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

This one verse sums up the Jewish history, from Daniel's day to the return of Jesus Christ. "Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, Daniel was told. The Jews measured time in units, as did the Greeks. Just like we use the word "decade" to denote a period of ten years. The Jews measured by sevens, rather than tens like the Greeks. So the Jewish or Hebrew equivalent to a decade of ten years was the Hebrew shabua, or "week," a period of seven years. Seventy of these "weeks" indicates a period of 490 years. So the penalty given Daniel's people, the Jews and the Holy city of Jerusalem was 70 weeks or 490 years!

"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.  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 desolation's have been decreed.       Daniel 9:25-26 

In the late 19th century, Sir Robert Anderson, a retired Scotland Yard inspector reviewed Daniel's prophecy of the Seventy Weeks of Years. In his book, The Coming Prince, Anderson calculated the First 69 Weeks of Daniel's prophecy. Daniel stated that there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens' that comes to 483 biblical years (A Biblical Year Equals 360 Days).

History tells us that on March 14, 445 B.C. a decree was issued by the Persian King Artaxerxes Longimanus, to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

Exactly to the day, March 30, 33 A.D., Jesus rode into Jerusalem. As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said,

"If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace--but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you."         Luke 19:41-44.

In A.D. 70, less than 40 years after Christ's prophecy, the Roman army besieged Jerusalem, killing more than one million of her inhabitants. The Roman legion leveled the city of Jerusalem, completely fulfilling Christ's prophecy that, "They will not leave one stone on another," (Luke 19:44). The temple was completely destroyed and taken apart stone by stone to melt down the gold that had lined the wall of the inner temple.

Get out your calculator, by working backwards from our calendar dates, follow these computations. From March 14, 445 B.C. (the date of the command to rebuild Jerusalem) to March 14, A.D. 32 is 476 years of 365 days each, or 173,740 days. Add the 24 days from March 14, A.D. 32 until April 6, A.D. 32 (Palm Sunday, the "cutting off " of Messiah) -- twenty four days. Then add the 116 leap days that occurred during this period (calculated by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, United Kingdom) -- 116 days. These numbers added together (173,740 + 24 + 116=173,880) total 173,880 days, the exact duration of Daniel's 69 "weeks" of years.

But wait, I thought you said there was 70 weeks, that was only 69. That's right, God stopped his prophetic watch. The 70th and final week owed by Israel is yet to come. The seven-year Tribulation period, the last Seventieth Week of seven critical years, remains to be fulfilled in our generation. In Daniel 9:24 we are specifically told that the "seventy weeks" are decreed for Daniel's people the Jews. The first sixty-nine weeks of years dealt with the Jewish people and God's witness to the world through His "chosen people." The final "Seventieth Week" of seven years will again be focused on God's dealing with Israel and the Judgment of the world through attention getting events.