two thousand and three hundred, then shall be vindicated [nitzedaq] [the] Sanctuary [and by implication Host]."
  • Dan. 11:31
  • 1. The sanctuary [miqodash] and the fortress profaned 
  • 2. By the [king of the north’s] military arms standing, taking away the ‘daily,’ and placing the abomination that desolates
From the taking away of the ‘daily’ & the placing of the abomination that desolates: Breaking the power of the holy people for 3 ½ times until the ‘set time’ / [mo'ed] ’appointed time’ of the end, then all will be finished (1290 days, 1335 days, 2300 evening-mornings; (Dan. 12:5-13; 8:14, 19)

In conclusion, it was always the commission and existence of sin and evil especially open rebellion that defiled the sanctuary, not in the strictest sense the blood atonement made for sin. That blood atonement was always cleansing and purifying. In Daniel 8 it was explicitly the open rebellion of the 'little horn' (and by implication all sin) that defiled the sanctuary. However, because all these sacrifices were only types or pre-figures (Heb. 10) they could not actually cleanse the sanctuary and so therefore there remained a repetitive yearly 'remembrance of sins' (Heb. 10:1-4), i.e., a culminating blood atonement on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16), a 49th year Jubilee Day of Atonement (Lev. 25), and a multi-Jubilee Day of Atonement restoration after a time of Diaspora (Lev. 26). These types find their antitype in Christ (Daniel 8:1-14 = 9:24-27). Only the antitypical blood of Christ was in reality effectual in cleansing the sanctuary (Heb. 1:3; 9:1-28; 10:1-22).

To the typical Jubilee Day of Atonement we turn in outline.
 

The Jubilee Day of Atonement – Covenant provisions of Leviticus 25-26

The Day of Atonement was also the focal point for another typical service – the Jubilee which came every seven "Sabbaths of years" or seven "weeks of years" on the 49th year on the 10th day of the 7th month. The Jubilee shofar horn would then be blown: All indebtedness was to be forgiven, all those in debt bondage were to be freed, and all who had lost houses, lands, and possessions through debt were to be restored to their patriarchal inheritance. The Covenant people were to forgive each other of their debts and wrongs were to be righted. The Jubilee "year of release," the 50th year, was all inaugurated on the same day: On the 10th day of the 7th month of the 49th year, i.e., the Day of Atonement when the high priest as ‘mediator of the Covenant’ made the blood atonement for redemption on the Mercy Seat above the Covenant in the Most Holy Place. In effect, on this Jubilee Day of Atonement YAHWEH God of Israel became Surety and Kinsman-Redeemer for all indebtedness and sin through the Substitutionary blood aspersions on the Mercy Seat above the Covenant. There was no default in payment! The justice of the Covenant was satisfied – Yahweh paid the debt.

Of course the reader will immediately recognize that this is none other than the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

As we shall see, all these elements – the captivity because of transgression, the Sabbath rest of the land from defilement during the captivity, the desolation of God’s heritage, the kinsman-redeemer, the sabbatical ‘weeks of years,’ the Jubilee Day of Atonement – all form the Levitical-Covenant context framework of Daniel. Only in this Covenant context-framework can Daniel be exegetically understood.

The provisions and curses of Leviticus 25-26 in detail in type and antitype:

The Jubilee Day of Atonement in type – Leviticus 25-26
The antitypical Jubilee Day of Atonement
25: 1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,

2 ‘Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When you come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the LORD.

3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;

4 But in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the LORD: you shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard.

5 That which grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, neither gather the grapes of your vine undressed: [for] it is a year of rest unto the land.

6 And the Sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for your servant, and for your maid, and for your hired servant, and for your stranger that sojourneth with thee, 

7 And for your cattle, and for the beast that [are] in your land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.

8 And you shall number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.

9 Then shall you cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth [day] of the seventh month, in the Day of Atonement shall you make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.

10 And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout [all] the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and you shall return every man unto his possession, and you shall return every man unto his family

11 A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: you

shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself in it, nor gather [the grapes] in it of your vine undressed.

12 For it [is] the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: you shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.

13 In the year of this jubilee you shall return every man unto his possession.

. . . .

17 You shall not therefore oppress one another; but you shall fear your God: for I [am] the LORD your God.

:18 Wherefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my

judgments, and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety.

. . . .

23 The land shall not be sold for ever:for the land [is] mine; for you [are] strangers and sojourners with me.

24 And in all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.

25 If your brother be waxen poor, and has sold away [some] of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.

26 And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it;

27 Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession.

28 But if he be not able to restore [it] to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that has bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall go free, and he shall return unto his possession.

29 And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; [within] a full year may he redeem it.

30 And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that [is] in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubilee.

31 But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee.

. . . .

35 And if your brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then you shall relieve him: [yea, though he be] a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee.

36 Take you no usury of him, or increase: but fear your God; that your brother may live with thee.

37 You shall not give him your money upon usury, nor lend him your victuals for increase.

. . . .

38 I [am] the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, [and] to be your God.

39 And if your brother [that dwelleth] by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; you shall not compel him to serve as a bondservant:

40 [But] as an hired servant, [and] as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, [and] shall serve thee unto the year of jubilee:

41 And [then] shall he depart from thee, [both] he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.

42 For they [are] my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen.

. . . .

47 And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and your brother [that dwells] by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger [or] sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family:

48 After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him:

49 Either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or [any] that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself.

50 And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubilee: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him.

51 If [there be] yet many years [behind], according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for

. . . .

54 And if he be not redeemed in these [years], then he shall go free in the year of jubilee, [both] he, and his children with him.

55 For unto me the children of Israel [are] servants; they [are] my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I [am] the LORD your God.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

26:1 You shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall you set up [any] image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I [am] the LORD your God.

2 You shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I [am] the LORD.

3-13 All the blessings of keeping the Covenant . . . .

14-39 All the curses for rejecting the Covenant . . . .

31 And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.

32 And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.

33 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.

34 Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and you [be] in your enemies' land; [even] then shall the land rest, and enjoy her Sabbaths.

35 As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your Sabbaths, when you dwelt upon it. . . . 

38 And you shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.

39 And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
 
 

40 If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;

41 And [that] I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:

42 Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.

43 The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her Sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.

44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I [am] the LORD their God

45 But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I [am] the LORD.

46 These [are] the statutes and judgments and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

God’s people Israel were reminded (Ex. 20:8-11) to keep the Sabbath holy every 7th day of every ‘week of days.’ Israel was instructed to allow the promised land was to keep Sabbath every 7th year of every ‘week of years’: This way, God’s called out people, Israel, were reminded that by creation and redemption from bondage, they were His people & He was the real Owner of the promised land

‘Weeks of years’: 6 years + 7th year = Sabbath year: Ex. 23:10-11; Deut. 15:1; 31:10

The land was left without ploughing, sowing, or reaping to produce whatever it would on its own – God promised enough to feed everyone
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Seven ‘weeks of years’ (49 years) were to be marked out followed by a 50th year of release

On the 49th year, on the 10th day of the 7th month, the Day of Atonement, the trumpet of the Jubilee was sounded, inaugurating the year of release:

  • Liberty was proclaimed throughout the land 
  • All captives were free to return to their families 
  • Land and possessions which were lost through debt bondage and default were restored to their patriarchal inheritance 
  • The law of Redemption: If a person and his family, and/or his possessions were sold into debt bondage, they could be redeemed by the person himself or someone ‘near of kin’ if they were able. If none were able to purchase redemption for them, the Lord God Himself became Surety and Redeemer on the Jubilee Day of Atonement: The debt-bonded people were restored to freedom and to their patriarchal inheritance 
  • Thus justice was done, unpayable debts were canceled, and the redemption of bonded people and possessions was accomplished only through the Lord as Surety on the Jubilee Day of Atonement: Only because a substitutionary Atonement (covering) had been made in the Most Holy Place upon the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant containing God’s Holy Law (Lev. 16) 
  • Thus the children of Israel were to see that they as God’s servants and their land as God’s possession by creation and redemption was established and made sure only by a substitutionary Atonement on the Mercy Seat in the Holiest on the Jubilee Day of Atonement

 
 
 
 

Provision of the kinsman-redeemer
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The debt was always reckoned up in terms of the amount of time remaining as a hired servant until the Jubilee Day of Atonement
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A provision was made for a kinsman-redeemer who as a substitute and surety could pay the debt in the bonded debtor’s stead to deliver him/her from debt bondage
 
 

If no redeemer could be found able to pay the debt and thus to intercede with the creditor on behalf of the bonded slave (‘no intercessor’ and ‘none to help,’ Isa. 59:14-21; 63:5; cf. 34:1-17) then on the Jubilee Day of Atonement through the substitutionary atonement on the mercy seat in the Holiest, the Lord God of Israel agreed to be the Kinsman-Redeemer who as Substitute and Surety would assume the indebtedness and pay in the bonded debtor’s stead to deliver him/her from debt bondage and restore him/her to their inheritance

In antitype, the above is none other than the Gospel! The Gospel links these very elements together, the Jubilee Day of Atonement is a day of reckoning and judgment, a day for the blood atonement on the mercy seat: Romans 3 arraigns the world in judgment to God’s law. They have nothing to pay and so ‘a righteousness of God apart from the law’ is manifested, i.e., the righteousness of Christ, by which God freely justifies those believing through the redemption in Jesus Christ whom God has set forth as a propitiation (mercy seat) through faith in His blood, & there is to follow a restoration through ‘a new heavens and new earth wherein dwells righteousness’ (II Pet. 3:13; Isa. 65:17; 66:22; Rev. 21-22).

The Covenant was based on these terms:

  • The Lord is your only God: No idols should defile His people or His land 
  • All the Sabbaths of the Lord were to be kept - the ‘week of days’ Sabbath for the people and the ‘week of years’ Sabbath for the land (and also the ceremonial Sabbaths) 
  • The sanctuary was to be reverenced because (1) it contained the manifestation of His presence and was the repository of the His Holy Law and (2) it was the location where substitutionary Atonement (covering) was made in the daily and yearly services for God’s people - all symbolizing Christ our Substitute 
  • Substitutionary Atonement was the only basis upon which a holy God could accept penitent sinners (the Covenant people, Israel) & bestow the Covenant blessings upon them. The believers’ contrite obedience to the Covenant was the outward fruit and evidence of their faith in the Atonement 
  • Rejection of the Covenant meant rejection of both the substitutionary Atonement and the Law of God which is the Covenant: The result were the curses in the Covenant
The Covenant Curses:
  • Diaspora, death, and darkness for the people 
  • Desolation for the land and the sanctuary, during which the land would enjoy her ‘weeks of years’ Sabbaths 
  • The Promise of hope: From the darkness and despair of the Diaspora, there was hope that they would be again brought to repentance and faith in the substitutionary Atonement of a Covenant-keeping God
This began to be fulfilled in the Babylonian Captivity: Jer. 25:11-12; 29:10-14; Dan. 9:2 (cf. Zech. 7:5); II Chron. 36:20-21: The land kept Sabbath to fulfill 70 years which is 1/7th of 490 years, i.e., 70 ‘weeks of years’ or 490 years when Sabbath years had not been kept

Daniel 9:1-21: Daniel the righteous prince prays in repentance for himself and His people. He prays a covenant, Jubilee Day of Atonement prayer for a redemption of God’s people and a restoration of the sanctuary

At the time of the evening oblation (daily), God’s messenger Gabriel announced the allotment of another 70 ‘weeks of years’ (490 years) to Israel and Jerusalem till the great antitypical Jubilee Day of Atonement: "Seventy weeks are decreed upon your people and upon your holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make atonement for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy" (Daniel 9:24).

The whole Levitical sanctuary system was designed to teach that all the blessings which a Covenant-keeping God could ever bestow on poor lost sinners are entirely and exclusively based on an objective Righteousness and Atonement outside of themselves, without and apart from any works of our own, which can be apprehended by faith alone, i.e., faith alone in the imputed righteousness of Christ our Substitute and Surety.

Other prophetic writings cite the Jubilee Day of Atonement imagery. Two passages in Isaiah are cited in detail to show their prophetic use of this motif. Both of these parallel elements in the Christ event in the New Testament. The first one is from Isaiah 63.
 

Isaiah 63:1 - 64:1
Jubilee Day of Atonement / NT parallels
63:1 Who [is] this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this [that is] glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? [It is] I speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.

2 Who knows why Your clothing is red

3 I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people [there were] none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.

4 For the day of vengeance [is] in My heart, and the year of My redeemed has come.

5 And I looked, and [there was] none to help; and I wondered that [there was] none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me.

6 And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth.

7 I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, [and] the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he has bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.

8 For he said, Surely they [are] my people, children [that] will not lie: so he was their Saviour.

9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.

10 But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, [and] he fought against them. 

11 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, [and] his people, [saying], Where [is] he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where [is] he that put his holy Spirit within him?

12 That led [them] by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name?

13 That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, [that] they should not stumble?

14 As a beast goes down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused him to rest: so did You lead Your people, to make Yourself a glorious name.

15 Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory: where [is] your zeal and your strength, the sounding of your bowels and of your mercies toward me? are they restrained?

16 Doubtless You [are] our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: You, O LORD, [are] our father, our redeemer; Your name [is] from everlasting.

17 O LORD, why have You made us to err from Your ways, [and] hardened our heart from Your fear? Return for your servants' sake, the tribes of your inheritance.

18 The people of your holiness have possessed [it] but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.

19 We are [Yours]: You never bare rule over them; they were not called by Your name.

64:1 Oh that You would tear the heavens, that You would come down, that the mountains might flow down at Your presence.

‘Declaring His righteousness for the remission of sins’ (Rom. 3:21-31)
 
 
 

‘Sprinkling’ of dedication & atonement (Lev. 8-9, 16)

‘Day of vengeance’ = Day of Atonement (Lev. 16)

‘Year of My redeemed’ = the "year of release" inaugurated by the Jubilee Day of Atonement (Lev. 25-26)

Isa. 59:1-18: There was no intercessor or redeemer . . . except the Anointed [Christ]: If there were no kinsman-redeemer, then the Lord God of Israel undertook to be Kinsman-Redeemer on the Jubilee Day of Atonement (Lev. 25)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

God will remember His Covenant for the sake of His righteousness (Lev. 26; Dan. 9).
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Jubilee Day of Atonement prayer of intercession (cf. Dan. 9:1-23 at end of 1st 70 ‘weeks of years’ (II Chron. 36:21) and the Intercession of Messiah your Prince, Jesus Christ, at the Jubilee Day of Atonement at the end of the 2nd 70 ‘weeks of years,’ Dan. 9:24-27, Hebrews), i.e., a prayer for the ‘vindication of the sanctuary’ (Dan. 8:14) and the restoration of all things (cf. Matt. 17:11)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Ps. 74; Daniel 8-12
 
 
 
 
 

Ultimately, a prayer for the Second Advent of Christ (Rev. 22:20)

Furthermore, the following prophetic passage from Isaiah 61 was cited by Jesus in Nazareth (Luke 4). This opens an explanatory door on the Gospels in seeing Jesus’ activity and life in a Danielic Jubilee Day of Atonement context. This we believe to be an indispensable interpretive key to Daniel and the New Testament. This must be developed further elsewhere.
 

Isaiah 61
Jubilee Day of Atonement / NT parallels
1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD [is] upon me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to [them that are] bound

2 To proclaim the year of the acceptance of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all mourners

3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified

4 And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations

5 And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien [shall be] your plowmen and your vinedressers.

6 But you shall be named the Priests of the LORD: [men] shall call you the Ministers of our God: you shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall you boast yourselves. 

7 For your shame [you shall have] double; and [for] confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.

8 For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. 

9 And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they [are] the seed [which] the LORD has blessed. 

10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks [himself] with ornaments, and as a bride adorns [herself] with her jewels. 

11 For as the earth brings out her bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord."

‘year of acceptance’ = the 50th year of release inaugurated by the Jubilee Day of Atonement

Cf. Isa. 63, 53

The blessings described above are the antitypical fulfillment of the Jubilee Day of Atonement proclamation: Cancellation of debts, atonement for sins, liberation from debt bondage, restoration of patrimony, bringing in everlasting righteousness, cutting off of rebellious with Azazel. (Lev. 16; 25-26 = Dan. 9:24-27)

(Lev. 26)

Vindication of the sanctuary (Dan. 8:14 = 9:24-27)
 
 
 
 
 
 

Priesthood of all believers through our great High Priest & a royal ministry of the King:

  • Free access to the ‘throne of grace,’ the mercy seat, in the Holiest through our High Priest who has ‘passed through the heavens’ (Heb. 4:16-18) ‘through the veil’ (Heb. 19:10-22; Mk. 15:38 = Matt. 27:51 = Lu. 23:45) - Jesus, our true Anchor of hope ‘within the veil’ (Heb. 6:19-20) 
  • Made kings and priest to God (Rev. 1:6; 5:10), a chosen generation, royal priesthood, holy nation, and peculiar people showing forth His praises . . . (I Pet. 2:9) 
Justification by faith alone in the perfect righteousness of Christ mercifully reckoned to my account (Rom. 3-4) & its resultant fruit in the ‘ornaments’ and ‘jewels’ of sanctification (Rom. 6) – all in preparation for the Marriage (Rev. 20).

Rom. 3:24-55 – God openly displayed Christ a propitiation (‘ilastyrion or Mercy Seat) through faith in His blood to manifest God’s (Covenant) righteousness

The Covenant context of both Daniel and the redemption realized in the New Testament is based on the Jubilee Day of Atonement and its cycle.

70 weeks of years
Jubilee Day of Atonement
Year of Release
10 jubilees or ‘grand’ jubilee = 70 sabbatical ‘weeks of years’ = 70X7 times Middle of the 70th week when Messiah cut off and ‘the daily taken away’ until the end = 3½ times Opened on a Day of Atonement (Calvary and ascent, pre-Advent adjudicative judgment of the world), recapitulation of daily & Day of Atonement to be consummated at a Day of Atonement (final executive judgment)

Daniel in its Jubilee Day of Atonement context

In every case so far, in the Gentile section of Daniel (ch. 2, 4, 5, 7) each vision, dream, or sign in Daniel was fully explained within the corresponding interpretive addendum. This holds true for the enigmatic Covenant vision of Daniel 8:1-14 and its unfolding development in the rest of Daniel 8-12. This pivotal vision (vs. 1-14) receives its full interpretation in the two explanations of Gabriel in chapters 8-9, and is enlarged with further details in chapters 10-12. As has been pointed out, Gabriel indeed fulfilled his commission to explain the vision (Dan. 8:15-16).

Every feature of the vision of Daniel 8 was explained in either or both Gabriel’s first and second explanations (chs. 8-9) in the context of the 70 ‘weeks of years’ and expanded in Gabriel's third explanation in chs. 11-12. We shall see this develop as we go. Daniel 8-12 form a Levitic-Covenant unit of vision and interpretation – The vision of Daniel 8:1-14 is explained three times.

