of Isaiah.  “Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus. 2.  It is a singular fact, that the appellation “Messiah” is never applied to the expected deliverer of the Israelites in the whole bible, except, perhaps, in ii.  Psalm.  It is an appellation indifferently applied to kings, and priests, and prophets; to all who were anointed, as an induction into their office, and has nothing in it peculiar and exclusive; but the application of it to the expected deliverer of Israel, originated in and from the Targums. 3.  In order to make this prophecy, and this phrase, “Messiah the prince,” or “the anointed prince,” apply to Jesus of Nazareth, Christians connect, and join together, this first member of the prophecy with the second, in open defiance of the original Hebrew; and after all, they can reap no benefit from this manoeuvre; for the term “Messiah Nagid,” or “the anointed prince,” can never apply to Jesus, in this place, at any rate; because he certainly was no prince or “Nagid,” a word which in the Hebrew bible always, without exception, denotes a prince, or ruler, one invested with temporal authority, or supreme command.  Now, as it is allowed on all hands, that Jesus had no such temporal power, as a prince, or ruler; it, consequently, follows, that he can by no means be the “anointed prince” mentioned in the prophecy.

Second Period.  “And (in) threescore and two weeks, the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times,”

Here the angel gave him to understand, that after the seven weeks before mentioned, there would come a time in which the building would be hindered, (and which was on account of the letter written by Rheum and Shimshai to Artaxerxes, who, in consequence thereof, made the building to cease-See Ezra and Nehemiah) till the second year of Darius, who gave leave to finish the building:  which continued till the destruction by the Romans, sixty-two weeks, beside the last week, at the beginning of which, the Romans came, and warred against them, and at length entirely destroyed the cities of Judah, Jerusalem, and the temple.  For, from the time that Cyrus first gave leave to build the temple, till its completion, was twenty-one years; and its duration, four hundred and twenty; in the whole, sixty-three weeks, or four hundred and forty one years.  But the angel made his division at sixty-two weeks, as he afterwards described what was to come to pass in the last week (and with reason, for the horrible Jewish war lasted seven years!) And by the words, “in troublous times,” he informed Daniel, that during the building of the temple, they would have continual trouble and alarms from their enemies, as is mentioned in Ezra and Nehemiah, where we find, that while some worked, the others held the shield and spear.  And even after finishing it, they were almost continually in trouble, and persecuted, as is evident from the books of Maccabees, and from Josephus.

Third Period.  “And after threescore and two weeks shall the anointed be cut off, and have no successor—­[Heb. “and not, or, none, to him"]—­and the city and the sanctuary shall be destroyed by the people of the prince that shall come; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”