Big Idea: Despite the prayers of a faithful servant, the persistent sin of God’s people can bring serious consequences before their punishment is completed.

Understanding the Text

See the unit on 9:1–6 for a discussion of the larger context, structure, and comparisons of this chapter. Against this backdrop, 9:20–27 is the appearance vision proper. It can be divided into three parts: Gabriel’s arrival to answer Daniel’s prayer (9:20–23), the announcement of “seventy ‘sevens’” (9:24), and an explanation of its divisions (9:25–27).

Historical and Cultural Background

Ancient Near Eastern literature attaches symbolic significance to the numbers seven and seventy in the Sumerian royal inscriptions (twenty-sixth century BC) and the Egyptian Amarna letters (fourteenth century BC), the latter e…