A summary of parallels between Leviticus 16 and Daniel 8-12. As has been long recognized, we note that there is no explicit linguistic connection between nitzedaq in Daniel 8:14 and taher in Leviticus 16. However, we do summarize some rather surprising but not coincidental parallels in Covenant imagery between Leviticus 16 (25-26) and Daniel 8-12:

Parallels between Leviticus 16, 25-26 and Daniel 8-12

Leviticus 16 (25-26) & other texts
Daniel 8-12
  • ' 7 sabbaths of years' 
  • Jubilee Day of Atonement = the climaxing mo'ed [solemn assembly] at the end of the 'sabbaths of years'; a judgment & vindication of sanctuary & Covenant people & ceremonial end of evil (upon the scapegoat)
  • Vindication & atonement for sanctuary & people for pollutions [chalal], transgressions, sins, and iniquities 
  • Covenant people justified & righteousness established through Day of Atonement climax of the sacrificial year
  • Ram for burnt offering enters from E toward W [sanctuary] & is completely burnt up 
  • Two he-goats ['ez, ha'ezim] chosen by lot for the LORD & for 'Azaz'el; a judgment choice 
  • LORD's goat = cut off violently at 4 horns of altar & later used to atone in the Holiest 
  • 'Azaz'el he-goat = perishes non-violently alone in the wilderness bearing the transgressions, sins, & iniquities of Israel 
  • Hatamid continued on & consummated on the Day of Atonement (Num. 29:7-11) when Covenant was confirmed 
  • Part of hatamid unique to high priest = arranging the 7-menorah lamps & holy oil was reckoned from evening to morning [me'ereb ad boqer] (Ex. 27:20-21; Lev. 24:2-4; cf. Ex. 30:7-8)
  • In the Most Holy Place, on the Ark of the Covenant, there were two golden angels, cherubim (God dwells between the cherubim, cf. Ps. 99)
  • In the context of the Jubilee Day of Atonement, Lev. 25-26 present a Covenant litigation framework for restoration from a Sabbatical desolation of the Covenant 'promised land' and a diaspora of the Covenant people
  • Implied judgment: Goat for the Lord and goat for 'Azaz'el determined and separated by lot [goral] (Lev. 16:7-10)
  • Leviticus 16 is one of only two passages in the OT where are gathered together the following Hebrew elements and concepts: 
    • "Atonement," 
    • "righteousness" in atoning for the sanctuary 
    • "righteousness" in that all the people "shall be clean before YAHWEH"
    • atonement for and removal of "transgression," 
    • atonement for and removal of "iniquity," 
    • atonement for and removal of "sins," 
    • "Most Holy," 
    • "anointing [of a person, the high priest]," 
    • "a Sabbath of rest" (10th day of 7th month), 
    • implied yearly confirmation of Covenant
  • ' 70 weeks [of years]' (cf. 'weeks of days' in 10:3) 
  • End of the vision = to climax in a mo'ed at end of 'weeks of years'; a judgment / vindication of sanctuary and host / holy people of the Covenant and final end of evil(upon the desolator) = finish the transgression, seal an end to sins, atone for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal an end to vision and prophecy, and anoint a Most Holy
  • Vindication / atonement for sanctuary & people for transgression, sins, iniquity, & pollution [chalal] of the 'little horn' / 'king of the N' 
  • Covenant confirmed & everlasting righteousness ushered in or established final atonement putting a 'Sabbath end to sacrifice and offering'
  • Ram enters from E toward Glorious [sanctuary, W] & is completely destroyed 
  • He-goat ['ez, ha'ezim] with great horn broken followed by 4 horns to 4 directions 
  • Prince of host / Prince of princes / Messiah a Prince / Prince of a Covenant attacked, broken, & cut off violently 
  • 'Little horn' / 'king of the N' / fierce-faced ['az-faced] king broken without hand, coming to his end with none to help him, with the desolations decreed being poured out upon him 
  • Hatamid taken away & caused to cease in a broken week (3 ½ times), i.e., the last week of years (7 times) of the 70 when Covenant was to be confirmed
  • Duration from the 'taking away' of hatamid & 'ending sacrifice & offering' until the 'vindication of the sanctuary' reckoned in high priestly hatamid reckoning = 2300 ereb-boqer, evening-morning[s]
  • In Daniel 8:13-14, there is dialogue, a Q&A between two holy ones (cf. two cherubim on Ark of the Covenant?)
  • In the intercessory prayer of Daniel 9:1-22, Daniel appeals in Covenant litigation to Jeremiah's prophecy (Jer. 25:9, 11, 12; 29:10) which is the framework of Lev. 26:34-35, 43 (cf. II Chron. 36:17-21) bringing a Covenant judgment suggestive of a final Jubilee Day of Atonement in Daniel 9:23-27 (cf. 1st century 11Q13 or 11QMelchizedeq fragment from Qumran). 
  • Implied judgment: Daniel must 'rest [in death] and stand in your lot [goral] at the end of the days' (Daniel 12:13)
  • Daniel 8-9 (especially vs. 24-27) is the one other passage in the OT where are gathered together the following Hebrew elements and concepts: 
    • "Atonement," 
    • "vindicating" the sanctuary 
    • [bringing in] "everlasting righteousness," 
    • [finishing] "transgression," 
    • [atoning for] "iniquity," 
    • [ending] "sins," 
    • "anointing of the Most Holy" [may apply in context to both a Person and/or a Place],
    • "an anointed One [Meshiach] a Prince" 
    • "Sabbath end to sacrifice and offering" 
    • eschatological confirmation of Covenant
Extra-biblical evidence on the meaning of the 'scapegoat' or the he-goat for 'Azaz'el as understood by Jews of ca. the 1st century BCE-CE, as suggested by manuscript evidence from Qumran Cave 4: 4Q181, Frag. 2 [4Q Ages of Creation]: ‘[to Abraham until he sire]d Isaac; [the ten generations. 'Azaz'el and the angels who penetrated] the daughters of] man and sired gian[ts] by them […] to Israel in the seventieth week to […]

The vision of Daniel 8:1-14

With brief comments and references we turn to the text of Daniel 8-9.

The text of the vision of Daniel 8

Daniel 8
References / Comments
1 In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king, a vision [chazon] appeared [nere’ah] to me, to me Daniel, after that which appeared [hanere’ah] to me at the beginning.
2 And I looked in the vision [chazon], and so it was when I looked [vere’ahtiy], I (was) at Shushan the citadel, which is in Elam the province. And I looked [va’r’ah] in the vision and I was by the Canal of Ulai.
3 Then I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a ram was standing before the canal, and it had two horns. And the two horns (were) high, but one (was) higher than the other, and the higher one came up last.
4 I saw the ram butting westward and northward and southward, so that all beasts might not stand before him, and none could deliver from his hand. And he did according to his will, and became great [gediysh, heap up]. 
5 And I was considering, and look, a male of the goats [tzephir-ha-etzim] came from the west, over the face of all the earth [ha’eretz], and did not touch the earth [ha’eretz]. And the he-goat (had) a conspicuous [i.e., striking in appearance] horn between his eyes.
6 And he came to the ram with two horns, which I had seen standing before the canal, and he ran to it in the fury of his power.
7 And I saw him touched beside the ram. And he became furious against him, and struck the ram and shattered its two horns. And there was no power in the ram to stand before him. But he threw him to the earth [‘eretzah] and trampled him, and none could deliver the ram from his hand.
8 Then the male of the goats [tzephir-ha-etzim] became very great [gediyl-‘ad-me’od = ‘great till vehemence’ i.e. beyond all]. And when he was mighty, the great [gediysh] horn was broken. And in its place came up four conspicuous ones toward the four winds of the heavens.
9 And out of one of them came a little horn [mitstseriyah, diminutive], and became excessively magnified [gedash yeter = magnified beyond all bounds] toward the south and toward the east and toward the glorious [land]. 
10 And it became magnified till the host of the heavens [gedash ad tzebah hashemayim]. And it made fall to the ground/earth [some] of the host and of the stars, and trampled them.
11 And [even] until the Prince of the host [ve ad sar-hatzaba’] he self-magnified [higedeysh], and from Him was taken away the daily [hatamid], and was cast down the place of His sanctuary [miqdash].
12 And a host was given over with the daily through transgression [pesha’], and it cast down truth to the ground/earth; and it worked and prospered. 
13 The I heard a certain holy one [edar qadosh] speaking, and another holy one [echad qadosh] said to the one who spoke, “Until when [ad ma’atiy] (is) the vision [chazon] [of] the daily [hatamid] and the desolating transgression [hapesha‘ shemem] to give both sanctuary and host to be trampled?”
14 And he said to me, “Until [ad] evenings-mornings [ereb-boqer] two thousand and three hundred, then will be vindicated [nitzedaq] (the) sanctuary.”
v1 – Chazon is here (and in 8:15) applied to the ‘whole vision’ and mareh is utilized in 8:16 also to describe the ‘whole vision.’ Chazon is also used to delimit the eschatological ‘little horn / trampling / evening-morning’ (l/t/e) portion (8:18; 8:26b). Mareh is also used to delimit the l/t/e portion (8:26a). Chazon and mareh are used interchangeably to refer to both.
Vision starts in Shushan the citadel, which would later be the empire capital of Medo-Persia (see the book of Esther). 

v4 – The direction mentioned first W is the direction opposite from where the kingdom came: [from E] toward W, N, & S.

v8 – 4 horns replace the great horn and grow toward the '4 winds' – N, S, E, and W – becoming associated with them: Horn-wind. 

v9 – The ‘little horn’ (LH) came out of one of the 4 horns-winds, not out of one of the winds of heaven.

  1. Because horns grow out of animals not the sky or winds, which is not necessary anyway because the horns become associated with the 'winds'
  2. Because the ‘little horn’ is associated with ‘king of the N’ in Dan. 11, initially described as a Grecian king. (For a chronology of the transition to the 4th kingdom Rome, see APPENDIX I). 


The direction mentioned first S is the direction opposite from where the ‘little horn’ came: [from N] toward S, E, & ‘Glorious’ [land, W]. Hence the ‘little horn’ = the ‘the king of the N’ in Dan. 11. (On the Covenant people and city, see below).

   The ‘little horn’ (LH) much greater than any earthly power: Magnified till ‘the host of the heavens’ & attacked and threw down some of the ‘host’ and ‘stars’ to the ground. Cit. Isa. 14 (cf. Ezek. 28 and Rev. 12 which refers back). LH also self-magnifies and attacks the ‘Prince of the host’ and takes away from the Prince three things so that even as Messiah is Himself cut off He also ‘is left with nothing’ (9:26; see APPENDIX III):

  • (1) Takes away from Him ‘the daily’ (hatamid)
  • (2) Casts down ‘the place of His sanctuary’
  • (3) ‘A host’ is given over with ‘the daily’ through 'transgression'
The ‘until when [ad ma’atiy]’ (see footnote at the end of this table) question construct always includes a start point, a process, a duration, and an end point (never just an end point). Within the question of 8:(10-)13 itself and its answer in 8:14, we find the following: 
  • (4) End point = vindication of the sanctuary
  • (3) Duration = 2300 ‘evening-morning’ – units of that portion of ‘the daily’ uniquely associated with the high priest (Lev. 24:1-4; Exod. 27:20-21)
  • (2) Process = trampling of ‘sanctuary and host’
  • (1) Start point = the ‘taking / lifting away’ of ‘the daily’ [hatamid]
15 And so it was when I Daniel had seen the vision [chazon], I then sought [the] meaning. And look! There stood before me like the appearance [mareh] of a man. 
16 And I heard a man’s voice between Ulai[‘s banks], and he called and said, “Gabriel make this (man) understand the vision [hamareh].”
When Daniel sought the meaning of the whole vision [chazon], Gabriel was commissioned to explain to Daniel the whole vision [mareh]. As noted above, the words chazon (vision as object) and mareh (vision as experienced and seen) are used interchangeably to describe the ‘whole vision’ as well as the eschatological ‘little horn / trampling / evening-morning’ portion of the vision. Both terms are used interchangeably throughout.
17 So he came near where I stood; and when he came, I was affrighted, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man; for the vision for the time of the end [qatz].
18 Now as he was speaking with me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face toward the ground; but he touched me, and set me upright.
19 And he said, Look! I will make you know what shall be in the latter end of the indignation; for it is for the appointed time [mo'ed] of the end.
20 The ram which thou saw, that had the two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia.
21 And the rough he-goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.
22 And as for that which was broken, in its place four stood up, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not with his power.
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper and do his pleasure; and he shall destroy the mighty ones and the holy people.
25 And through his policy he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall self-magnify in his heart, and through peace shall he destroy many: he shall also
stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.
26 And the vision of the evening and the morning [ha'ereb ve haboqer] which has been told is true: but shut up the vision; for it belongeth to many days to come.
27 And I, Daniel, fainted, and was sick certain days; then I rose up, and did the king's business: and I wondered at the vision, but none understood it. 
[v17-27 adapted from ASV]

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

v20 – 2 horned ram = kings of Media and Persia

v21 – rough he-goat = king of Grecia; great horn = 1st king
 

v22 – 4 horns = 4 kingdoms divided out of Grecia
 

v23 – 'little horn' = 'fierce faced king [goat-faced king]' in latter time of 4 kingdoms = 'the king of the N' (ch. 11-12)
 

v24 – the host (of heaven) delivered to little horn = the mighty ones and the holy people
 

v25 – Prince of the host (of heaven) = the Prince of princes; i.e, a personal assault against the Prince of princes
 
 

v26 – 'evening(s)-morning(s) 2300' (the duration of the trampling of 'the place of His sanctuary') = 'the evening and the morning [ha'ereb ve haboqer]'

cf. 10:1 – In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed to Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar; and the thing was true, even a great warfare: and he understood the thing, and had understanding of the vision (8:1-14).

Adma’atiy? (Str. 5704’4970) – ‘Until when?’ = from an unused root meaning to extend; prop. Extent (of time); but used only adv. (especially with other particles prefixed), when (either rel. or interrog.): Uses in the Hebrew Bible of adma’atiy: Exod. 10:3, 7; Num. 14:27; I Sam. 1:14; 16:1; II Sam. 2:26; I Kings 18:21; Neh. 2:6; Ps. 6:3; 74:10; 80:4; 82:2; 90:13; 94:3; Prov. 1:22; 6:9; Isa. 6:10-12 (Q & A); Jer. 4:14, 21; 12:4; 23:26; 31:22; 47:5 (parallel to another adverbial part.); Dan. 8:13-14 (Q & A); 12:6 (duration = 3½ times); Hos. 8:5; Hab. 2:6; Zech. 1:12.
 

Daniel 8:13-14 – A question answered!

Here is the central question and its answer as well as the Covenant heart and climax of the whole book of Daniel:

8:13 

The I heard a certain holy one [edar qadosh] speaking, and another holy one [echad qadosh] said to the one who spoke, 'Until when [ad ma'atiy] (is) the vision [chazon], the daily [hatamid] and the desolating transgression [hapesha' shemem] to give both sanctuary and host to be trampled?'

8:14 

And he said to me, 'Until [ad] evenings-mornings [ereb-boqer] two thousand and three hundred, then will be vindicated [nitzedaq] (the) sanctuary. 

Verse 14 is the answer to the question of v. 13! In assessing what exactly was asked in this momentous question and how it was answered, the usage and meaning of several key words and phrases must be examined.

The interchangeable words for 'vision'. The first usage of 'vision' in the passage is "a vision [chazon] appeared to me, Daniel" (8:1). A chazon is 'a perceived sight' especially a dream, revelation, or oracle. It comes from a verb chazah meaning to gaze, especially to perceive, contemplate, or have a vision. The OT king of Syria, Chatza'El, was literally named El sees or God sees. In 8:1, chazon of course is used to apply to all of vs. 1-14. In 8:13, chazon is used in connection with the question about the duration of the process of trampling the sanctuary and host. Chazon next appears in 8:15, "And so it was, when I Daniel had seen the vision [hechazon] then I sought for the meaning." Immediately Daniel saw the appearance of a man standing before him, who said, "Gabriel, make this (man) understand the vision [hamareh]" (8:16). Another term mareh, which is also applied to the whole vision, is now introduced. Mareh means 'a view,' an appearance, the act of having seen or the thing seen, coming from a verb ra'ah which is simply 'to see.' Abraham is told to sacrifice his son Isaac in "the land of the Moriah" [hamoriyah = the (person or thing) seen of Yah] (Gen. 22:2). The writer of Genesis 22 plays on the assonance and thematic linkage between Moriyah and Yahweh-yir'eh [= Yahweh sees/is seen] and cites an oral tradition "as the saying goes, 'on the Mount of Yahweh there is sight'" [Yahweh-yera'ah] (Alter, 1996). Abraham had told Isaac, "God will see for Himself [Elohim yire'eh-lo] the lamb for a burnt offering, my son" (Gen. 22:8). Literally the instruction in Daniel 8:16 is simply, "Gabriel, tell the man what he saw." Gabriel proceeds to go through the whole vision and begins to explain it in 8:17-26. So mareh is here applied to the whole vision of 8:1-14. In 8:16, chazon is again (as in 8:13) used to delimit the eschatological climax of the vision, "Understand, O son of man, the vision [hechazon] is for the end-time [le'eth qatz].... Look, I will make you know what shall happen in the last end [acharith] of the indignation [tza'am = fury or wrath] for [it must be at] the set time [mo'ed] of [the] end [qatz]" (8:16-19). The 'last end of the wrath' implies the concluding wrath of God because it is consummated in the 'set solemn assembly [mo'ed] of the end [qatz]'. The implication is immediately of the Day of Atonement and the final judgment and revelation of God's holy wrath against evil. Finally in the concluding remarks of Gabriel's first explanation, both mareh and chazon are specifically applied to the duration of the end time trampling of the sanctuary and host and their vindication (8:13-14), "And the vision [hamareheh] of the evening and the morning [ha'ereb vehaboqer] that was told is certain ['emeth]. But you! Shut up the vision [hechazon] for (it is) for many days [leyamim rebaim]" (8:26). Here again chazon is used for the third time to apply specifically to the eschatological ‘trampling-vindication’ portion of the vision. The eschatological vision of trampling and vindication is for many days in the future. So, both chazon and mareh are specifically used in Daniel 8 to apply to the whole vision and also specifically to the eschatological trampling and vindication of the sanctuary and host. Daniel summarizes by telling of his sickness, astonishment, and lack of understanding of the vision [hamareh], the eschatological part which he did not understand, for all the rest had been explained: "And I Daniel was sick. And I was sick for days. Then I arose and did the king's business. And I was stunned at the vision [hamareheh], but without understanding [it]" (8:27).

So in conclusion, chazon and mareh are both specifically and repeatedly used in application to the whole vision of vs. 1-14 as well as specifically to the eschatological portion concerning the trampling of the sanctuary by the little horn and the sanctuary's vindication (vs. 10-14). There is no evidence that these two words should be interpreted in contrast to each other as has all-too-often been done.

