Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city to stop their transgression, to put an end to sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place.
Parallel translations
- WEB Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.
- KJV Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
- NKJV “Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.
- NASB “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the wrongdoing, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place.
- NLT “A period of seventy sets of seven has been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish their rebellion, to put an end to their sin, to atone for their guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to confirm the prophetic vision, and to anoint the Most Holy Place.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Seventy weeks are decreed to deal finally with sin, bring everlasting righteousness, and anoint the most holy. This famous prophecy points to God's ultimate redemptive purpose.
Overview
Gabriel announces seventy weeks, literally sevens, decreed for Israel to end transgression, atone for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, and anoint the most holy. These goals reach their fulfillment in the atoning work of Christ, who finishes sin and brings everlasting righteousness. While faithful interpreters differ over the precise reckoning of the weeks, this verse states the saving aim toward which the whole prophecy moves.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 40
- Heb 9:11–14But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made by hands and is not a part of this creation.
- Rom 5:10For if, when we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!
- Jer 23:5–6Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He will reign wisely as King and will administer justice and righteousness in the land.
- Num 14:34In keeping with the forty days you spied out the land, you shall bear your guilt forty years—a year for each day—and you will experience My alienation.
- Isa 51:6Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth below; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and its people will die like gnats. But My salvation will last forever, and My righteousness will never fail.
- Lev 25:8And you shall count off seven Sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven Sabbaths of years amount to forty-nine years.
- Isa 61:1The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners,
- Acts 3:22For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to Him in everything He tells you.
- Ps 2:6“I have installed My King on Zion, upon My holy mountain.”
- Isa 56:1This is what the LORD says: “Maintain justice and do what is right, for My salvation is coming soon, and My righteousness will be revealed.
- Isa 51:8For the moth will devour them like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool. But My righteousness will last forever, My salvation through all generations.”
- Ps 45:7You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you above your companions with the oil of joy.
- Ezek 4:6When you have completed these days, lie down again, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have assigned to you 40 days, a day for each year.
- Rev 14:6Then I saw another angel flying overhead, with the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation and tribe and tongue and people.
- Heb 2:17For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, in order to make atonement for the sins of the people.
- Isa 53:10–11Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him and to cause Him to suffer; and when His soul is made a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.
- Rom 3:21–22But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, as attested by the Law and the Prophets.
- Rev 3:7To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the One who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open.
- 2 Chr 29:24And the priests slaughtered the goats and put their blood on the altar for a sin offering, to make atonement for all Israel, because the king had ordered the burnt offering and the sin offering for all Israel.
- John 3:34For the One whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.
- 1 Cor 1:30It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God: our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.
- Heb 9:26Otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
- John 1:41He first found his brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated as Christ).
- Luke 1:35The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.
- 2 Pet 1:1Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:
- Luke 4:18–21“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed,
- Lam 4:22O Daughter of Zion, your punishment is complete; He will not prolong your exile. But He will punish your iniquity, O Daughter of Edom; He will expose your sins.
- Luke 24:44–45Jesus said to them, “These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”
- Col 2:14having canceled the debt ascribed to us in the decrees that stood against us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross!
- Matt 1:21She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”
- Acts 3:14You rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you.
- 2 Cor 5:18–21All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
- Mark 1:24“What do You want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”
- Luke 24:25–27Then Jesus said to them, “O foolish ones, how slow are your hearts to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
- Heb 7:26Such a high priest truly befits us—One who is holy, innocent, undefiled, set apart from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
- Lev 8:15Moses slaughtered the bull, took some of the blood, and applied it with his finger to all four horns of the altar, purifying the altar. He poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar and consecrated it so that atonement could be made on it.
- Heb 10:14because by a single offering He has made perfect for all time those who are being sanctified.
- Matt 11:13For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.
- Heb 1:8–9But about the Son He says: “Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever, and justice is the scepter of Your kingdom.
- Col 1:20and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Daniel sees the stone cut without hands that shatters the kingdoms, and 'one like a son of man' given everlasting dominion — titles and visions Jesus claims as his own.
How Daniel 9:24 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.
How traditions read this
How the 490 years run — and where they end.
The seventy "weeks" (490 years) run continuously from a decree to rebuild Jerusalem to Christ, who as the Anointed One is "cut off" and "confirms a covenant with many" — the new covenant — in the final week. The traditional Reformation reading.
Key points · 490 years to Christ; Messiah "cut off"; the last week fulfilled in Christ''s covenant.
John Calvin; Martin Luther; E. J. Young
The "weeks" are symbolic periods, not a literal 490 years, stretching from the Persian decree to Christ; the latter part of v.27 reaches across the church age to final judgment. A common contemporary evangelical reading.
Key points · Symbolic, not literal, numbers; fulfilled in Christ; v.27 spans to the end.
Iain Duguid; Sam Storms; Andrew Steinmann
A gap (the church age) falls between the 69th and 70th weeks; the final week is a still-future seven-year tribulation in which a coming ruler makes and breaks a covenant with Israel, after the church has been raptured.
Key points · Gap between week 69 and 70; future 7-year tribulation; Antichrist''s covenant.
C. I. Scofield; John Walvoord · Scofield Reference Bible
Each view is stated as that tradition would put it, with representative sources. Limitless Word presents them side by side and endorses none — see the methodology.