Bible passage: Daniel 9:24-26
Prophet: Daniel
Written: About 539 BC
During the time of Daniel, who lived about 2600 years ago, the Babylonians invaded Judah (the southern part of the land of Israel) and took many Jews, including Daniel, as captives to Babylon.
The Babylonians also destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the Temple, in 586 B.C.
In Daniel 9:24-26, Daniel delivers a prophecy that Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed, again. Within these verses, Daniel provides a chronology by which certain events would occur. First, the Jews would return from captivity and rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. Afterwards, an "anointed one," or Messiah, would appear, but he would be rejected. Then, Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed, again.
These events later played out during the century in which Jesus had announced that he was the Messiah.
- Research and commentary is based on the book 100 Fulfilled Bible Prophecies. © Ray Konig and AboutBibleProphecy.com.
Here is Daniel 9:24-26:
24 "Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.
25 "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.
26 After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.
(New International Version translation)