Details of the vision left unexplained in Dan. 8:16-26. It is important to understand exactly what were the several details of the vision left unexplained in Daniel 8 so as to clearly see how these formerly unexplained details were explained in Gabriel's second explanation (Dan. 9:23-27). Gabriel returned in answer to Daniel's Covenant prayer for an end to the 70 year sabbatical desolation of Jerusalem and the sanctuary by the Babylonians (Dan. 9:1-23; II Chron. 36; Leviticus 25-26). Gabriel returned to explicitly help Daniel to both "understand the matter [70 year sabbatical desolation] and understand the vision" [vebiyn vadabar vehabin vamareheh] (9:23), that is, especially the details of the vision of Daniel 8:1-14 previously left unexplained (8:15-27). Note the following, nearly identical charts on the same passages.

The Vision of Daniel 8:1-14 and its Interpretation

Vision of Daniel 8:1-14
1st explanation of Gabriel (Daniel 8:16-26)
2nd explanation of Gabriel (Daniel 9:23-27)
Ram with 2 horns – great Medo-Persia 7 sabbatical ‘weeks’ [i.e., 49 years = 1st Jubilee, Lev. 25]:
  • ‘...from the issuing of a word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.... Again it shall be built (with) broad street and trench even in the affliction of the times’ (through Medo-Persian kings, see Ezra 6:14)
Shaggy He-goat with 1 Outstanding Horn – very great Grecian empire & her 1st king
4 horns to 4 directions 4-fold division to N, S, E, W
Little horn – exceedingly great (Isa. 14 allusions to Lucifer; Ez. 28) Fierce, cunning king (not by his own power) ‘the people of a coming prince’
Little horn ‘self-magnifies even to the Prince of the host’ ‘lifts up heart . . . stands against the Prince of princes’ Messiah cut off but not for Himself after 62 sabbatical ‘weeks of years’
Prince of the Host Prince of princes Messiah a / [the] prince
The daily lifted [rum] away
In the half of the [70th] week he shall cause the sacrifice & offering to cease …even until [the] end [3 ½ times, cf. Dan. 7:25; 12:7]
Abomination of desolation or the desolating transgression [hapesha' shemem]
‘On [the] outskirts the abominations [of] a desolator even until [the] end’ [3 ½ times, cf. Dan. 7:25; 12:7]
Sanctuary / Host / Truth trampled to the ground Destroys the mighty ones and holy people Destroys the city & sanctuary... leaving ‘ruins’ & desolation until the end [3 ½ times, cf. Dan. 7:25; 12:7]
  • 'Until when [ad ma'atiy] (is) the vision [chazon], the daily [hatamid] and the desolating transgression [hapesha' shemem] to give both sanctuary and host to be trampled?'
  • 'Until [ad] evenings-mornings [ereb-boqer] two thousand and three hundred, then will be vindicated [nitzedaq] (the) sanctuary.'
  • The 'starting point' of the duration and process in the 'vision of the evening and the morning' is explicit in the question of v. 13:
1. End point = Vindication of the sanctuary
2. Duration = 2300 evening-mornings
3. Process = trampling of sanctuary and host 
4. Starting point = when the daily was taken away, 
  • ‘Vision of the evening and the morning is true' 
  • [Vindication of the sanctuary is essentially left unexplained in ch. 8] –
  • From the half [½] of 70th sabbatical week 
1. Starting point (when the daily was taken away) = 'In the half of the [70th] week He shall put a Sabbath end to sacrifice and offering'
3. Process (trampling of sanctuary and host) = 'on the outskirts [shall be the] abominations of the desolator' 
2. Duration (2300 evening-mornings) = 'even until the end'
4. End point (Vindication of the sanctuary) 'even until the end and that which is decreed shall pour out upon [the] desolator' .... [70 weeks to accomplish 8 vindicating activities, see below]
Vindication / justification [nitzedaq] of the sanctuary 
  • 70 [sabbatical] weeks decreed . . . . until accomplishment of 'the vindication of the sanctuary':
1) Finish the rebellion [hapesha‘]
2) Seal an end [khatam] to sins 
3) Atone for [kaphair] iniquity ['avon
4) Bring in everlasting righteousness [tzedeq
5) Seal an end [khatam] to vision and prophecy 
6) Anoint a Most Holy (Person or place) [qodesh qadashim]
7) Bring a (Sabbath) end to sacrifice and offering in the half of the [70th] week (cf. I Sam. 2:29; Ps. 40:7; the whole cultic-tamid services; Leupold, 1949, 1969)
8) [Final 70th sabbatical week] 'He shall confirm Covenant with the many (for) one week' [i.e., 7 'times,' cf. Dan. 4:25-6]
9) What’s decreed at last pours out on the desolator
'Vindication of the sanctuary'

At the 'appointed time' / 'set time' [mo'ed, set solemn assembly, festival] shall be the end

'...last end of the indignation for the 'set time' [mo'ed] of [the] end'
  • Self-exalting 'little horn' king is ‘broken without hand’ (cf. he-goat for 'Azazel, Lev. 16)
70 weeks (of years) [or 10 Jubilees] until final mo'ed, Jubilee Day of Atonement (Lev. 25; cf. 16)
  • 'even until the end and that which was decreed shall pour out upon [the] desolator’ (cf. he-goat for 'Azazel, Lev. 16)
Adma’atiy? (Str. 5704’4970) – ‘Until when?’ = from an unused root meaning to extend; prop. Extent (of time); but used only adv. (especially with other particles prefixed), when (either rel. or interrog.): Uses in the Hebrew Bible of adma’atiy: Exod. 10:3, 7; Num. 14:27; I Sam. 1:14; 16:1; II Sam. 2:26; I Kings 18:21; Neh. 2:6; Ps. 6:3; 74:10; 80:4; 82:2; 90:13; 94:3; Prov. 1:22; 6:9; Isa. 6:10-12 (Q & A); Jer. 4:14, 21; 12:4; 23:26; 31:22; 47:5 (parallel to another adverbial part.); Dan. 8:13-14 (Q & A); 12:6 (duration = 3½ times); Hos. 8:5; Hab. 2:6; Zech. 1:12.

Or this nearly identical chart, which details more clearly exactly what happened in the 'little horn' assault on the Prince.

The Vision of Daniel 8:1-14 and its Interpretation

Vision of Daniel 8:1-14
1st interpretation of Gabriel (Daniel 8:16-26)
2nd interpretation of Gabriel (Daniel 9:23-27)
Ram with 2 horns – great Kings of Medo-Persia 7 sabbatical ‘weeks’ [i.e., 49 years = 1st Jubilee, Lev. 25]: 
  • ‘...from the issuing of a word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.... Again it shall be built (with) broad street and trench even in the affliction of the times’ (LORD's decree  through Medo-Persian kings, see Ezra 6:14)
Shaggy He-goat with 1 Outstanding Horn – very great Grecian empire & her 1st king
4 horns to 4 directions 4-fold division to N, S, E, W
Little horn – exceedingly great (Isa. 14 allusions to Lucifer; Ez. 28) Fierce, cunning king (not by his own power) ‘the people of a coming prince’
Little horn ‘self-magnifies even to the Prince of the host’ ‘lifts up heart . . . stands against the Prince of princes’ Messiah cut off but not for Himself after 62 sabbatical ‘weeks’
Prince of the Host Prince of princes Messiah a / [the] prince
The daily taken / lifted away
In the half of the [70th sabbatical] week he shall cause the sacrifice & offering to cease …even until [the] end [3 ½ times, cf. Dan. 7:25; 12:7]
Abomination of desolation or the desolating transgression [hapesha' shemem]
‘On [the] outskirts the abominations [of] a desolator even until [the] end’ [3 ½ times, cf. Dan. 7:25; 12:7]
Sanctuary / Host / Truth trampled to the ground Destroys the mighty ones and the holy people Destroys the city & sanctuary... leaving ‘ruins’ & desolation until the end [3 ½ times, cf. Dan. 7:25; 12:7]
Little horn ‘self-magnifies even to the Prince of the host’ who under the attack loses these:
  1. The daily is taken away from Him
  2. Place of His sanctuary cast down
  3. Some of His host / stars fall & are given over with 'the daily' to the 'little horn' to be trampled until the 'vindication of the sanctuary'
‘lifts up heart . . . stands against the Prince of princes’
  1. Destroys the mighty ones and the holy people
And after 62 weeks Messiah shall be cut off and nothing is (left) to Him [i.e., idiomatic for ‘He is left with nothing’ what He had was taken away]
  1. In the half of the [70th] week he shall cause the sacrifice & offering to cease …
  2. people of a coming prince destroy city and sanctuary
  3. ‘On [the] outskirts the abominations [of] a desolator even until [the] end’ [3 ½ times, cf. Dan. 7:25; 12:7]
  • 'Until when [ad ma'atiy] (is) the vision [chazon] the daily [hatamid] and the desolating transgression [hapesha' shemem] to give both sanctuary and host to be trampled?' 
  • 'Until [ad] evenings-mornings [ereb-boqer] two thousand and three hundred, then will be vindicated [nitzedaq] (the) sanctuary.'
In the OT, the Hebrew adverbial interrogative 'Until when [ad ma'atiy]...?' always explicitly or by context implies
  1. Starting point  
  2. Specific process 
  3. Duration 
  4. End point
Dan. 8:13-14 is explicit on all four
  • The 'starting point' of the duration and specific process in the 'vision of the evening and the morning' is explicit in the question of v. 13:
4. End point = Vindication of the sanctuary
3. Duration = 2300 evenings-mornings
2. Specific Process = the trampling of sanctuary and host 
1. Starting point = when the daily was taken away (= when the trampling began)
  • ‘Vision of the evening and the morning is true'  
  • [Vindication of the sanctuary is mostly left unexplained in ch. 8 except that the 'little horn' is 'broken without hand' at the 'last end of the indignation' in a mo'ed solemnity]
  • From the ½ of the 70th [sabbatical] week 
1. Starting point = when the daily was taken away, = 'In the half of the [70th] week He shall put a Sabbath end to sacrifice and offering'
2. Specific Process = trampling of sanctuary and host = 'on the outskirts [shall be the] abominations of a desolator' 
3. Duration = 2300 evenings-mornings = 'even until the end'
4. End point = Vindication of the sanctuary = 'even until the end and that which is decreed shall pour out upon [the] desolator' ....
Vindication / justification [nitzedaq] of the sanctuary 
 
 
 

  • ‘Vision of the evening and the morning is true'
  • At the 'appointed time' / 'set time' [mo'ed] shall be the end
  • ...last end of the indignation for the 'set time' [mo'ed] of [the] end'
  • Self-exalting 'little horn' king is ‘broken without hand’
  • 70 [sabbatical] weeks decreed . . . . until accomplishment of 'the vindication of the sanctuary':
1) Finish the rebellion [hapesha‘]
2) Seal an end [khatam] to sins 
3) Atone for [kaphair] iniquity ['avon
4) Bring in everlasting righteousness [tzedeq
5) Seal an end [khatam] to vision and prophecy 
6) Anoint a Most Holy (Person or place) [qodesh qadashim]
7) Bring a (Sabbath) end to sacrifice and offering in the half of the [70th] week (cf. I Sam. 2:29; Ps. 40:7; the whole cultic-tamid services; Leupold, 1949, reprinted 1969)
8) [Final 70th sabbatical week] 'He shall confirm Covenant with the many (for) one week' [i.e., 7 'times,' cf. Dan. 4:25-6]
9) What’s decreed at last pours out on the desolator
'Vindication of the sanctuary'

At the 'appointed time' / 'set time' [mo'ed, set solemn assembly, festival] shall be the end

'...last end of the indignation for the 'set time' [mo'ed] of [the] end'
  • Self-exalting 'little horn' king is ‘broken without hand’ (cf. he-goat for 'Azazel, Lev. 16)
70 [sabbatical] weeks [or 10 Jubilees] until final mo'ed, Jubilee Day of Atonement (Lev. 25; cf. 16)
  • 'even until the end and that which was decreed shall pour out upon [the] desolator’ (cf. he-goat for 'Azazel, Lev. 16)
Adma’atiy? (Str. 5704’4970) – ‘Until when?’ = from an unused root meaning to extend; prop. Extent (of time); but used only adv. (especially with other particles prefixed), when (either rel. or interrog.): Uses in the Hebrew Bible of adma’atiy: Exod. 10:3, 7; Num. 14:27; I Sam. 1:14; 16:1; II Sam. 2:26; I Kings 18:21; Neh. 2:6; Ps. 6:3; 74:10; 80:4; 82:2; 90:13; 94:3; Prov. 1:22; 6:9; Isa. 6:10-12 (Q & A); Jer. 4:14, 21; 12:4; 23:26; 31:22; 47:5 (parallel to another adverbial part.); Dan. 8:13-14 (Q & A); 12:6 (duration = 3½ times); Hos. 8:5; Hab. 2:6; Zech. 1:12.

It is vitally important to note that all the unexplained details of the vision relate to the eschatological trampling and vindication of the sanctuary and host. Specifically listed (below and in the table above) are the eschatological unexplained details of the vision of Daniel 8:1-14:

It is most significant that these very previously unexplained eschatological details are explained in Daniel 9:24-27 and furthermore that they are chronologically placed within the sabbatical, Covenant framework of the 70 'weeks' of years.

The daily [hatamid] and its taking away. It is especially on 'the daily' that all the post-biblical schools of prophetic interpretation have fallen short in their explanations of Daniel. Rather than first letting a thorough Covenant exegesis of the prophecy help to illuminate history, these schools have in backward fashion attempted to use history (historicists, preterists) and speculation (esp. futurists) to exegete the prophecy! The preterists have interpreted 'the daily' and its taking away to refer to the removal of the daily temple sacrifice and service by Antiochus IV Ephiphanes in the 2nd century BCE. The historicists have variously interpreted 'the daily' and its taking away to refer to Roman paganism and its displacement by the Roman episcopate or to the replacement of the Gospel and the mediation of the ascended Christ by the interposition of the Roman episcopate and its system of mediation (6th century CE). The futurists have interpreted 'the daily' and its removal as the taking away of a future Jerusalem temple and its sacrifices by an antichrist in the middle of a 7 year tribulation split away from the 70 weeks and thrust far into the future. Tenaciously each school has held on to some facet dear to themselves and have each been wrong on important points.

The only (exegetical) Covenant explanation in Daniel of 'the daily' and its taking away is the "causing of the sacrifice and offering cease in the half of the [70th sabbatical] week" which is chronologically contiguous with the preceding 69 sabbatical 'weeks of years' (9:24-27). These unbroken and contiguous 70 sabbatical 'weeks of years' (Lev. 25-26; II Chron. 36; Dan. 9:1-23) start from the "word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem" (9:25) and extend to an anointed prince in climactic conflict with a 'coming prince' (9:25-27). It is this event and its resolution which is referred to in Dan. 8:13-14 and in Daniel 2, 7, and further developed in 11-12.

Some thoughts on the interpretation of the ‘the daily’. What is the hatamid or ‘the daily’? And how and when was it removed? Again especially once we recognize the underlying Covenant paradigm, there seems to be no difficulty in answering these questions. As a matter of fact exegetically there is only one single, non-repetitive event that constitutes the taking / lifting away of ‘the daily’.

There are indeed several reasons which unmistakably indicate that the removal of ‘the daily’ of Dan. 8:11-13 (and also of 11:31 and 12:11) cannot be anything else but the ‘causing of the sacrifice and offering to cease in the half of the week’ of Daniel 9:27. We summarize a few reasons below:

Further development. It has been suggested that 'the daily' (hatamid) associated with the sanctuary in Daniel 8 cannot be referring to the continual (tamid) sanctuary rituals referenced as 'sacrifice and offering' in Daniel 9, because it is used as a noun with a definite article in Daniel 8 but as an adjective or adverb in the sanctuary descriptions of the Torah. In response, let's first notice that tamid is used 30 times in the Torah, 29 of them to describe a multitude of various sanctuary rituals (and 1 time to describe YAHWEH's continual watchcare over the 'promised land'): It is immediately obvious that there was an expansive diversity of daily (tamid) sanctuary rituals (some involving sacrificial blood and some not) and some (perhaps uniquely) involving the high priest. So, why wouldn't a single definitive noun, hatamid, be used as a shorthand rubric for all the multitudinous continual (tamid) rituals connected with the sanctuary, just as 'sacrifice and offering' is used as rubric for all sacrifices and offerings in I Sam. 2:29, Ps. 40:7 (and Dan. 9:27)? Particularly if the context in Daniel calls for it (as we shall see)?

It has furthermore been suggested that because the word rum (to lift up) is used in Daniel 8:11 to describe what the 'little horn' did to 'the daily,' that therefore Daniel 8:11 cannot be referring to the same event of causing ‘sacrifice and offering to cease [yeshevuat]’ (Daniel 9:27) or ‘the taking away [sur] of the daily’ in Daniel 11:31 or 12:7, 12, but instead to the 'exaltation' of paganism by the 'little horn.' Rather than this diversity of usage pointing to divergent events, it is significant and suggestive that these terms, rum, sur, and shevuat, have specific cultic-sanctuary, or divine activity associations (shevuat, Gen. 2:1-3) in the Torah. In fact whenever the verb rum is used in a sanctuary context (21 times) in the Torah (21 times; or as a noun terumah 'offering' in the OT, 76 times), it always signifies not a mere 'lifting up' but a technical cultic action of 'offering up' or 'lifting away' or 'presenting' so as to remove or separate 'an offering' or portion from the giver and his portion, and offer it up to the receiver, or as a separating cultic action.

