the angel said unto him,—­“I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.”  And he proceeds to inform him, that as soon as he began to pray, and God saw, his perplexity, the royal command went forth from him, that he should come to Daniel to make him understand the truth of those matters, that were to come to pass in future time.  And as the angel Gabriel had explained to him the vision from whence his doubt arose, it was incumbent on him to perfect the explanation; and that is what is meant by the expression “to show,” i. e., as I began the explanation, the commandment was, that I should finish it.

Before I proceed to give the Jewish explanation of the prophecy, it is proper to show in what manner the answer of the angel in it, agreed to Daniel’s question, and also the reason of his using the term weeks, and not years, or times, as in the other visions.

It appears, that Daniel, from the words of Jeremiah, perceived that God. would visit all the nations, and punish them for their sins, as may be observed from the following words:—­“Thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me, Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send thee, to drink it”—­ Jer, xxv. 15.  He then mentions first Jerusalem, afterwards the king of Egypt, Tyre, Sidon, and all the Isles beyond the sea, and many others; and at last the king of Sheshak, or Babylon.

He also further perceived, that the visitation of each nation would be at the end of seventy years, as Isaiah observes of Tyre:  “And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years.”  Isaiah xxiii. 15, the same of Babylon:  “And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, I will punish the King of Babylon.”  Jer. xxv. 12, And as it is observed in the next verse:  “All that is written in this book which Jeremiah hath prophecied, against all the nations.”  From whence it appears, that as the visitation of Babylon was to be seventy years, so was that of the other nations to be; for so had the wisdom of God decreed to wait according to this number.  For which reason, and because the prophets say that the restoration of Israel is to be contemporaneous with the destruction of their enemies, Daniel appears to have. judged, that the sins of his nation would be done away by the seventy years of the captivity of Babylon; and, therefore, the angel informed him of his error, by telling him, that this was not to be the case with his nation, for that their wickedness was come up before God, and their sin was very grievous; and that, therefore, their sins would not be atoned for by seventy years, as in the case of the rest of the nations, to whom he allowed seventy years to see if they would repent; and, if not, then he would punish them.  But as for Israel, he would not only wait seventy years, but seven times seventy years; (for thus it is literally, in the Hebrew, the words translated “seventy weeks,” are, literally, “seventy sevens”) after which, if they had not repented and reformed, their kingdom should be cut off, and they return into captivity, to finish an atonement for their transgressions.  Hence the cause of Daniel’s question is evident; and the propriety of the angel’s answer to the question, is manifest; as also the expression of weeks or sevens.