The meaning therefore is, that the people of a
Prince to come shall destroy the sanctuary, and abolish the daily worship
of the true God, and overspread the land with an army of false gods; and by
setting up their dominion and worship, cause desolation to the _Jews_,
until the times of the _Gentiles_ be fulfilled. For _Christ_ tells us, that
the abomination of desolation spoken of by _Daniel_ was to be set up in the
times of the _Roman Empire_, _Matth._ xxiv. 15.
Thus have we in this short Prophecy, a prediction of all the main periods
relating to the coming of the _Messiah_; the time of his birth, that of his
death, that of the rejection of the _Jews_, the duration of the _Jewish_
war whereby he caused the city and sanctuary to be destroyed, and the time
of his second coming: and so the interpretation here given is more full and
complete and adequate to the design, than if we should restrain it to his
first coming only, as Interpreters usually do. We avoid also the doing
violence to the language of _Daniel_, by taking the _seven weeks_ and
_sixty two weeks_ for one number. Had that been _Daniel_'s meaning, he
would have said _sixty and nine weeks_, and not _seven weeks_ and _sixty
two weeks_, a way of numbring used by no nation. In our way the years are
_Jewish Luni-solar years_, [11] as they ought to be; and the _seventy weeks
of years_ are _Jewish weeks_ ending with _sabbatical years_, which is very
remarkable.
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