As always, however, it is immediate context that is decisive. In Daniel, the immediate context and parallel usage of these culticly significant terms in connection with the sanctuary and 'the daily' establish that each of the visionary passages (Dan. 8, 9, 11, 12) describe the very same sequence of climactic sanctuary events connected with the eschatological demise of the 4th empire / 'little horn' and the setting up of the kingdom of God:

        1. an incarnationally evil power and his forces,
        2. a central action of cultic significance against ‘the daily,’
        3. an attack against the sanctuary and host / city / holy people,
        4. a setting up of a ‘desolating abomination’ for a divinely limited interval,
        5. the incarnationally evil power meets his own just and final end
The culticly significant 'action against the daily' sequence in Daniel
8:11-13, 24-25
9:26-27
11:31, 33, 45
12:7-11
1. ‘little horn’ 1. ‘a coming prince’ / ‘the desolator’ 
  • ‘people of a coming prince’ 
1. ‘king of the north’ 
  • and ‘arms standing for him’ 
1. [referable to same ‘king of the north’ of ch. 11 and...] 
  • ‘they’ who ‘scatter the power of the holy people’ for 3 ½ times
2. lifts [rum] away the daily 2. puts a complete (sabbath) end [yeshevuat] to sacrifice and offering 2. takes away [sur] the daily 2. from the time the daily shall be taken away [sur]
3. casts down 
  • the place of His [Prince of the host's] sanctuary 
  • tramples sanctuary 
  • tramples host; 
  • destroys 'the mighty and the holy people'
3. destroys 
  • the city 
  • and sanctuary
3. profanes 
  • the sanctuary
  • the fortress; 
  • 'the people who know their God' ... 'fall by the sword and by flame, by exile, and by spoil (for) days'
3. 'scatters 
  • the power of the holy people’ [for 3 ½ times]
4. ‘the desolating transgression’ of the 'little horn' tramples 'sanctuary and host' until the vindication [2300 evening(s)-
morning(s)]
4. ‘upon the outskirts (shall be) the abominations of a desolator until the end’ [half-week i.e., 3½ times, cf. Dan. 7:25]  4. places the abomination that desolates (until the set time [mo’ed] of the end) 4. the abomination that desolates set up until the end of these wonders [3 ½ times; 1290 days]
5. ‘in last end of the indignation....but without hand he [little horn] shall be broken’ 5. ‘even until (the) end, and that which is decreed shall pour out on the desolator' 5. ‘and he [king of the north] shall come to his end and none shall help him’ 5. [referable to same end as 11:45: ‘and he shall come to his end and none shall help him’]

Using various parallel culticly significant terms, these passages each refer to the SAME sequence of events, and Daniel 9 provides the only Messianic and anchored, sabbatical, Covenant (conditional) time framework for these events – the 70th and last sabbatical 'week' from "the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem" (Dan. 9:24, 27). Daniel 9 provides the only time-anchored Scriptural explanation of the sequence and in so doing lays the very foundation for the eschatological claims of the New Testament about Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ (Messiah) in the 1st century CE!

Now, it is interesting that rum, a word with specific, technical cultic / sanctuary associations in the Hebrew Torah is placed in Daniel 8:10. A very good reason emerges in the explanatory parallel in Daniel 9:27. When under the assault of the ‘little horn’ / ‘desolator,’ 'the daily' is lifted [rum] away, at the same moment, a complete Sabbath end [yeshevuat] is put to the ‘sacrifice and offering’ by Messiah. [Again we see an allusion to the converse representative counterpoint of YAHWEH's goat versus Azazel's goat (Leviticus 16; see the table above entitled "Parallels between Leviticus 16, 25-26 and Daniel 8-12")].

The prophetic significance is monumental and central to the Gospel. Is it a coincidence that when Satan the real ‘little horn’ and ‘coming prince of this world’ (John 16) assaulted 'the Prince of princes,' Messiah (the real Substance of all the sanctuary rituals), lifting Him up spiked to a Roman cross (i.e., under the 4th empire), so to cut Him off left with nothing, Messiah at that very moment voluntarily offered up his life and put a Sabbath end to sacrifice and offering (Hebrews 10)?! From that time, there remained only ‘a short time’ (oligon kairon, namely 3 ½ times) allotted to the enraged but defeated and cast out dragon (Rev. 12:5-6, 7-14), [i.e., a Covenant (conditional) parallel of the last 'half of the 70th week' (namely 3 ½ times) at the end of which the 'abominations of a desolator' come to an end forever (Dan. 9:24-27)].

So in summary, it should not escape our notice that Daniel 8 and 9 are indeed Messianic (Christological) and unequivocally refer to the SAME events. Both Daniel 8 and 9 refer to

Both Daniel 8 and 9 refer to the SAME Messianic and eschatological events, culminating within the 70th sabbatical ‘week.’ Daniel 8-9 from a Covenant framework ties together both Messiah and the eschaton, both fulfillment and consummation. The book of Revelation (11-14) cites the Danielic Covenant framework likewise linking the Christ event and the consumation. To extract the events of Daniel 8-9 from their Covenant sabbatical time context in Daniel 9 and reapply them to some other time or event, so as to obscure their original context and meaning, is to lose the central meaning of the vision (whether this is done by preterists, historicists, or futurist-dispensationalists).

We will return to the Covenant time framework again.

The evenings-mornings [ereb-boqer]. "Until evenings-mornings two thousand and three hundred then shall the sanctuary be vindicated" (8:14) is the answer to the question, "Until when (is) the vision, the daily and desolating transgression, to give both sanctuary and host to be trampled?" (8:13). Ereb boqer 'evenings mornings' is used here without definite articles but in the explanation definite articles are used, 'the vision of the evening and the morning' [ha'ereb vehaboqer] (8:26). So it seems as though v. 14 speaks of evening-morning units and v. 26 may be speaking of evenings and mornings as separate, thus leading to a difference of 2300 units vs 1150 units. No other example can be cited in Scripture where evening and morning are separated into different time periods. There is apparently no compellingly interesting reason to do so here, except that 1150 units fit within the last half of the 70th week. It appears more likely that ereb-boqer is intended to denote, not 1150 units, but rather 2300 units. We should note that the 3½ times (1260 days, 42 months) are the only time period from Daniel imported into the New Testament.

The more pressing question then is why ereb-boqer is used rather than for example yamim, days? Some have argued that ereb boqer is a reference limited to the daily sacrifice. Others have suggested that it simply refers to day units like the days of Genesis 1-2 summarized as evening and morning, thus linking Creation and Judgment (Doukhan, 1987). If only simple calender days had been intended, yom and yamim could have served, especially since they are also used in Genesis 1-2. Some see these two self-limited possibilities as mutually exclusive. Of course they are not. Others have argued that ereb-boqer must be calendar days and cannot refer to the Levitical hatamid because the daily burnt sacrifices were only reckoned morning to evening. This we shall see is untenable.

Ereb boqer is used rather than yamim not because a calendar day as instituted in the Creation is excluded, but because the time units are not ordinary calendar days but rather hatamid calendar days invested with cultic significance by the very question of 8:13, "Until when (is) the vision, the daily [hatamid] and the desolating transgression, to give both sanctuary and host to be trampled?" Ereb boqer is used because it is the answer in reference to the removal of hatamid and the process of the trampling of sanctuary and host: "Until evenings-mornings two thousand and three hundred then shall the sanctuary be vindicated" (8:14).

In brief, there are three suggestive reasons and one conclusive reason for implying that ereb-boqer refers to the hatamid service of cultic calendar days rather than simply calendar days in Daniel 8:13-14:

So, in conclusion, the question, "Until when (is) the vision, [of] the daily [hatamid] and desolating transgression, to give both sanctuary and host to be trampled?" (8:13) was apparently answered with "Until 2300 evenings-mornings [tamid cycles] then shall the sanctuary be vindicated" (8:14).

Tamid & mo'ed. Tamid is used repeatedly for what occurs continually, perpetually, and daily.Mo'ed is dozens of times to refer to periodic, seasonal, and especially religious festivals and solemn assemblies. The sanctuary tent was even called the "tabernacle of the mo'ed" or "set time" or "[solemn] assembly."

Until when...? [Ad ma'atiy]. This preposition ad or "until" and the prepositional phrase ad ma'atiy or "until when" when used as an adverb of time always connote the 'duration of a process' until its completion and never just the endpoint. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, the adverbial construct of “Until when [ad ma’atiy]…?” in its context always infers (1) a starting point, (2) a specific process, (3) a duration, and (4) an end point. The duration, the process, and even the starting point are often explicitly identified and as we shall see, Daniel 8:13-14 are no exception.

Here we show a few examples from the 28 times that the interrogative 'ad ma'atiy' is used in the Hebrew Scriptures:

Statements using ad as an adverb of time often also give the duration, the process, and a starting point. The context, the question and the answer in Daniel 8:13-14 provide not only duration, but also process and starting point. "Even to the Prince of the host he [the little horn] magnified himself, and by him was taken away the daily [hatamid], and was cast down the place of His sanctuary. And a host was given [over to him] with the daily [hatamid] through transgression [pesha'], and it cast down Truth to the ground; and it worked and prospered. Then I heard..., 'Until when is the vision [of] the daily [hatamid] and the desolating transgression, to give both sanctuary and host to be trampled?' ...'Until [ad] evenings-mornings two thousand and three hundred, then shall [the] sanctuary be vindicated'" (Dan. 8:11-14). We have already seen that two words for 'vision' is applied to both the whole of verses 1-14 as well as limited to the eschatological 'trampling-vindication' portion. In these verses the end point, process, duration, and starting point of the 2300 evenings-mornings are all clearly defined.

The end point (4) is “the vindication of the sanctuary.” The duration (3) is “2300 evenings-mornings.” The specific process (2) is “the trampling of sanctuary and host.” And the starting point (1) is when the trampling begins, that is, from “the lifting / taking away of the daily.” That is why the duration (3) is explicitly expressed in terms ofevenings-mornings.” The phrase “evenings-mornings” organically links the nature of the starting point (taking away of the daily), the specific process (trampling of His sanctuary), and the Prince whose sanctuary and host were to be attacked.

The 2300 evenings-mornings duration begins with 'the lifting / taking away of the daily' [hatamid]. The only chronological aspect left unexplained in Daniel 8 is when this 'taking away of the daily' will occur. This chronological start point is explained and placed in a time framework in the 70 sabbatical 'weeks of years' in Daniel 9. "And he shall confirm Covenant with many for one week [70th week], and in the half of the [70th] week he shall cause the sacrifice and offering to cease. And upon the outskirts shall be the abominations [of] the desolator even until (the) end [ad-kalah]. And that which was decreed shall pour out on (the) desolator" (9:27).

“Until when [adma’atiy]…?” – Whole vision? Or a specific process in the vision? Does the questioner (v. 13) ask about the duration of the vision in general or about the duration of a specific process in the vision (8:10-12), namely the “little horn’s” trampling of sanctuary and host? A closer look indicates that the question is specifically about the duration of the trampling of sanctuary and host beginning with “the taking / lifting away of the daily” from “the Prince [sar] of the host.” This specific duration also brings the whole vision to a close. Throughout the OT, the Hebrew adverbial construct of “Until when [adma’atiy]…?” in its context always infers (1) a starting point, (2) a specific process, (3) a duration, and (4) an end point. Daniel 8:13-14 is no exception. The end point (4) is “the vindication of the sanctuary.” The duration (3) is “2300 evenings-mornings.” The specific process (2) is “the trampling of sanctuary and host.” And the starting point (1) is when the trampling begins, that is, from “the taking away of the daily.” That is why the duration (3) is explicitly expressed in terms ofevenings-mornings.” The phrase “evenings-mornings” organically links the nature of the starting point (taking away of the daily), the specific process (trampling of His sanctuary), and the Prince. In “the daily” sanctuary services the only role apparently unique to the high priest (also called a ‘prince’ sar) was always reckoned “from evening to morning” (cf. tamid in Ex. 27:21; Lev. 24:3). The attack of the “little horn” assaults not only the sanctuary and the host but also personally assault the Prince [sar] of the host – the real High Priest Himself. And the whole vision also comes to an end when the specific duration comes to an end – at the vindication of the sanctuary.

It is significant in understanding the question-answer of Daniel 8:13-14, to note that the one other use of “until when [ad ma’atiy]?”in Daniel seems superficially to refer to the whole vision, but the answer makes clear that it refers only to a specific eschatological process in the vision. In the final visionary section (Dan. 10-12), Daniel is told that the vision is 'shut up' and 'sealed' 'until the time of (the) end' [ad et qetz]. Daniel tentatively asks, "Until when [ad ma’atiy] (is) the end of the wonders?" (12:6), using the specific adverbial construct that implies specific starting point, process, duration, and end point. Immediately he heard "the Man clothed in linen...when He held up His right hand and His left to the heavens, and swore by Him who lives forever that '(It is) for a time, times, and a half [3 ½ times]; and when they finish scattering the power of the holy people [the host], all these (things) shall be finished" (12:7). This was the very interval introduced in Dan. 7:25 and placed in a Covenant time framework as the last half of the 70th sabbatical 'week' of Dan. 9:27 from the end of the 'sacrifice and offering.'

The question is definitively answered even though Daniel did not understand it (and was given further details):

Just like Daniel 8:13-14, the answer is about a specific eschatological process and duration connected with the 'king of the north' / 'desolator' / 'little horn' the end of the vision, and not the vision as a whole. The question "until when? [ad ma'atiy]" and its answer do not start with Persian kings (or with the 2-horned ram) but with the final desolating attack by the 'little horn' / 'desolator' / 'king of the north' against 'the daily,' the sanctuary, host, and the Prince. "There cannot be Jew nor Greek, there cannot be slave nor freeman, there cannot be male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring [Daniel's people!], and heirs according to the promise [including the promise in the prophecies of Daniel]" (Galatians 3:28-29)!

Then shall the sanctuary be vindicated [nitzedaq]. Even before examining the meaning of nitzedaq, it becomes obvious that 'the vindication of the sanctuary' must be the reversal of the onslaught of the 'little horn.'

Desecration by the little horn (LH)
Vindication
  • LH expands S, E, & W 
  • LH exalts to host of heaven & casts down some of the host & stars to the ground and tramples them 
  • LH self-magnifies to Prince of host 
  • LH takes/lifts away hatamid, the daily 
  • LH casts down place of His sanctuary 
  • Host given to LH with the daily because of pesha' 
  • Desolating transgression [pesha' shemem] set up 
  • Until when [ad ma'atiy] ... to give both sanctuary and host to be trodden down?
  • Until when [ad ma'atiy] is the vision [of] the daily and the desolating transgression, to give both sanctuary and host to be trodden down? 
  • Until evenings-mornings 2300 then shall sanctuary be vindicated

The word nitzedaq is in the passive Niphal form of tzedeq. Tzedeq and nitzedaq denote judicial Covenantal righteousness and justice. They primarily center on forensic adjudication, justification, and vindication before God's Covenant or Law. Vindication of the sanctuary and host before God's Covenant always took place on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16), especially the Jubilee Day of Atonement (Lev. 16, 25-26), which provides the whole Covenant framework of Daniel and especially the 70 year desolation and the 70 'weeks of years' of Daniel 9. So, in the context, the little horn (LH) has

So in this sabbatical Covenantal context of Daniel 8-9, 'the vindication of the sanctuary' does include a Righteous reversal by God of all that evil has done. This is exactly what is brought to light in the Covenant, Jubilee Day of Atonement explanation of the vision in Daniel 9:24-27. All the items in 9:24-27 were decreed for accomplishment within the 70 'weeks of years' both the vindication of right and establishment of eternal righteousness, the fulfillment and sealing up of prophecy, and also atonement for sin and iniquity, and the end of sin, evil, and the evil one.

Daniel 8:14 is explained in Daniel 9:24, 27 and was to be fully accomplished within the 70 sabbatical 'weeks' of years.

A historical interpretive note. Let’s remember that from about 168 BCE onward, Palestine was already in effect under the control of Rome, and so the breakup of the 4th kingdom and ‘the kingdom of God’ could have happened at any time after that and would still fit Daniel’s prophecies about 4 world kingdoms. It need not have taken centuries. Even Revelation (ca. 95 CE) describes the ‘10 horns’ as kings not yet come who would at last ‘reign one hour with the beast’ (Rev. 17:12; cf. Dan. 7:7, 24) not centuries and centuries.

A quick chronology of the late inter-testamental period (see the SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 4: 823; Bartlett, 1993; McEvedy, 1988; Greer, 2001a):

This sequence is centered within the 2 centuries leading up to Messiah and it all could have been completed very rapidly! No wonder Jesus proclaimed with reference to the 70 sabbatical 'weeks' of Daniel 9 that “the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1) and swore by a Covenant oath that “this generation shall not pass till all is fulfilled!” (Mark 13 = Matt. 24 = Luke 21).

Scholars (whether liberal, evangelical, or fundamentalist) have failed to exegetically and adequately come to terms with this Covenant oath and prediction of Jesus. The problem was first fairly and courageously recognized by Albert Schweitzer more than 120 years ago. Perhaps one reason for this failure is that most scholars have approached it as they have other prophetic passages using various linear, deterministic, Greek conceptions of time foreign to the text, rather than the Covenantal-conditional paradigm of time in which the prophets and Jesus operated.
 

The Jubilee Day of Atonement
and the fine structure of the 70 sabbatical 'weeks of years' of Daniel 9:23-27

Just as we cannot separate the question (Dan. 8:13) from its answer (Dan. 8:14), or the vision (Dan. 8:1-14) from its interpretations (Dan. 8:15-27 and Dan. 9:23-27), so likewise we cannot separate the prayer (Dan. 9:1-22) from the answer to the prayer (Dan. 9:23-27).

The PrayerA Covenant Litigation: Daniel's prayer specifically follows the penitential litigation process in the Covenant provisions of Leviticus 25-26, on behalf of Jerusalem and the children of Israel. The center of concern is always Jerusalem and Israel, God's scattered people. God's answer through Gabriel in verses 20-27 is to a large extent unintelligible without recognizing Daniel's central concern, and refusing to confuse it with our own.
 

 Leviticus 16, 25-26: The Jubilee Day of Atonement in a Diaspora setting
Daniel 9:1-22, 23-27 (Compare II Chronicles 36)
I. The Jubilee Day of Atonement
  • Your land shall keep 'sabbaths of years' & you shall number 7 'sabbaths of years' (i.e., 49 years) 
  • On the 49th year, on the 10th day of the 7th month, the Day of Atonement (when the blood of the Atonement was sprinkled on the Mercy-Seat above the Covenant & the goat for Atzatz'el was sent away in to the wilderness), the trumpet of the Jubilee was sounded 
    • To proclaim liberty throughout the land 
    • To inaugurate the year of release & rest 
    • To free and redeem all captives to their homes, families & patriarchal inheritances as the Covenant people 
    • To cancel through redemption all unpaid and unpayable debts 
    • To redeem all lands and belongings lost through debt bondage and default 
    • Because the LORD God became Surety for redemption & retribution through the substitutionary blood Atonement on the Mercy-Seat above the Covenant (i.e., confirmed the LORD as Nearest of kinsman-redeemers) 
  • And if not, your land shall keep her 'sabbaths [of years]' while you are in captivity & diaspora
II. But if they shall confess
  • Their iniquity ['avon] and their fathers' iniquity in their sin which they have sinned against Me 
  • That also they have walked contrary to Me 
  • And also that I have walked contrary to them and brought them to the land of their enemies 
  • If then their uncircumcised heart be humbled  
  • And they have then paid for their iniquity ['avon]
III. Then shall I remember
  • My Covenant with Jacob, My Covenant with Isaac, and also My Covenant with Abraham 
  • The land (for the land shall be forsaken by them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths [of years] in the desolation [shamah] without them & they shall enjoy their iniquity...) 
  • And even for all that when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them 
  • Nor will I hate them, to consume them, to break My Covenant 
  • For I am the LORD their God
I. The Jubilee Day of Atonement
  • Seventy weeks [of years] are determined upon your people and your holy city 
    • To finish the transgression 
    • To seal an end to sins 
    • To atone for iniquity 
    • To bring in everlasting righteousness 
    • To seal an end to vision and prophecy 
    • To anoint the Holiest 
    • Until Messiah [a] prince....Messiah shall be cut off but not for Himself 
    • And that which is decreed shall pour out on the desolator 
II. The confession:
  • We have sinned and done wickedly and iniquitously 
  • We have rebelled 
  • We have turned from Your commandments and judgments 
  • We have not listened to Your servants the prophets who spoke in Your name to our kings, our rulers, to our fathers, and to all the people of the land 
  • To You righteousness, but to us shame of faces at this day, to the men of Judah and to the residents of Jerusalem, and to all Israel who are near and afar through all the lands where You have scattered them for their unfaithfulness which they have done against You 
  • To the Lord our God belong mercies and pardons, for we have rebelled against Him 
  • We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His laws 
  • Yea, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and veered from obeying Your voice 
  • Therefore, the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses has poured out on us 
  • He has confirmed against us the words which He spoke against us by bringing a great evil on us, which has not been done under the whole heavens as it has been done to Jerusalem 
  • Yet we failed to make our prayer before the face of the LORD our God so we might turn from our perversities and understand Your truth 
  • So the LORD has watched over the evil and brought it upon us
III. The supplication & call for the Lord ['adoniy] God to remember....:
  • And now O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made a name for Yourself today, we have sinned and done wickedly 
  • O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, please turn back Your anger and Your fury from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain. For because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people [are] a reproach to all those around us. 
  • And now listen, O our God to the prayer of Your servant... 
  • Make Your face shine on Your sanctuary [qodesh] for the Lord's sake 
  • Incline, O my God, Your ear and hear! 
  • Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by Your name! 
  • For not on account of our righteousnesses do we present our supplication before you, but on account of Your great mercies! 
  • O Lord, hear! 
  • O Lord, forgive! 
  • O Lord, listen and act! 
  • Do not delay, for Your own sake, O my God, for Your name is called on Your city and on Your people!

