Daniel 9:27

_ _ he shall confirm the covenant — Christ. The confirmation of the covenant is assigned to Him also elsewhere. Isaiah 42:6, “I will give thee for a covenant of the people” (that is, He in whom the covenant between Israel and God is personally expressed); compare Luke 22:20, “The new testament in My blood”; Malachi 3:1, “the angel of the covenant”; Jeremiah 31:31-34, describes the Messianic covenant in full. Contrast Daniel 11:30, Daniel 11:32, “forsake the covenant,” “do wickedly against the covenant.” The prophecy as to Messiah’s confirming the covenant with many would comfort the faithful in Antiochus’ times, who suffered partly from persecuting enemies, partly from false friends (Daniel 11:33-35). Hence arises the similarity of the language here and in Daniel 11:30, Daniel 11:32, referring to Antiochus, the type of Antichrist.

_ _ with many — (Isaiah 53:11; Matthew 20:28; Matthew 26:28; Romans 5:15, Romans 5:19; Hebrews 9:28).

_ _ in ... midst of ... week — The seventy weeks extend to a.d. 33. Israel was not actually destroyed till a.d. 79, but it was so virtually, a.d. 33, about three or four years after Christ’s death, during which the Gospel was preached exclusively to the Jews. When the Jews persecuted the Church and stoned Stephen (Acts 7:54-60), the respite of grace granted to them was at an end (Luke 13:7-9). Israel, having rejected Christ, was rejected by Christ, and henceforth is counted dead (compare Genesis 2:17 with Genesis 5:5; Hosea 13:1, Hosea 13:2), its actual destruction by Titus being the consummation of the removal of the kingdom of God from Israel to the Gentiles (Matthew 21:43), which is not to be restored until Christ’s second coming, when Israel shall be at the head of humanity (Matthew 23:39; Acts 1:6, Acts 1:7; Romans 11:25-31; Romans 15:1-32). The interval forms for the covenant-people a great parenthesis.

_ _ he shall cause the sacrifice ... oblation to cease — distinct from the temporary “taking away” of “the daily” (sacrifice) by Antiochus (Daniel 8:11; Daniel 11:31). Messiah was to cause all sacrifices and oblations in general to “cease” utterly. There is here an allusion only to Antiochus’ act; to comfort God’s people when sacrificial worship was to be trodden down, by pointing them to the Messianic time when salvation would fully come and yet temple sacrifices cease. This is the same consolation as Jeremiah and Ezekiel gave under like circumstances, when the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar was impending (Jeremiah 3:16; Jeremiah 31:31; Ezekiel 11:19). Jesus died in the middle of the last week, a.d. 30. His prophetic life lasted three and a half years; the very time in which “the saints are given into the hand” of Antichrist (Daniel 7:25). Three and a half does not, like ten, designate the power of the world in its fullness, but (while opposed to the divine, expressed by seven) broken and defeated in its seeming triumph; for immediately after the three and a half times, judgment falls on the victorious world powers (Daniel 7:25, Daniel 7:26). So Jesus’ death seemed the triumph of the world, but was really its defeat (John 12:31). The rending of the veil marked the cessation of sacrifices through Christ’s death (Leviticus 4:6, Leviticus 4:17; Leviticus 16:2, Leviticus 16:15; Hebrews 10:14-18). There cannot be a covenant without sacrifice (Genesis 8:20; Genesis 9:17; Genesis 15:9, etc.; Hebrews 9:15). Here the old covenant is to be confirmed, but in a way peculiar to the New Testament, namely, by the one sacrifice, which would terminate all sacrifices (Psalms 40:6, Psalms 40:11). Thus as the Levitical rites approached their end, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, with ever increasing clearness, oppose the spiritual new covenant to the transient earthly elements of the old.

_ _ for the overspreading of abominations — On account of the abominations committed by the unholy people against the Holy One, He shall not only destroy the city and sanctuary (Daniel 9:25), but shall continue its desolation until the time of the consummation “determined” by God (the phrase is quoted from Isaiah 10:22, Isaiah 10:23), when at last the world power shall be judged and dominion be given to the saints of the Most High (Daniel 7:26, Daniel 7:27). Auberlen translates, “On account of the desolating summit of abominations (compare Daniel 11:31; Daniel 12:11; thus the repetition of the same thing as in Daniel 9:26 is avoided), and till the consummation which is determined, it (the curse, Daniel 9:11, foretold by Moses) will pour on the desolated.” Israel reached the summit of abominations, which drew down desolation (Matthew 24:28), nay, which is the desolation itself, when, after murdering Messiah, they offered sacrifices, Mosaic indeed in form, but heathenish in spirit (compare Isaiah 1:13; Ezekiel 5:11). Christ refers to this passage (Matthew 24:15), “When ye see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place” (the latter words being tacitly implied in “abominations” as being such as are committed against the sanctuary). Tregelles translates, “upon the wing of abominations shall be that which causeth desolation”; namely, an idol set up on a wing or pinnacle of the temple (compare Matthew 4:5) by Antichrist, who makes a covenant with the restored Jews for the last of the seventy weeks of years (fulfilling Jesus’ words, “If another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive”), and for the first three and a half years keeps it, then in the midst of the week breaks it, causing the daily sacrifices to cease. Tregelles thus identifies the last half week with the time, times, and a half of the persecuting little horn (Daniel 7:25). But thus there is a gap of at least 1830 years put between the sixty-nine weeks and the seventieth week. Sir Isaac Newton explains the wing (“overspreading”) of abominations to be the Roman ensigns (eagles) brought to the east gate of the temple, and there sacrificed to by the soldiers; the war, ending in the destruction of Jerusalem, lasted from spring a.d. 67 to autumn a.d. 70, that is, just three and a half years, or the last half week of years [Josephus, Wars of the Jews, 6.6].

_ _ poured upon the desolate — Tregelles translates, “the causer of desolation,” namely, Antichrist. Compare “abomination that maketh desolate” (Daniel 12:11). Perhaps both interpretations of the whole passage may be in part true; the Roman desolator, Titus, being a type of Antichrist, the final desolator of Jerusalem. Bacon [The Advancement of Learning, 2.3] says, “Prophecies are of the nature of the Author, with whom a thousand years are as one day; and therefore are not fulfilled punctually at once, but have a springing and germinant accomplishment through many years, though the height and fullness of them may refer to one age.”