Daniel 9 - Decrees

Seventy Weeks

Dan 9:24  Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city...

These weeks are broken down into the formula:

7 weeks + 62 weeks + 1 week = 70 weeks.

Once again, a correct translation (including punctuation) in my humble opinion:

[ESV] Dan 9:25  [1] Know therefore and understand that [2] from the going out of the word [3] to restore and build Jerusalem [4] to the coming of an anointed one, [5] a prince, [6] there shall be seven weeks.  [7] Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, [8] but in a troubled time.

[1]  Know therefore and understand

The LXX reads:

καὶ | γνώσῃ | καὶ | συνήσεις· = and | you shall know | and | perceive

Is this some kind of sick joke by Gabriel?  "Know therefore"?!  After everything I've read, and from all the different commentaries and schools of thought, is it even possible for us to "know therefore" let alone "and understand"?

This is the difficulty.

Gabriel is telling Daniel that he will know and understand.

So, does this mean that Daniel himself will know of the decree?  Will it occur during his lifetime?

[2] from the going out of the word

The LXX reads:

ἀπὸ | ἐξόδου | λόγου

from | delivery | of word

[3] to restore and build Jerusalem

τοῦ | ἀποκριθῆναι | καὶ | τοῦ | οἰκοδομῆσαι | Ιερουσαλημ

The question is:  Do we connect the 62 weeks with the anointed one or with the building of the city?

My inkling, as discussed in Daniel 9 - Part 4 is to lean towards the Masoretic Text and the LXX.

For the purpose of this study, I'm looking for an anointed one following a decree by "seven weeks" (49 years.

(In a later blog, I'll examine the mainstream option.)