It should not escape our notice as we examine Levitic Covenant language in Daniel 8-9 that the lawsuit-verdict of Daniel 9 is in the form of the Near Eastern suzerainty covenant-treaty.
 

Daniel 9 – The Covenant lawsuit of Daniel 
& Covenant judgment of YAHWEH
Precedent Biblical / historical sources
Allusions in later Biblical literature including Revelation
   1In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the seed of the Chaldeans; 
2In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books, the number of the years which came (as) the word of YAHWEH to Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish 70 years for the desolations of Jerusalem.
3And I set my face toward the Lord God ['Adonai Ha'Elohim], to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and dust.
4And I prayed to YAHWEH my God, and confessed and said, 'I pray, O Lord ['Adonai] the great and awesome God ['El], who keeps the Covenant and lovingkindness to those who keep His commands.
v1 – 'first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus' = 521 BCE (Thiele, 1983).
 
 

I. Identificatory preamble

v1-4 – Identification: Suzerain = YAHWEH our Lord God; vassals = Daniel, sons of Israel; vassal state = Jerusalem

v3-4 – Institution of a vassal's covenant lawsuit (!)

   5We have sinned and done iniquity and evilly, and have rebelled, and have turned from Your commandments and judgments.
6And we have not listened to Your servants the prophets who spoke in Your name to our kings, our rulers, to our fathers, and to all the people of the land
7To You (belongs) righteousness, but to us shame of faces at this day, to the men of Judah and to the residents of Jerusalem, and to all Israel who are near and afar through all the lands where You have scattered them for their unfaithfulness which they have done against You.
8O Lord, to us (belongs) shame of faces, to our kings, to our rulers, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against You.
9To the Lord our God belong mercies and pardons, for we have rebelled against Him,
10and we have not obeyed the voice of YAHWEH our God, to walk in His laws which He set before us by His servants the prophets.
II. Historical recital (prologue)

v5-8 – Historical recital of the litany of the vassal's acts of rebellion and disloyalty to the great Suzerain & the Suzerain's bringing Covenant / treaty sanction against the vassal state

v9-10 – Litany of the Suzerain's benevolent deeds = our Lord God's mercies and pardons & His just laws through the prophets

11Yea, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and veered from obeying Your voice. Therefore, the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses has poured out on us.
12And He has confirmed against us the words which He spoke against us by bringing a great evil on us, which has not been done under the whole heavens as it has been done to Jerusalem.
13As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come on us, yet we failed to make our prayer before the face of YAHWEH our God so we might turn from our perversities and understand Your truth.
III. / IV. Covenant / Treaty stipulations & sanctions

v11,13 – Covenant / treaty stipulations specified = law of Moses & as turning away from vassal perversities and understanding the truth of the Suzerain

v12 – Acknowledgment of the Suzerain's confirmed just fulfillment of the covenant / treaty sanctions against the wayward vassal


14So YAHWEH has watched over the evil and brought it upon us.
For YAHWEH our God (is) righteous in all His works which He does,
for we did not obey His voice.
15And now, O Lord our God, who has brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty, and has made for Yourself a name as (it is) this day;
we have sinned, we have done evilly.
   16O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, please let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain.
For because of our sins and of [the] iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people (have become) a reproach to all around us.
17And now listen, O our God, to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications, 
And make Your face shine on your sanctuary [miqedash] that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.
18Incline, O my God, Your ear and hear.
Open Your eyes and see our desolations, 
and city which is called by Your name.
For not on account of our righteousnesses do we present our supplication before You but according to Your great mercies.
19O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! 
Do not delay for Your own name sake, O my God, for Your name is called on Your city and on Your people.
IV. Covenant / Treaty sanctions fulfilled & lawsuit plea bargain

v14 – Vassal's acknowledgement of the Suzerain's righteous judgment and the vassal's guilt and delinquency

v15 – Brief historical recapitution of Suzerain's past might deliverance & glorious reputation

v16-19 – Vassal's covenant lawsuit plea to the Suzerain for atonement-covering & re-confirmation and ratification of the covenant / treaty for the Suzerain's own sake and name / honor

v29 – Resembles a covenant oath

   20And while I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin, and sin of my people Israel, and causing my supplication to fall before YAHWEH my God for the holy mountain of my God; 
21and while I was speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision [chazon] at the beginning [when] exhausted in my exhaustion [me'aph phe'yaph], touched me about the time of the evening sacrifice. 
22And he distinguished and talked with me, and said, 'O Daniel, now I have come to give you skill in understanding: 
23At the beginning of your supplications a word came forth, and I have come to declare, for you are greatly beloved; so heed the matter and understand the vision [mar'eh]:

24Seventy weeks are decreed as to your people and as to your holy city, 

  • To stop [kala’ or perh. kalah ‘finish’] the rebellion [pesha‘ = transgression, revolt, abomination]
  • To completely seal an end [khatam] [of] sins [chattath]
  • To atone-cover for [kaphair] iniquity ['avon]
  • To bring in everlasting righteousness [tzedeq]
  • To completely seal an end [khatam] [to] vision and prophecy
  • To anoint the Most Holy [qodesh qadashim].
25Then know and understand:
From the issuing of a word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem
Until Messiah a Prince [shall be] seven weeks and sixty-two weeks 
Again it shall be built [with] street and wall even in the affliction of the times
26And after the sixty-two weeks, shall Messiah be cut off and nothing [left] to Him [i.e., idiomatic for 'He is left with nothing']
And the city and the sanctuary shall the people of a coming prince destroy
And its end [qatz] [shall be] with the flood
And until [the] end [’ad-qatz] [shall be] war; desolations are decreed.
  • 27And He shall confirm Covenant with the many (for) one week 
  • And in the half of the week He shall put a Sabbath end [shebuat] to sacrifice and offering
And upon the outskirts [shall be the] abominations [of] a desolator even until [the] end [’ad-kalah]
  • And that which was decreed shall pour out upon the desolator.
V. Covenant / Treaty continuity – 
re-ratification & perpetuity

v21 – Covenant / treaty / vision confirmation came at the time of the evening sacrifice (a re-ratification) – for vision / parallelism, cf. Isa. 28; Hab. 2

v24 – Covenant / treaty perpetuity renewed & confirmed: Levitic Covenant Jubilee Day of Atonement at the end of 'weeks of years' (Lev. 25-26; II Chron. 36). The elements of Covenant for Israel, transgression, sins, iniquity, atonement, righteousness, an end, Most Holy, and anointing are all found together only in one other place in the OT, the Day of Atonement, Lev. 16:

  • An everlasting Covenant is 'cut' / 'decreed' for Daniel's people and holy city (vassals, vassal state) with YAHWEH (Suzerain)
  • Perpetual end to the transgression (abomination, rebellion, Dan. 8)
  • Perpetual & sealed end to sins
  • Atonement-covering [kaphair] for iniquity
  • Perpetual righteousness [tzedeq] ushered in (cf. Dan. 8:14 nitzdaq)
  • Perpetual & sealed end to vision and prophecy (a Covenant confirmation where 'vision' & 'prophecy' & 'covenant' are parallel (cf. Isa. 28, Hab. 2). 
  • Perpetual new Most Holy anointed – inner sanctum for Covenant / treaty & perpetual succession of high priest (also called most holy)
v25 – Succession of Messiah & the re-building of Jerusalem

v26-27 – Fulfillment of the Covenant / treaty atonement-covering & sanctions (curse & ultimate blessing), Lev. 16; 25-26; Deut 32.

  • Messiah 'cut off' in Covenant self-maledictory oath confirmation & left with nothing; cf. Suzerain as Night Stranger in disguise not prevailing with vassal in Gen. 32; YAHWEH's goat disguised until known by lot & then slain to confirm Covenant and make atonement-covering on the Day of Atonement, Lev. 16; cf. of YAHWEH disguised as a man & pierced by father and mother as a false prophet before the destruction of Jerusalem and her final vindication, Zech. 12-14; Righteousness of God publicly slain as Mercy-Seat before Law and Prophets in Day of Atonement judgment of God, Rom. 3:1-28; Covenant-judgment confirming Lion of Judah's tribe disguised as a slain Lamb, Rev. 4-5.
  • Messiah left with nothing – Stripped of host, the daily, and the place of the sanctuary, Dan. 8:10-13
  • City & sanctuary destroyed by alien prince and his people, enemies / goyimJerusalem to be trodden under foot by the gentiles until the times of the gentiles are fulfilled, Luke 21; Rev. 11
  • Suzerain's mediator confirms covenant-testament by own demise = death of the testator in succession (Lev. 16; cf. Heb. 9-10)
  • Mid-week (3½ times), Messiah confirms Covenant / treaty by putting a Sabbath end or completion to sacrifice and offering through death, both ratifying and atoning-covering, cf. YAHWEH's goat on the Day of Atonement, Lev. 16; Sabbath-end echoes Covenant Sabbath seal-sign of Ex. 20 = Deut. 5, and Lev. 16
  • Last half of week (3½ times) 'abominations of a desolator on the outskirts' = 3½ times (Dan. 7:25; 12:7), when 'the daily' removed, sanctuary desecrated, 'abomination' set up (8:9-13; 11:31; 12:11), and scattering of the holy people (12:7),cf. scapegoat and abominations 'pour out' on scapegoat which is led outside the camp; cf. judgment & ascent of Man-Child & judgment followed by 1260 days=42 months=3 ½ times (Rev. 11, 12, 13).
  • Leviticus 16 – Yom Kippur's substitutionary atonement-covering included (1) the ratification-sacrificial justice, i.e., YAHWEH's goat 'cut off' violently at the altar and blood applied on the Ark of the Covenant and (2) a final retributive justice, i.e., non-violent perishing of the banished scapegoat & the burning of the animal leftovers outside the camp
  • Dan. 9:27 ~ 12:13: Final lot of judgment (with YAHWEH's goat or scapegoat, Lev. 16) & final lot of restored inheritance (Jubilee Day of Atonement restoration, Lev. 25-26)
Final redemption and perpetual restoration of 'your people and holy city' by Michael the great prince standing for your people shall deliver your people, every one found written in the book (9:24, 27; 11:45-12:3, 7, 13); cf. Scroll of Life in Phil. 4:3; Rev. 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:15; 21:27
(Greer, 2002)

The Covenant-treaty lawsuit and judgment of Daniel 9 contains Gabriel's explanation of the previously unexplained details of the Covenant vision of Daniel 8:1-14. This vision contains the central question and its answer which together make the Covenant heart and climax of the entire book of Daniel.

The Answer – A Covenant Judgment: God's answer also follows the Covenantal Jubilee Day of Atonement litigation process in Leviticus 25-26, and is likewise an inseparable intertwining of redemption, the Jubilee Day of Atonement, and Messiah with "your people and your holy city" Jerusalem (i.e., Daniel's central concern). There is no disconnect between the two as we have tended to imagine.

Any chiastic structures which may be present do not divide but rather tend to closely intertwine the destinies of the city, people, and Messiah. A few possible chiastic arrangements are suggested below.

i) And while I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin, and sin of my people Israel, and causing my supplication to fall before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God; and while I was speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision [chazon] at the beginning [when] exhausted in my exhaustion [me'aph phe'yaph], touched me about the time of the evening sacrifice. And he distinguished and talked with me, and said, 'O Daniel, now I have come to give you skill in understanding: At the beginning of your supplications a word came forth, and I have come to declare, for you are greatly beloved; so heed the matter and understand the vision:

Seventy weeks [10 Jubilee cycles] are decreed as to your people and as to your holy city

(a) To stop [kala’ or perh. kalah ‘finish’] the rebellion [pesha‘ = revolt, abomination]
    (b) To completely seal an end [khatam] [of] sins
        (c) To atone for [kaphair] iniquity ['avon]
(a’) To bring in everlasting righteousness [tzedeq]
    (b’) To completely seal an end [khatam] [to] vision and prophecy
        (c’) To anoint the Most Holy [qodesh qadashim]

                                            Or

(a) To stop [kala’] the rebellion [pesha‘ = revolt, abomination]
    (b) To completely seal an end [khatam] [of] sins
        (c) To atone for [kaphair] iniquity ['avon]
        (c’) To bring in everlasting righteousness [tzedeq]
    (b’) To completely seal an end [khatam] [to] vision and prophecy
(a’) To anoint the Most Holy [qodesh qadashim].
 

ii) Then know and understand:

(a) From the issuing of a word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem
    (b) Until Messiah a Prince (shall be) seven weeks and sixty-two weeks [one and nine Jubilees]
        (c) Again it shall be built (with) plaza and trench even in the affliction of the times
            (d) And after the sixty-two weeks, shall Messiah be cut off and not for Himself
        (c’) And the city and the sanctuary shall the people of a coming prince destroy
    (b’) And its end [qatz] (shall be) with the flood
(a’) And until (the) end [’ad-qatz] (shall be) war; desolations are decreed.

(a) And he shall confirm Covenant with many (for) one week [last sabbatical week of 10th Jubilee].
    (b) And in the half of the week [End of 1st half week or 3 ½ times] he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering
    (b’) And upon the outskirts (shall be) [the] abominations [of] a desolator even until (the) end [’ad-kalah]
(a’) And that which was decreed shall pour out upon the desolator. [End of 2nd half week or 3 ½ times]

                                            Or

(a) And he shall confirm Covenant with many (for) one week.
    (b) And in the half of the week [End of 1st half week or 3 ½ times] he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering
(a’) And upon the outskirts (shall be) [the] abominations [of] a desolator even until (the) end [’ad-kalah]
    (b’) And that which was decreed shall pour out upon the desolator. [End of 2nd half week or 3 ½ times]

It is tempting to see in the Covenant answer one chiasm. At any rate, Daniel 9:23-27 is indeed the answer to Daniel's Covenant prayer (9:1-22) requesting messianic redemption for Israel and for Jerusalem, the holy mountain called by My name.

(a) To stop [kala’] the rebellion [pesha‘ = revolt, abomination] [s]
    (b) To completely seal an end [khatam] [of] sins [pl]
       (c) To atone for [kaphar] iniquity
            (d) To bring in everlasting righteousness [tzedeq]
                (e) To completely seal an end [khatam] [to] vision and prophecy
                    (f) To anoint the Most Holy [qodesh qadashim].
                        (g) From the issuing of a word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem
                            (h) Until Messiah a Prince (shall be) seven weeks and sixty-two weeks [1 & 9 Jubilees]
                                (i) Again it shall be built (with) plaza and trench even in the affliction of the times
                            (h') And after the sixty-two weeks, shall Messiah be cut off and not for Himself
                        (g’) And the city and the sanctuary shall the people of a coming prince destroy
                    (f’) And its end [qatz] (shall be) with the flood
                (e’) And until (the) end [’ad-qatz] (shall be) war; desolations are decreed.
            (d') And he shall confirm Covenant with many (for) one week [last sabbatical week of 10th Jubilee].
        (c') And in the half of the week [End of 1st half week or 3 ½ times] he shall put an end [yeshebuat] to sacrifice and offering
    (b’) And upon the outskirts (shall be) [the] abominations [of] a desolator even until [the] end [’ad-kalah] [plural]
(a’) And that which was decreed shall pour out upon the desolator. [End of 2nd half week or 3 ½ times] [singular]

Do the suggested letters and their primes signify synonomous meanings or antonymous meanings? Or could it be both! The obviously paradoxical intertwining of the roles of Messiah and the evil 'coming prince' could well find their explication in the Levitical-Covenantal context of Lord's goat and the scapegoat in the Jubilee Day of Atonement ritual (Leviticus 16, 25-26).

Sabbath and sabbatical. An even more interesting possibility is that Dan. 9:23-27 follows a Creation-Sabbath pattern like that in Gen. 1-2: Prologue, days 1-6 corresponding (1-4, 2-5, 3-6), and 7th day (epilogue) as pointed out by Kikawada & Quinn (1985) and also the pattern later appearing in Revelation (Christoffel, 2002) such that the groups of 'sevens' are organized in a sequence of 6 items, an interlude, and the 7th item:

Genesis 1-2:3

1. Prologue – In the beginning God created heaven & earth...dark...formless...void...Spirit hovers over the abyss
(i) Day 1 – Let there be light.... God divides Day and Night
    (ii) Day 2 – Let there be an expanse in the waters.... God divides waters above / below Sky
        (iii) Day 3 – Let the waters under be gathered into one place.... God divides Earth / Sea
(iv) Day 4 – Let there be lights in the expanse.... God divides rulership, seasons, days, and years
    (v) Day 5 – Let the waters swarm with life and the Sky with birds.... God divides Sea dwellers / Sky birds
        (vi) Day 6 – Let the Earth bring forth living creatures....
2. Interlude – Let us make Man in our image, and give him dominion over the all living creation.... God divides Man / creation
3. Epilogue – Sabbath
(vii) Day 7 – On the 7th day God completed, hallowed, and blessed the 7th day, because in it He completed His work (cf. 'confirmed a Covenant week')

In Genesis 1-2, you a temporal prologue ('In the beginning'), six items having been accomplished, an interlude focused on man as ruler established, and a Sabbath. So likewise in Dan. 9:24-27, you have a temporal prologue ('Seventy weeks are decreed'), six items yet to be accomplished, an interlude focused on Messiah as ruler cut off, and a Sabbatical and Sabbath ending.

