These seventy weeks are, without doubt, four hundred and ninety years, the time elapsed from the destruction of the first temple, till the destruction of the second.

This, it seems, was the more necessary for the angel to inform him of; because Daniel judged, that after their return from Babylon, by means of that visitation only, all their sins would be done away.  For which reason the angel showed him that it would not be so, [for the return from Babylon was not a perfect redemption, because there was not a general collection of all that were in captivity, even all the tribes, save only a few of Judah and Benjamin, and those not the most respectable.  And after their return, they were not free, but were under the dominion of the Persians, Greeks and Romans.  And although they, at one time, threw off their yoke, and had kings of the Asmonean and Herodean families, yet was there no king among them of the seed of David, neither had they the Shechinah, nor the Urim and Thummim, all which is a manifestation that it was not a perfect redemption, but only a visitation, with which God was pleased to visit them; so that they were allowed to build a temple to the Lord, by the permission of Cyrus, and according to the measure given by him.  This was that they might be the better enabled to do the works of repentance during the time allowed, and thus “make atonement, and thus finish the transgression, and make an end of sins, and make reconciliation for iniquity;” and thus, at the end of the time assigned, even “seventy weeks,” they would bring in “everlasting righteousness,” i.e., universal virtue and felicity, throughout the world, when the Eternal should be known, worshipped, and obeyed by all mankind.  But if they did not repent, and amend, if they did evil, as their fathers, then their kingdom was to be cut off at the expiration of the seventy weeks; which, in fact, took place.]

After the angel had thus expressed himself in general terms, he descended to particulars; and laid down three propositions (if I may be allowed the term,) or periods.

First.  “Know, therefore, and understand, (that) from the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem, unto the anointed prince, (shall be) seven weeks.”

That is, it shall be seven weeks or forty nine years from the destruction of the first temple, to Cyrus, “the anointed prince,” who shall give leave to build the second. [With regard to the import of the phrase “the going forth of the word,” I refer the reader to Levi’s Letters to Priestley, and shall here only concern myself with settling the meaning of the expression of “the anointed prince.”] Many Christians have objected to the term Messiah, or anointed, being applied, as in our interpretation to Cyrus a heathen prince; and they apply it themselves to Jesus of Nazareth.  But that the term, or appellation, Messiah, can be applied to Cyrus, is evident; since we find it so applied by God himself in the xlv. ch.