1. PrologueSeventy weeks are decreed [by God] as to your people and as to your holy city
(i) To stop [kala’] the rebellion [pesha‘ = revolt, abomination] [s]
    (ii) To completely seal an end [khatam] [of] sins [pl]
        (iii) To atone for [kaphar] iniquity
(iv) To bring in everlasting righteousness [tzedeq]
    (v) To completely seal an end [khatam] [to] vision and prophecy
        (vi) To anoint the Most Holy [qodesh qadashim].
2. Interlude –           From the issuing of a word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem
                                Until Messiah [the] Prince [shall be] seven weeks and sixty-two weeks [1 & 9 Jubilees]
                                Again it shall be built [with] street and trench even in the affliction of the times
                                And after the sixty-two weeks, shall Messiah be cut off and not for Himself
                                And the city and the sanctuary shall the people of a coming prince destroy
                                And its end [qatz] [shall be] with the flood
                                And until [the] end [’ad-qatz] [shall be] war; desolations are decreed.
3. Epilogue – Sabbath/sabbatical:
(vii)  And he shall confirm Covenant with many [for] one week [last sabbatical week].
        And in the half of the week [1st 3 ½] he shall put a Sabbath end [yeshebuat] to sacrifice and offering
        And upon the outskirts [shall be the] abominations [of] a desolator even until [the] end
        And that which was decreed shall pour out upon the desolator. [End of 2nd 3 ½]

It is further fascinating to note that Creation accounts in Scripture are rich in allusion to ancient Near Eastern creation stories in which, the gods by creating earth and people, conquer the abyss, chaos and night (Job 9, 38; Ps. 104; and elsewhere). So likewise, Messiah conquers transgression, sin, and iniquity by being cut off, so putting a sabbath end to sacrifice and offering, establishing eternal righteousness, anointing the Holiest, and ending all evil.

A note on the pronoun antecedent in Daniel 9:27. Is the 'he' who confirms Covenant with many for one week Messiah or the evil 'coming prince'? A short quote:

Two princes & two goats. Sar is a military prince/commander, but can also be applied to the high priest (Ezra 8:29) and other leading priests (I Chron. 24:5; II Chron. 36:14; Ezra 8:24). Nagid is kingly in connotation. Both are used in Daniel 8-9.

The counterparts, the two opposing princes in Daniel 8-12 are the Prince of the host / Prince of princes / Messiah the Prince, and the evil ‘little horn’ /  ‘king of the north’ /  ‘coming prince’/ 'desolator.' The seeming intertwining of actions by the good prince and the dark prince parallel the intertwining counterparts of the Lord's goat and the goat for Azazel in Leviticus 16 (as cited in this same table earlier):

Parallels between Leviticus 16, 25-26 and Daniel 8-12

Leviticus 16 (25-26) & other texts
Daniel 8-12
  • ' 7 sabbaths of years' 
  • Jubilee Day of Atonement = the climaxing mo'ed [solemn assembly] at the end of the 'sabbaths of years'; a judgment & vindication of sanctuary & Covenant people & ceremonial end of evil (upon the scapegoat)
  • Vindication & atonement for sanctuary & people for pollutions [chalal], transgressions, sins, and iniquities 
  • Covenant people justified & righteousness established through Day of Atonement climax of the sacrificial year
  • Ram for burnt offering enters from E toward W [sanctuary] & is completely burnt up 
  • Two he-goats ['ez, ha'ezim] chosen by lot for the LORD & for 'Azaz'el; a judgment choice 
  • LORD's goat = cut off violently at 4 horns of altar & later used to atone in the Holiest 
  • 'Azaz'el he-goat = perishes non-violently alone in the wilderness bearing the transgressions, sins, & iniquities of Israel 
  • Hatamid continued on & consummated on the Day of Atonement (Num. 29:7-11) when Covenant was confirmed 
  • Part of hatamid unique to high priest = arranging the 7-menorah lamps & holy oil was reckoned from evening to morning [me'ereb ad boqer] (Ex. 27:20-21; Lev. 24:2-4; cf. Ex. 30:7-8)
  • In the Most Holy Place, on the Ark of the Covenant, there were two golden angels, cherubim (God dwells between the cherubim, cf. Ps. 99)
  • In the context of the Jubilee Day of Atonement, Lev. 25-26 present a Covenant litigation framework for restoration from a Sabbatical desolation of the Covenant 'promised land' and a diaspora of the Covenant people
  • Implied judgment: Goat for the Lord and goat for 'Azaz'el determined and separated by lot [goral] (Lev. 16:7-10)
  • Leviticus 16 is one of only two passages in the OT where are gathered together the following Hebrew elements and concepts: 
    • "Atonement," 
    • "righteousness" in atoning for the sanctuary 
    • "righteousness" in that all the people "shall be clean before YAHWEH"
    • atonement for and removal of "transgression," 
    • atonement for and removal of "iniquity," 
    • atonement for and removal of "sins," 
    • "Most Holy," 
    • "anointing [of a person, the high priest]," 
    • "a Sabbath of rest" (10th day of 7th month), 
    • implied yearly confirmation of Covenant
  • ' 70 weeks [of years]' (cf. 'weeks of days' in 10:3) 
  • End of the vision = to climax in a mo'ed at end of 'weeks of years'; a judgment / vindication of sanctuary and host / holy people of the Covenant and final end of evil(upon the desolator) = finish the transgression, seal an end to sins, atone for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal an end to vision and prophecy, and anoint a Most Holy
  • Vindication / atonement for sanctuary & people for transgression, sins, iniquity, & pollution [chalal] of the 'little horn' / 'king of the N' 
  • Covenant confirmed & everlasting righteousness ushered in or established final atonement putting a 'Sabbath end to sacrifice and offering'
  • Ram enters from E toward Glorious [sanctuary, W] & is completely destroyed 
  • He-goat ['ez, ha'ezim] with great horn broken followed by 4 horns to 4 directions 
  • Prince of host / Prince of princes / Messiah a Prince / Prince of a Covenant attacked, broken, & cut off violently 
  • 'Little horn' / 'king of the N' / fierce-faced ['az-faced] king broken without hand, coming to his end with none to help him, with the desolations decreed being poured out upon him 
  • Hatamid taken away & caused to cease in a broken week (3 ½ times), i.e., the last week of years (7 times) of the 70 when Covenant was to be confirmed
  • Duration from the 'taking away' of hatamid & 'ending sacrifice & offering' until the 'vindication of the sanctuary' reckoned in high priestly hatamid reckoning = 2300 ereb-boqer, evening-morning[s]
  • In Daniel 8:13-14, there is dialogue, a Q&A between two holy ones (cf. two cherubim on Ark of the Covenant?)
  • In the intercessory prayer ofDaniel 9:1-22, Daniel appeals in Covenant litigation to Jeremiah's prophecy (Jer. 25:9, 11, 12; 29:10) which is the framework of Lev. 26:34-35, 43 (cf. II Chron. 36:17-21) bringing a Covenant judgment suggestive of a final Jubilee Day of Atonement in Daniel 9:23-27 (cf. 1st century 11Q13 or 11QMelchizedeq fragment from Qumran). 
  • Implied judgment: Daniel must 'rest [in death] and stand in your lot [goral] at the end of the days' (Daniel 12:13)
  • Daniel 8-9 (especially vs. 24-27) is the one other passage in the OT where are gathered together the following Hebrew elements and concepts: 
    • "Atonement," 
    • "vindicating" the sanctuary 
    • [bringing in] "everlasting righteousness," 
    • [finishing] "transgression," 
    • [atoning for] "iniquity," 
    • [ending] "sins," 
    • "anointing of the Most Holy" [may apply in context to both a Person and/or a Place],
    • "an anointed One [Meshiach] a Prince" 
    • "Sabbath end to sacrifice and offering" 
    • eschatological confirmation of Covenant
Extra-biblical evidence on the meaning of the 'scapegoat' or the he-goat for 'Azaz'el as understood by Jews of ca. the 1st century BCE-CE, as suggested by manuscript evidence from Qumran Cave 4: 4Q181, Frag. 2 [4Q Ages of Creation]: ‘[to Abraham until he sire]d Isaac; [the ten generations. 'Azaz'el and the angels who penetrated] the daughters of] man and sired gian[ts] by them […] to Israel in the seventieth week to […]

Below are some NT references to ‘Messiah the Prince’ and the evil ‘coming prince’ by Jesus and His contemporaries in the 1st century CE:

How can one distinguish between the two rulers in 9:26-27? Differentiating the two princes or rulers, Christ and antichrist, and identifying ‘the daily’ and its removal in Daniel 8-9 is actually very straightforward, especially if one sees that Lev. 16, 25-26 provide the Covenant paradigm underlying these passages. Please note that 11Q13 (11QMelchizedeq – ca. 1st century BC) states the same basic messianic, Jubilee Day of Atonement / Judgment interpretation of Daniel 9’s 70 weeks as we outline here. On the Day of Atonement, the Lord’s goat was cut off violently, and the scapegoat perished outside the camp bearing the sins. In vs. 26-27, sentence structure and the nature of their respective activities make the two counterparts easy to distinguish:
 
Messiah / ‘Prince of host’ 
= subject of the sentence
‘little horn’ / ‘coming prince’ 
= object of a prepositional phrase
V26 – And after 62 weeks shall Messiah be cut off and nothing is (left) to Him [i.e., idiomatic for ‘He is left with nothing’] V26 – and the people of a coming prince shall destroy the city and the sanctuary 

[It is an alien power which attacks the city and sanctuary, not Messiah’s people – the destroying people belong to 'a coming prince']

V27 – And He shall confirm Covenant with many for one week; and in the half of the week He shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease V27 – and upon the outskirts shall be the abominations of a desolator even until the end, and that decreed shall pour out on the desolator

[On the outskirts – the abominations belong to a desolator]

As we look closer we that there is an even more detailed counterpart and parallel structure between Messiah and 'little horn' / 'coming prince' unifying vs. 26 and 27. It further shows that Messiah was cut off not only after the 62 weeks but ‘in the half of the 70th week’ at the very time ‘sacrifice and offering’ were taken away:
 

Verse 26
Verse 27
Messiah / ‘Prince of host’
(Subj.)
‘little horn’ / ‘coming prince’ 
(obj. of prep.)
Messiah / ‘Prince of host’ 
(Subj.)
‘little horn’ / ‘coming prince’
(obj. of prep.)
a) And after 62 weeks Messiah shall be cut off a’) and the people of a coming prince shall destroy the city and the sanctuary and its end (shall be) with the flood a) And He shall confirm Covenant with many for 1 week a’) And upon the outskirts [the] abominations of a desolator
b) and nothing is (left) to Him
[i.e., idiomatic for ‘He is left with nothing’]
b’) And until (the) end (shall be) war b) And in the half of the week He shall make cease sacrifice and offering 
[put a Sabbath end to…]
b’) Even until (the) end
c’) Desolations are decreed
c’) And that decreed shall pour out on the desolator

Recognizing the tight counterpoint structure between Messiah and antichrist (as per the Covenant paradigm of Lev. 16), it becomes immediately obvious that vs. 26-27 concern the universal battle between Christ and antichrist between Cross and Advent, not mere local events like 'the stoning of Stephen,' the destruction of Jerusalem, or a localized endtime 'tribulation' scenario. The stage, the actors, and the events are far too vast. “Until the end” when “that decreed shall pour out on the desolator” is equivalent to ‘finishing the transgression and bringing in everlasting righteousness.’ It is equivalent to the breaking of the ‘dark ruler’ without hand when the sanctuary is vindicated (8:14, 25). It is equivalent to the kingdoms of earth being crushed and replaced by the growing mountain of the kingdom of God (2:44-45). It is equivalent to the Son of man receiving His kingdom when all peoples serve him and the opposing kingdoms of darkness being destroyed (7:13-14, 26). It is equivalent to the ‘king of the north’ coming to his end with none to help him when ‘Michael the prince standing for the sons of your people’ stands up (11:45-12:1).

Chattaq in Daniel 9:24 What it does not mean. The usage of chattaq in Daniel 9:24 is unique in all of Scripture, a hapax legomena. "Seventy weeks are decreed [chattaq] upon your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression [pesha'], to seal an end [khatam] to sins, to atone [kaphar] for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness [tzedeq], and to seal an end [khatam] to vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Holiest [qodesh qadashim]." Chattaq in v. 24 is in the passive, Niphal form. Its concrete root meaning is literally "to cut" and it also seemed to have the more metaphorical meaning of "decree" or "determine" or "divide" or "allot" as in to "cut" a covenant or decree or allotment (see Shea, 1986; Ford, 1996). What it evidently does not mean is "cut off from." That a metaphorical meaning was already known by the time of Daniel (6th century BC), and may have always been present, is suggested by the Ugaritic Caananite cognate verb which was used to indicate the idea of "cutting" of a son from a father (13th century BC; Shea, 1986). It is potentially illuminating that a "covenant cutting" ritual seems to have been very old as alluded to in Gen. 15 (i.e., the cutting and dividing of the sacrificial animals until evening in God's Covenant with Abraham regarding his descendents). If such a custom had an influence on the Covenant nature of the verb, then from the very beginning, the literal thought of "to cut" might well have been linked to the more abstract Covenant conception of "to determine" or "allot."

While comparative usage is illuminating, the crucial question is, What meaning of chattaq is explicitly imposed by the context of Daniel? To be more specific, does Daniel hold that a certain time period cut off from a longer time period is alloted to "your people and to your holy city" after which the events prophesied refer to "another" Covenant people and holy city beside Israel and Jerusalem, as has been held by many Christian commentators? Or does Daniel recognize that the consummation and final triumph of good over evil is always in the context of "your people and your holy city," Israel and Jerusalem? Of course, the answer to this question is unambiguous and easily determined:

Relevance for Christians. What Christians have often failed to notice is that there is nothing even remotely 'dispensational' in either the Old Testament or the New Testament. Every one who is saved must become part of Israel (Ps. 73:1), saved under the terms of the Covenant with Abraham in whom all families of earth are to be blessed, whether as a 'natural olive branch' or as a grafted in 'wild olive branch' (Rom. 11). "God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham" (Matt. 3:9 = Luke 3:8). Indeed "salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22). Jesus was sent to no one else but only to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel" i.e., every person in every nation (Matt. 15:24). Israel was reminded that "your mother [was] an Hittite, and your father an Amorite" (Ez. 16:45). At the Jerusalem Council, "Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name" (Acts 15:14). Isaiah had earlier prophesied that "The Lord GOD which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather [others] to him, beside those that are gathered unto him" (Isa. 56:8). In Mark 12:29, "And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments [is], Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord."

Note the following collection of New Testament texts on the Israel of God:

Gal. 6:14  But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me,
and I unto the world.
 6:15  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any
thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
 6:16  And as many as walk according to this rule, peace [be]
on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

Eph.  2:12  That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens
from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the
covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the
world....

Heb. 8:8  ... Behold, the days come, saith the Lord,
when I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah:
8:9  Not according to the covenant that I made with their
fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them
out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my
covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
8:10  For this [is] the covenant that I will make with the
house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my
laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I
will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people....

"And when you see Jerusalem being encircled by armies, then know that its desolation has drawn near.... And Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the gentiles until the times of the Gentiles [nations, ethnoi] are fulfilled [3 ½ times]" (Luke 21:20, 24).

"...'Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those worshipping in it. And the court outside the temple cast outside, and do not measure it, because it is given to the gentiles, and the holy city they will trample 42 months [3 ½ times]'" (Rev. 11:1-2).

The faithful church was to distinguish and be distinct from those who say they are Jews but are not (Rev. 2:9; 3:9). "Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they [are] not all Israel, which are of Israel" (Rom. 9:6).

Rom. 11:15 For if the casting away of them [be] the reconciling of the world,
what [shall] the receiving [of them be], but life from the dead?"
11:16  For if the firstfruit [be] holy, the lump [is] also
[holy]: and if the root [be] holy, so [are] the branches.
11:17  And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou,
being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with
them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;....
 11:25  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant
of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits;
that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness
of the Gentiles be come in.
 11:26  And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written,
There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away
ungodliness from Jacob:

The vast multitude of Rev. 7 which are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ all seem to be part of the 144,000 of the 12 tribes of Israel (Neall, 2001). In the new heaven and new earth, the nations of the saved will all live in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21).

The objective Gospel and Jerusalem in the troublous 'times of the end'. Although the attack in Dan. 8:1-14 is against the very sanctuary, from the "taking away of the sacrifice and offering" in the middle of the 70th week until his final end [3 ½ times], the evil prince ['Atzatz'el] is already defeated, his dying attacks temporary [3 ½ times, 1260 days, 42 mos.] and always on the outside of the sanctuary (Leviticus 16). This is true not only in Daniel but also in the NT comments on Daniel. The Covenant people by faith alone are safe 'within the veil' where the atoning, covering, justifying blood of Christ rests on the Mercy-Seat above the Covenant:

A note on the decree "to restore and rebuild Jerusalem" of Daniel 9:25. It seems evident from the context that the decree "to restore and rebuild Jerusalem" of Dan. 9:25 is the divine decree of Dan. 9:23. However, it should be noted that in Ezra 6:14 the decree motif is broadened to include both divine and earthly decrees, and is focused on the rebuilding of the temple: "And the elders of the Jews were successful in building through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia" (NASB).

Covenant weeks: A Covenant seven (7) and a broken seven (3 ½). In Scripture there is a pattern of Covenant sevens (7) which are associated with Covenant goodness and completion, and also broken heptads, often associated with the work or duration of evil or punishment. In Elijah's day, the rain stops for 3 years. The pattern of full and broken sevens is potentially illuminating for our understanding of the time prophecies of Daniel. The first example of a complete Covenant heptad is the institution of the Sabbath after creation week (Gen. 2:1-3; Ex. 20:8-11). In Gen. 29:27-28, in relation to his first wife Leah, Jacob was instructed by Laban to "fulfill her week" as husband, and he would also receive Rachel as his wife for "yet another seven years" of service. In the religious, cultic conquest of Caanan and the Ban, Israel was to march for seven days around Jericho, and seven times on the seventh day with sound of shofar, after which the city would fall (Josh. 6:4, 15). Covenant 'sevens' are also significant in Covenant restoration, healing, the verity of the word of the LORD, and the falling and rising again of the righteous man. Punishment "seven times for your sins" ends with hope of full Covenant restoration (Lev. 26:24). Naaman is to wash seven times in Jordan and be healed (II Kings 5:10). The "words of the LORD" are "purified seven times" (Ps. 12:6). The righteous man "falls seven times" but rises again (Prov. 24:16).

In Daniel 4 and 7, the Aramaic word 'iddan translated 'time' or 'times' is a technical cultic term for a year as demarcated by a set festival. In Daniel 4, a Covenant of "seven times" (i.e. 7 cultic years, 'iddan, a Jubilee sabbatical week of years) is confirmed to Nebuchadnezzar, emperor of Babylon, until he comes to his senses and realizes that the Most High in the heavens rules (vs. 16, 23, 25, 32). This is strongly parallel to "He shall confirm Covenant with many for one week" the last Jubilee sabbatical week of years in Dan. 9:27. By contrast to Daniel 4, this same term ('iddan) is applied in Daniel 7 to a broken seven or broken sabbatical week in the "times, time, and dividing of time" (3 ½ times, 'iddan, i.e., 3 ½ cultic years or half of a sabbatical week) which is parallel with the "taking away of the daily" and the "setting up of the abomination making desolate" and "the scattering of the power of the holy people" for 3 ½ times ('iddan) till "the end of these wonders" (Dan. 8:11-13; 11:31; 12:6-11). In the exegetically parallel passage in Dan. 9:27, "the sacrifice and oblation" are caused to cease "in the half of the week, and upon the outskirts the abominations of a desolator...until the end" (half of 7 = 3 ½). The chart below summarizes the significance of this:

Covenant weeks: Covenant sevens (7) and broken weeks (3 ½) in Daniel
(KN = king of the North; LH = little horn; AQ = antecedent question, use of a pronoun and its antecedent)

Daniel 4(:14-17, 23-26)
Daniel 7(:25-26)
Daniel 8(:9-14, 25)
Daniel 9:26-27
Daniel 11(:22, 29-40, 45) - 12(:1, 7)
  • Watcher & Holy One from heaven decrees: 
  • Cut down tree & cut off branches but leave fettered stump... 
  • Until 7 times pass over you (= 1 complete week of years; i.e., Covenant confirmed with Nebuchadnezzar for 1 week, unbroken) 
  • Until you know Most High rules... 
  • Your kingdom restored after you realize that heaven rules
  • LH speaks against Most High 
  • Intends to change times & law 
  • Wears out saints – given into his hand for 3 ½ times (i.e., a broken week of years) 
  • Judgment in heaven sits & takes away his rulership to cut off & to destroy until end
  • LH emerges from one of them – 4 horns or 4 winds [AQ] 
  • LH becomes very great toward S, E, & Glorious [land, W] 
  • became great to host of heavens & stars causing some to fall & tramples them 
  • Self-magnifies to Prince of host (=stands against Prince of princes) 
  • By him daily taken away & place of His [AQ] sanctuary cast down 
  • Host was given [over to LH?] with daily because of trespass 
  • Until when?... Until evening-morning 2300, then sanctuary vindicated 
  • LH stands against Prince of princes, but broken without hand [AQ] 
  • End at 'appointed time' or set solemn assembly [mo'ed]
  • 70 weeks (of years) decreed to finish pesha', seal end of sins [chattath], atone for 'avon, usher in tzedek everlasting, seal end of vision & prophecy, anoint Holiest [= mo'ed activities] 
  • After 62 weeks Messiah cut off & not is to him 
  • People of coming prince destroy city & sanctuary...until end war 
  • [AQ] He confirms Covenant with the many for 1 week (= full week of 7 times) 
  • Mid-week he ends sacrifice & offering 
  • On outskirts abominations of a desolator until end (=3 ½, a broken week of years) 
  • That decreed pours out on desolator
  • Forces swept away & broken before KN & also the Prince of a Covenant (v22) 
  • At mo'ed KN furious against holy Covenant; heeds those forsaking holy Covenant; ruins by flattery those doing evil against Covenant [i.e., does not = the many] 
  • Arms from KN stand & they profane [chalal] sanctuary & fortress 
  • They remove daily & place abomination that desolates 
  • KN self-exalts above every god & speaks against God of gods 
  • At mo'ed... plants palace tents between seas in Glorious holy mountain & yet comes to end without helper 
  • Michael prince of your people stands up & delivers... 
  • Until when?... until 3 ½ times when they [AQ] have finished scattering power of holy people [i.e., 3 ½ times = broken week of years]

The Vision of Daniel 8 interpreted in Daniel 8-12. Chapters 10-12 simply provide a further 3rd explanation of the vision of Daniel 8:1-14 (as outlined in parallel below).

 The Vision of Daniel 8
And its Interpretation in Daniel 8, 9, 10-12

Vision of Daniel 8
1st explanation of Gabriel 
(Daniel 8)
2nd explanation of Gabriel 
(Daniel 9)
Vision of Daniel 10 & 12
3rd explanation of Gabriel 
(Daniel 10-12)
3rd year of Belshazzar of Babylon: 
  • Vision at Shushan the citadel in the province of Elam by the canal Ulai (8:1-2)
[Shushan = later capital of the Medo-Persian empire, Esther 1]
  • Daniel fearing and fallen on his face, stunned...face toward the ground, then standing (8:17-18) 
  • "Gabriel make this man understand the vision'....'Understand, O son of man, for the time of the end (is) the vision'....'Look! I will make you know what shall happen in the last end of the indignation. For it (is) for the set time [mo'ed] of the end" (8: 16,19). 
  • Daniel, sick for days, amazed at the vision and not understanding
[mo'ed = a set festival-fast time, a set solemn assembly such as the Day of Atonement or Passover]
1st year of Darius, king of Chaldea: 
Covenant Jubilee Day of Atonement prayer & fasting
  • "I have come now to give you skill in understanding....so heed the matter [70 years, II Chron. 36; Lev. 25-26] and understand the vision" (vs. 22-23). 
  • "Seventy weeks [of years, 'Sabbaths of years' or 10 Jubilees] are apportioned to your people and holy city  
    • to finish the transgression 
    • to seal an end of sins 
    • to make atonement for iniquity 
    • to bring in everlasting righteousness 
    • to seal an end to vision and prophecy 
    • to anoint the Holy of holies (9:24) 
    [All the above are mo'ed activities, espec. Jubilee Day of Atonement]
 3rd year of Cyrus, king of Persia: 
  • "A thing was revealed to Daniel. And the thing was true and a great conflict. And he understood the thing and [had] understanding in the vision..." 
  • Fasting and seeking for 3 'weeks of days' (10:1-3).
Vision by the river Tigris:
  • "Now I have come to make you understand what shall happen to your people in the latter days. For yet (is) the vision for days....But I will tell you what is inscribed in the writing of truth" (10:14,21).
Ram with 2 horns (higher arose later) butting W, N, and S (i.e., from E) – no beasts could stand before him & none could deliver from him – he did his will and became great (8:3-4) Kings of Media & Persia (8:20) After 7 ‘weeks of years’ [= 1st Jubilee of 49 years or 7 'Sabbaths of years' or 'weeks of years']
  • the city [Jerusalem and the temple] are rebuilt 'even in the affliction of the times'
 'And now I will return to fight with the Prince of Persia. And when I have gone out, then look! the Prince of Grecia shall come" (10:20)
  • Yet 3 kings of Persia & the 4th will be 'rich (in) all greater riches' (11:2)
Shaggy He-goat with 1 Outstanding Horn – flying from the W – strikes, shatters, and stamps the Ram in fury – no one could deliver (8:5-7) Grecian empire & her 1st king (8:21)
 'stirred up kingdom of Grecia, a mighty king shall stand up & his kingdom broken when he stands up'
  • Shaggy He-goat became very great, and when he was mighty the Great Horn was broken 
  • 4 outstanding horns arose 'in its place' toward the 4 'winds of heaven' – N, S, E, W
4 kingdoms shall stand up in Great Horn's place, out of the nation but not in his power – i.e., 4-fold division to N, S, E, W (8:22)
Kingdom of Grecia divided to 4 winds & not to the great king's descendants: 
  • Strong 'king of the south' or KS (11:5-40) 
  • 'king of the north' or KN (11:6-45)
'Out of one of them came a Little Horn' which became very great toward S, E, and the Glorious (W) (Isa. 14 allusions to Lucifer; Ez. 28) 'latter time when transgressors come to full'
  • Strong-faced [atz] king stands up, skilled at intrigues, mighty but not by his own power (8:23-25)
  • "And the people of a coming prince shall destroy the city and the sanctuary" (9:26) 
  • "... the desolator" (9:27)
 'And at the end of years...' (11:6-45)
  • 'king of the north' (KN)
Little Horn became very great 
  • toward the S,  
  • toward the E,  
  • and toward the Glorious (W) 
  • [i.e., came from the N]
[Allusion to Lucifer, king of Babylon, aspiring sit above the stars of God on the 'sides of the N,' Isa. 14:12-15]
  • "And the people of a coming prince shall destroy the city and the sanctuary" (9:26) 
  • "....the desolator" (9:27)
  • KN shall stand in the Glorious land, and destruction [is] in his hand (11:16) 
  • [KN shall act & return...[armed] forces stand on his behalf, profane sanctuary...] (11:30-31) 
  • 'KN shall enter Glorious land & many shall be stumbled' (11:41) 
  • KN 'plants palace tents between (the) seas in the Glorious Holy Mountain (11:45)
Little Horn [LH] became great (8:9-11a)
  • Even to the host of the heavens 
  • And caused some of the host and of the stars to fall to the ground and trampled them 
  • Even to the Prince of the Host [of the heavens] he magnified himself
(Isa. 14 allusions to Lucifer, king of Babylon; Ez. 28, prince-king of Tyre)
Strong-faced [atz] king stands up, skilled at intrigues, mighty but not by his own power (8:23-25)
  • Destroys marvelously 
  • Through his skill deceit succeeds in his hand 
  • Destroys the mighty [of the host of the heavens] and the holy people 
  • lifts himself up in heart, be at ease, destroys many, also stands against the Prince of princes
"And after the 62 weeks (of years') [+ 7 weeks, i.e., within the 70th week]
  • Shall Messiah be cut off but not for Himself  
  • And the people of a coming prince shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end (shall be) with the flood, and until [ad] (the) end (shall be) war: Desolations are determined...even until [ad] (the) end 
  • ....the desolator" (9:26-27)
And the 'king of the north' (KN)
  • 'And at the end of the years' KS sends daughter to make treaty with KN ... fails (11:6) 
  • 'And at the end of the times, years' KN with army...violent ones of your people will lift up to establish (the) vision, but they will stumble...KN will come, pour seige mount, and seize a fortified city... & shall stand in the Glorious land, and destruction in his hand (11:13-16) 
  • A despised one shall stand up (in KN succession)....will enter while at ease and seize the kingdom by intrigue. And forces ... will be swept before him and be broken, and also the Prince of a Covenant. And after they join him he will practice deceit' (11:21-23) 
  • Both KS & KN seek to do evil... not prosper, for the end is still for the appointed time [mo'ed]...At the set time [mo'ed] KN goes S and returns furious agianst the holy Covenant & heeding the forsakers of the holy Covenant...and [armed] forces stand on his behalf, profane sanctuary, the fortress, take away the daily and place the desolating abomination. The evil doers against the Covenant he defiles by flatteries...But the people who know their God... will stumble by sword, flame, exile, and spoil for days...be joined by hypocrits...to refine, purge, and make white until [ad] the time of (the) end, for it is still for a set time [mo'ed]. KN exalts himself and magnifies above every god.... (11:27-39) 
  • 'At the time of the end' ... KN like a tempest will come with armies and 'shall enter the Glorious land and many will be stumbled'....News from the N and E trouble him & KN goes with great fury to destroy and to devote many to destruction. And the KN shall plant [his] palace tents between (the) seas in the Glorious Holy Mountain.... (11:40-45)
The Prince of the Host [of the heavens] The Prince of princes Messiah a / [the] Prince A certain Man clothed in linen, girded with fine gold from Uphaz, a body like beryl, a face like lightning, eyes like torches of fire, arms and feet like polished bronze, a voice like a multitude (10:5-6 cf. Rev. 1)
  • Michael your Prince (10:21) 
  • the Prince of a Covenant (11:22) 
  • Michael, the great Prince who stands for the sons of your people, shall stand up (12:1)
  • And by him [Little Horn] was taken away the Daily  
  • & the place of His Sanctuary was cast down  
  • & a Host was given [over to LH] with the Daily (8:11-12)
And in the half of the [70th] week [first 3 ½ years], He shall make cease [yashebat = to put a Sabbath end to] sacrifice and offering …even until [the] end [second 3 ½ years or times] (9:27)
  • 'At the set time [mo'ad] KN goes S...furious against (the) holy Covenant...takes away the daily and sets up the abomination that desolates (11:29-31)
  • The Sanctuary  
  • The Daily
  • The city and the Sanctuary (9:26) 
  • The time of the evening sacrifice.... sacrifice and offering (9:21,27)
  • The Sanctuary, the fortress....the Glorious Holy Mountain (11:31, 45) 
  • The Daily (11:31)
Truth / Sanctuary / Host  trampled to the ground
 –

  • Host = Destroys the mighty [of the host of the heavens], and the holy people
  • Truth = Messiah cut off but not for Himself 
  • Sanctuary = Destroys the city and Sanctuary . . . leaving ‘ruins’ & desolation
  • Truth = breaks Prince of a Covenant....fury against the holy Covenant...heeds forsakers of the holy Covenant...defiles evildoers against (the) Covenant 
  • Sanctuary = profanes Sanctuary and fortress 
  • Host = the people who know their God...stumbling by sword, flame, exile, and spoil for days...be joined by hypocrits...to refine, purge, and make white until [ad] the time of (the) end, for it is still for a set time [mo'ed].
'And I heard a primary Holy One ['echad Qodesh] speaking, and another holy one [qadowsh] said to the One who spoke:
  • "Until when [adma'atiy] is the vision [of] the daily and the desolating abomination, to give both Sanctuary and Host to be trampled?' (8:13)  
  • "And He said to me, 'Until [ad] 2300 evenings-mornings [from removal of the Daily] then shall the Sanctuary be vindicated [nitzedaq]'" (8:14)
  • ‘The vision of the evening and the morning is true. But you shut up the vision, for (it is) for many days’ (8:26)


[The adma'atiy ('until when') of the vision = the duration from the removal of the Daily until the Sanctuary's vindication, during which both Sanctuary and Host are to be trampled]

 ‘And He shall confirm Covenant with many (for) one week (of [7] years). 
  • And in the half of the week [3 ½ years], He shall make cease [yashebat = to put a Sabbath end to] sacrifice and offering,  
  • And upon [the] outskirt as abominations a desolator, even until (the) end [final 3 ½ years].  
  • And that which is decreed shall be poured on the desolator" (9:27)
[½ of 70th 'week of years' until the end = 3 ½ years [times] = 1260 days]
"Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others were standing, one this lip of the river, and one on that lip of the river. And (one) said to the Man clothed in linen, who (was) on the waters of the river, 
  • "Until when [adma'atiy] is the end of these wonders?" (cf. 8:13) 
  • [Man in linen] held up His right and His left (hand) to the heavens and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, that (it is) for 3 ½ times [=1260 days =last 3 ½ of the 70th week]. And when they finish breaking the power of the holy people, all these (things) shall be finished [kalah, cf. 9:24]
Daniel [not understanding]: 'O my lord, what (shall be) the end of these things? And He said, 'Go, Daniel! For the words (are) closed up and sealed until [ad] the time of (the) end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and refined. But the wicked shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.
  • And from [the] time the Daily shall be taken away and the desolating abomination set up (shall be) 1290 days  
  • Blessed (is) he who waits and comes to (the) 1335 days
But you [Daniel] go on to the end; and you shall rest, and stand for your lot at the end of the days (12:5-13)
'Until [ad] 2300 evening-mornings [from the removal of hatamid] then shall the Sanctuary be vindicated [nitzedaq]' (8:14)

[nitzedaq = to set right(eous), justify, vindicate]

70 weeks (of years) are apportioned to your people and holy city....
  • Messiah shall be cut off but not for Himself [in order to....] 
  • to finish the transgression,  
  • to make an end of sins,  
  • to make atonement for iniquity,  
  • to bring in everlasting righteousness [tzedek],  
  • to seal up vision & prophecy,  
  • to anoint the Holiest 
  • ....and that which was decreed shall pour out upon the desolator
 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great Prince who stands [Daily, present tense] for the sons of your people (12:1-3)
  • And there shall be a time of tribulation such as has not been from the existence of a nation until that time. 
  • And at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone that shall be found written in the Book 
  • And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground shall awake, some to life everlasting (and) some to abhorrence everlasting 
  • And those who are wise shall shine as the brightness of the skies and those turning many to righteousness [tzedek] as the stars for ever and ever
'Until [ad] 2300 evening-mornings [from removal of the Daily] then shall the Sanctuary be vindicated [nitzedaq]' (8:14)

[nitzedaq = to set right(eous), justify, vindicate]

  • But self-exalting king or Little Horn ‘shall be broken without hand’ (8:25)
  • And that which was decreed shall pour out upon the desolator (9:27)
  • KN shall stumble and fall, and will not be found (11:19) 
  • KN (exactor) within a few days broken, but not in anger or in battle (11:20) 
  • KN (despised one) shall come to his end and none shall help him (11:45)
  • "Until when [adma'atiy] is the vision [of] the daily and the desolating abomination, to give both Sanctuary and Host to be trampled?' (8:13)  
  • "...'Until [ad] 2300 evenings-mornings [from removal of the Daily] then shall the Sanctuary be vindicated [nitzedaq]'" (8:14)
  • ‘Understand, O son of man, for the time of the end (is) the vision' (8:17) 
  • ‘Look! I will make you know what shall happen in the last end of the indignation. For it (is) for the set time [mo'ed] of the end' (8:19) 
  • ‘The vision of the evening and the morning is true. But you shut up [csatam] the vision, for (it is) for many days’ (8:26)
70 weeks (of years) are apportioned.... (9:24)
  • to seal an end [khatam] of sins... [mo'ed = Jubilee Day of Atonement & year of redemption] 
  • to seal an end [khatam] of vision and prophecy
  • But you, O Daniel, shut up [csatam] the words and seal [khatam] the book until [ad] the time of (the) end' (12:4)  
  • 'Go, Daniel! For the words (are) closed up [csatam] and sealed [khatam] until [ad] the time of (the) end' (12:9)

The Covenant-conditional nature of the vision and prophecy of Daniel 8-12 make glorious provision for every exigency from Daniel's time down to the First Advent of Messiah in grace until the Second Advent of Messiah in glory. (For brief correlations of Daniel 2 & 7 with Daniel 8-12 and the New Testament see Appendices 1 and 2).

A few conclusions on the exegetical (and NT) meaning of Daniel 8:1-14 –
Recapitulated once again:


General Conclusions – A Levitical-Covenantal Conditional Model – Both Biblical and Christocentric

The preterist, historicist, and futurist models of prophetic interpretation have all had their triumphs and have all fallen short of the exegetical evidence on various points. We suggest that the reason is that all these models are contemporary post-Biblical inventions read back into and imposed more or less arbitrarily onto the Scripture text. They are each foreign to the Bible writers. Each of these schools have attempted to use history and speculation to exegete prophecy, rather than letting a thorough Covenant exegesis of prophecy illuminate history and the future. It is time to explicitly go beyond these models as inadequate, and to adopt a Levitical Covenantal model of prophetic interpretation – one based on the Covenant promises and provisions as typified in the sanctuary system. We suggest that the evidence shows that the Levitical services of the atoning sacrifices, daily service, culminating in the Day of Atonement, and especially the Jubilee Day of Atonement is the conscious key to interpreting Old Testament apocalyptic.

In conclusion, we suggest that theologically a Levitic-Covenant-conditional model of OT prophetic interpretation is the only one true to the Gospel, because it is the only model which is Christocentric and Biblical.
 

Prologue on Toward a Levitical Apocalyptic – Part II: The Day-of-Atonement enthronement

In Part II, we cite and discuss one historical source (11Q13) from Qumran in the approximate time of the 1st century AD showing that Daniel 8-9, Second Isaiah, Psalm 110, a Melchizedek king-priest figure, and the Jubilee Day of Atonement were all interpretively linked to Messiah, in the very times of Jesus of Nazareth. This has enormous implications for our understanding of the gospels, the epistle to the Hebrews (Greer, 2001 Part III) and of the whole New Testament.



References

Alter, Robert. 1996. Genesis: Translation and Commentary. New York, New York, USA: W. W. Norton & Company.

Bartlett, John R. 1993. "The book of the Maccabees." In: BM Metzger and MD Coogan (eds.), The Oxford companion to the Bible. New York, NY / Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Ford, Desmond. 1978. Daniel. Nashville, Tennesee, USA: Southern Publishing Association.

––––. 1980. Daniel 8:14, The Day of Atonement and the Investigative Judgment. Casselberry, Florida, USA: Euangelion Press.

––––. 1996. Daniel and the Coming King. Angwin, California, USA: Good News Unlimited.

Doukhan, Jacques. 1987. Daniel: The vision of the end. Berrien Springs, Michigan, USA: Andrews University Press.

Greer, Lee. 2001. "Toward a Levitic-Covenantal Apocalyptic – Part III: Covenant foundations: Hebrews and the Jubilee Day of Atonement." The Jesus Institute Forum: http://www.jesusinstituteforum.org/LAPart3.html.

____. 2002. "Atonement and the Revelation: Levitic Covenant underpinnings." The Jesus Institute Forum: http://www.jesusinstituteforum.org/LevCovRev.html.

Kikawada, Isaac M. & Quinn, Arthur. 1985. Before Abraham Was: The Unity of Genesis 1-11: A provocative challenge to the documentary hypothesis. Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press.

Koch, Klaus. 1972. The Rediscovery of Apocalyptic. London, UK.

Leupold HC. 1949. Exposition of Daniel. The Wartburg Press, assigned to Augsburg Publishing House. Reprinted 1969, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House Company.

McEvedy, Colin. 1988. The Penguin atlas of ancient history. New York, New York, USA: Viking Penguin, Inc.

Neall, Beatrice. 2001. "Realized Eschatology in the Apocalypse." The Jesus Institute Forum: http://www.jesusinstituteforum.org/REA-1-2.html.

Shea, William. 1986. "The unity of Daniel" In: Holbrook, Frank (ed.) Symposium on Daniel. Daniel and Revelation Committee Series, Vol. 2, pp. 165-220, (Biblical Research Institute). Hagerstown, Maryland, USA: Review and Herald Publishing Association.

Wright, N. Thomas. 1996. Jesus and the Victory of God: Christian origins and the question of God. Volume 2. Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA: Fortress Press.


Appendix 1. A very brief correlation between Daniel 8-12 & Daniel 2, 7

Daniel 2
Daniel 7
Daniel 8-12
Head of gold Lion with eagle's wings 

& then without wings and a man's heart

Cf. 'Lucifer, real king of Babylon' (Isa. 14) = 'Little horn' = Belteshazzar of Dan. 5 = King of the N = Abominating golden image = real 'golden' head of the whole kingdom of evil

Chest & arms of silver Humped bear with 3 ribs in mouth Humped 2-horned ram = Kings of Media & Persia
Belly & thighs of brass 4-headed & 4-winged leopard 1-horned then 4-horned he-goat = 1st king & then 4 kings out of Grecia 
  • King of the S  
  • King of the N = Little horn = strong [atz]-faced king = coming prince = desolator (blasphemous & attacking Prince, Sanctuary, & Host)
Legs of iron 10-horned, then 7 horned + little horn blasphemous & attacking God & the saints
  • King of the N = Little horn = strong [atz]-faced king = coming prince = desolator (blasphemous & attacking Prince, Sanctuary, & Host)
Feet & toes of iron & clay
"
[division & war until the end]
  • King of the N = Little horn = strong [atz]-faced king = coming prince = desolator (blasphemous & attacking Prince, Sanctuary, & Host)
[division & war until the end]
  • Stone cut out without hand  
  • & becomes great Mountain to fill the earth
  • 'Son of man' approaches & stands before God as Mediator- Representative  
  • & receives an everlasting Kingdom with the host of saints
  • Prince of the host & His sanctuary 
  • Prince of princes 
  • Messiah the Prince cut off but not for Himself 
  • Michael your Prince 
  • Michael the great Prince standing for your people stands up & your people delivered to shine forever and ever


Appendix 2. Daniel 2 & 7 as interpreted in Daniel 8-12 and by the New Testament

Daniel 2 & 7
Daniel 8-9
Daniel 10-12
OT & NT – fulfilled
1st Advent
OT & NT – consummated
2nd Advent
Image with head of gold = Lion with eagle's wings & then wingless with man's heart
Babylon symbolizes the whole dragon / beast (Isa. 14; Rev. 14, 17-18; I Pet 5:13)  
Chest & arms of silver = Humped bear with 3 ribs in mouth Humped 2-horned ram = Kings of Media & Persia 4 kings of Persia yet to come [Beasts of Daniel 7 reappear in dragon's composite beast of Rev. 13]  
Belly & thighs of brass = 4-headed & 4-winged leopard
  • Shaggy he-goat, 1-horned then 4 horns to NSEW = 1st king of Grecia & 4-fold division to NSEW 
  • Fierce-faced little horn arises from one of them, from the N
  • 1st king of Grecia broken & 4-fold division to NSEW: 'king of the S' (KS) & King of the N (v. 4-12) 
  • KN's 1st invasion glorious land & violent ones of your people try to establish the vision of Dan. 8 (v. 13-16) 
   
Legs of iron & feet-toes of iron mixed with clay = Terrible beast 10-horned, then 7 horned + little horn
  • eyes & mouth speaking great blasphemy against Most High and & wear out holy ones / saints
  • Intends to change times and law
  • Given into his hand for 3 ½ times
10 horns
Little horn fierce-faced (atz) from the N & mighty not by his own power (Isa. 14) & became great:
  • toward S, E, & Glorious (W)
  • to the host of the heavens, causing some of the host & stars to fall & trampling them
  • Self-magnified against Prince of host / Prince of princes / Messiah cut off
  • Takes away daily & places desolating abomination [pesha shemem]
  • casts down place of His sanctuary & tramples truth & host
  • coming prince desolates city and sanctuary
A coming prince, the desolator, the king of the N
  • KN will come, pour seige mount, and seize a fortified city... & shall stand in the Glorious land, and destruction in his hand (11:13-16)
  • KN seize the kingdom by intrigue. And forces ... will be swept before him and be broken, and also the Prince of a Covenant (11:21-23)
  • At the set time [mo'ed] KN returns furious against the holy Covenant... [armed] forces stand on his behalf, profane sanctuary, the fortress, take away the daily and place the desolating abomination (11:27-39)
  • KN in great fury to destroy...shall plant [his] palace tents between (the) seas in the Glorious Holy Mountain (11:40-45)
Great red dragon with 7 crowned heads & 10 horns (Rev. 12:1-4) creates blasphemous scarlet beast with 7 heads & 10 horns (Rev. 13)
  • Dragon mounted up to heaven
  • Tail of dragon swept away 1/3 of stars & cast them down to earth
  • To destroy the Woman travailing to birth the Manchild (Ps. 2; Luke 1; Matt. 2)
  • Manchild ascends to God & casts out dragon & his angels
  • When cast out, furious dragon persecutes  1260 days, 3 ½ times
  • furious to destroy those left of her seed [the remnant] 
  • 7 crowned heads of dragon / beast = world empires seeking to devour Messiah & persecute Woman: 5 are fallen (Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia), [6th] one is (Rome), [7th] one to come and continue short time (little horn, man of sin, II Thes. 2), 8th = dragon himself (Rev. 17:9-11)
  • 10 horns = kings which will reign & give their power to the beast for 1 hour (Rev. 17:12, 16)
Stone cut out without hand strikes & destroys the image & becomes a mountain filling the whole earth = Son of man and His
Heavenly Judgment while little horn speaking his blasphemies:
  • Ancient of days is seated amidst host of heaven & books opened
  • Son of man with clouds comes near & receives kingdom so that all ... shall serve Him
  • Saints receive the kingdom
"Vindication of the sanctuary" = "cleansing of sanctuary" (8:14 LXX) = 
  • Messiah cut off & confirms Covenant
  • to finish the transgression [pesha], seal an end of sins, make atonement for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness [tzedek], seal an end to vision & prophecy, anoint the Holiest (Lev. 8-9, 16, 25-26)
  • [Holiest & mercy-seat above Covenant; Lev. 16]
  • Little horn broken without hand = What is decreed pours out on the desolator (cf. Lev. 16 'scapegoat' cast out to perish)
  • The Man in fine linen
  • Messiah the Prince broken
  • Michael the Prince standing for your people stands up & your people delivered all found written in the book
  • King of the N comes to his end with none to help him (cf. Lev. 16 'scapegoat' cast out to perish)
  • Heavenly Judgment opens at start of 3 ½ times: Rev. 1, 4-6, 7-10, 11:1-2...; 12; John 12, 16, Rom. 3; Heb. 1, 4, 9-10; 12; Ps. 2; 110
  • Son of man ascends to God with clouds above as King, Judge, Advocate, into his kingdom: Ps. 2; 110; Acts 1:9-11; Rev. 12:5-10; 14:6-7; Hebrews; Matt. 26:64 ~ Luke 22:69
  • the 'cleansing of the sanctuary' (8:14 LXX): Heb. 1:3; 9:23-26; 10:10-22; Rev. 12:3-13
  • Holiest & mercy-seat above Covenant (Lev. 16): veil rent (Mk. 15:38 = Mt. 27:51 = Lu. 23:45); Heb. 10:19-20; High Priest within the veil (Heb. 6:19-20); entering Holiest (Heb. 4; 9; 10:19-22; 12); Mercy-Seat open to all (Rom. 3:24-25; Heb. 4:16; 9:1-28; 12)
  • 'Scapegoat' cast out in Judgment, Lev. 16: John 12; 16; Luke 10:18-20; Rev. 12; cf. Zech. 3
  • Heavenly Judgment consummated & executed: Rev. 11:11-15; 16-19; 20-21; Heb. 9:27-28; 10:27; 11:25-29
  • Son of man comes again with clouds: Mk. 13:26-27 = Mt. 24:30-31 = Lu. 21:27; Rev. 1:7; 6:14-17; 14:14-20; 19:11-19, etc.
  • Final 'cleansing of the sanctuary': Rev. 20-22
  • Holiest & mercy-seat above Covenant (Lev. 16): Temple opened Ark of Covenant visible in time of reward & wrath (Rev. 11:11-19); tabernacle of testimony opened in time of wrath, 7 last plagues, but no more access (Rev. 15:4-8); heaven opened for 2nd Advent (Rev. 19:11)
  • 'Scapegoat' cast out to perish, Lev. 16: Into 'bottomless pit'  (Rev. 20:1), into 'lake of fire' (Rev. 20-21)
The time of the Judgment & the books opened "Gabriel make this man understand the vision'....'Understand, O son of man, for the time of the end (is) the vision'....'Look! I will make you know what shall happen in the last end of the indignation. For it (is) for the set time [mo'ed] of the end" (8: 16,19). The 'set time' [mo'ed] of the end = especially the 'set time' or 'solemn assembly' of the Day of Atonement "But you O Daniel shut up the words and seal the book till the time of the end" (12:4) 
  • Daniel: "Until when [adma'atiy] is the end of the wonders?"
  • Man in linen (Lev. 16) swears "that it is for 3 ½ times and when they finish breaking power of the holy people all these things will be finished" (12:7)
  • "From the time the daily is taken away & desolating abomination set up = 1290 (1335) days.
Opening of the Day of Atonement, the 'set time of the end' = 'these last days' Heb. 1:1 Man in linen (Lev. 16) unseals the book: 
  • 'Whoso reads let him understand' (Mk. 13:14 = Mt. 24:14; Dan. 12) 
  • Lamb overcomes in judgment to open the scroll (Rev. 4-5)
  • Righteousness of God (testified by law & prophets) openly displayed as Covenant Mercy-seat (Rom. 3:21-31) 
Man in linen again swears the end of the time just (Rev. 10-11) just before the 7th trumpet is about to sound in the final judgment of wrath & reward, when He receives His reward (Rev. 11:15-19)
Blasphemy & prevailing over saints for 3 ½ times & then is destroyed in judgment From the half of 70th week [=3 ½ times until the end],
  • [daily taken away=] causes sacrifice & offering to cease ...until the end
  • & on the outskirts abominations of the desolator until the end (= 3 ½ times), 

  • & what is decreed pours out on desolator
  • Arms stand for KN who takes away the daily & pollutes the sanctuary & fortress (11:36)
  • Man in linen (Lev. 16) swears "that it is for 3 ½ times and when they finish breaking power of the holy people all these things will be finished" (12:7)
Only time period from Daniel imported into the NT is the 3 ½ times or 1260 days 
  • From the time the abomination is placed & Jerusalem surrounded by armies & trampled 'until times of Gentiles be fulfilled' (Mk. 13:14 = Mt. 24:15 = Lu. 21:20-24)
  • From the Judgment of the God's temple & altar, the court is left out for the Gentiles trample holy city 42 months & 2 witnesses for 1260 days (Rev. 11:1-2)
  • After ascension of Manchild, when dragon cast out, he persecutes 1260 days, 3 ½ times (Rev. 12:5-17)
God's bride, His people delivered from Babylon which is judged & destroyed (Rev. 18-19)


Appendix 3: Can atonement be made and forgiveneness granted for pesha'im?

Daniel 9:24 - Seventy weeks are decreed to stop [kala’ or perh. kalah ‘finish’] the rebellion [pesha‘]
  • pesha' = revolt, rebellion 
  • 'ashmah = guiltiness, a fault, the presentation of a sin or trespass offering; from 'asham = guilt, by implic. a fault; from prim. root, to be guilty
Leviticus 16
  • 16:15-16: blood of the he-goat...shall sprinkle it on the mercy-seat...make atonement for the sanctuary [haqodesh] for the pollutions [tameh'et] of the sons of Israel, and because of their transgressions [pesha'] for all their sins [chattath=offense] 
  • 16:21: Aaron shall lay his two hands on the head of the living goat, and shall confess over it all the iniquities ['avon=perversity, from 'avah=to (make) crook(ed)] of the sons of Israel, and all their transgressions [pesha'] and all their sins [chattatham]
Rest of the OT:
  • Ex 34:7: The Lord...forgiving iniquity and transgression [pesha'] and sin 
  • Nu 14:18: The LORD slow to anger, and plenteous of mercy, pardoning iniquity ['avon] and transgression [pesha'] 
  • I Ki 8:50: And forgive Your people that have sinned against You, and all their transgressions [pesha'] wherein they have transgressed [pesha'] against You 
  • Job 7:21: Pardon my transgression [pesha'] 
  • Ps 25:7: Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions [pesha']; according to Your mercy remember me for Your goodness' sake, O LORD 
  • Ps 32:1-2: Blessed (is he whose) transgression [pesha'] is forgiven, (whose) sin [is] covered. Blessed (is) the man to whom the LORD will not impute iniquity ['avon], and in his spirit is no deceit 
  • Ps 32:5: I will confess my transgression [pesha'] to the LORD, and pardoned the iniquity of my sin 
  • Ps 51:1(3): according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions [pesha']... I acknowledge my transgressions [pesha'] 
  • Ps 65:3: Things of iniquity are mightier than I; our transgressions [pesha'] You atone [kaphar] for them 
  • Ps 103:10,12: He has not done to us according to our sin [chattath] nor rewarded us according to our iniquities ['avon]....As far as the E is from the W so far has He separated our transgressions [pesha'] from us 
  • Ps 107:17,20: Fools are afllicted from the way of their revolt [pesha'] and from their iniquities ['avon]....He sent His word and healed them and delivered them from all their pitfalls 
  • Isa 43:25: I, even I am He who blots out your trespasses [pesha'] for My sake; and I will not remember your sins [chattah] 
  • Isa 44:22: I have blotted out your transgressions [pesha'] like a thick cloud, and as a cloud your sins 
  • Isa 53:5, 8: He was wounded for our transgressions [pesha'] and bruised for our iniquities ['avon]; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His wounds we ourselves are healed....For he was cut off from the land of the living; from the transgression [pesha'] of My people, the stroke was His.


Appendix 4. The High Priest on the Day of Atonement
Typical & Antitypical

The typical Aaronic high priest
Christ the Melchizedek High Priest
Heb. 9:7
Heb. 9:25
Heb. 13:11
Heb. 9:11-12
1) The high priest [archiereus] The high priest [archiereus] The high priest [archiereos] An High Priest [archiereus]
2) [enters] [eislsi] Enters [eiserchetai] Brought in [eispheretai] Entered [eiselthen]
3) Into the second [eis ten deuteran] Into the Holies(t) [eis ta 'agia] Into the Holies(t) [eis ta 'agia] Into the Holies(t) [eis ta 'agia]
4) Once a year [apax tou eniatou] Every year [kat’ eniauton]
Once for all [ephapax]
5) Not without blood [ou choris 'aimatos] With blood not his own [en aimati allotrio] Blood for a sin offering [to aima peri 'amartias] Not by the blood of goats and calves but by His own blood [ou de di’aimatos tragon kai moschon dia de tou idiou aimatos] having secured eternal redemption [aiow/nian lytrow/sin]
Adapted from N. H. Young (cited in Ford, 1980). As pointed out in Part III, Covenant foundations: Hebrews and the Jubilee Day of Atonement, we suggest that in Hebrews, the phrase "the Holies(t)" is the most English accurate translation of the plural with the definite article "ta 'agia" – First, because this inclusive designation connotationally includes both the Holy place and the Holiest. Second, because in Hebrews, "ta 'agia" consistently refers in the immediate context to the occasion when the High Priest entered with blood – through the Holy place into the Holy of holies, where he sprinkled the blood as 'mediator of the Covenant' on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant, i.e., on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16).

Heb. 9:27-28: Fulfillment & Consummation

And as it is reserved to men once to die So also Christ having been offered once to bear sins for the many (Lev. 16:1-19)
And after this [comes] judgment A second time without sin will appear to the [ones] expecting him for salvation (Lev. 16:20-28)


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