The Decree. There are two decrees in the Old Testament about Jerusalem. The first one was given by Cyrus, the king of Persia. He issued it during his first year as king. Some have said this was the decree Daniel referred to, but the decree only permitted the Jews to rebuild the temple and not Jerusalem. It is important to note the prophecy says “restore and build Jerusalem.” It was King Artaxerxes who issued the decree.     And it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes . . . And I said to the king, “If it please the king, and if your servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.” . . . And I said to the king, “If it please the king, let letters be given me for the governors of the provinces beyond the River, that they may allow me to pass through until I come to Judah, and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress which is by the temple, for the wall of the city, and for the house to which I will go. And the king granted them to me because the good hand of my God was on me. (NASB) Neh. 2:1-8        Twentieth Year. Artaxerxes started ruling Persia in 465 B.C. This means the 20th year of Artaxerxes is 444 B.C. and not 445 B.C. The Babylonians and Medo-Persians referred to a king’s first year as the year of ascension (compare Daniel 1:5, 18 to Dan. 2:1) and not his first year as king. Therefore, when Ezra says the decree was made in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, it is actually the 21st year in which Artaxerxes ruled the Persian empire. That is, Artaxerxes made the decree, referred to in Daniel, to restore and build the city of Jerusalem in 1 Nisan 444 B.C.      Sevens Sixty-nine. Now that we know when the decree was issued, we want to know the meaning of sixty-nine weeks. Is it not a period of time just over one year. The sixty-nine weeks are 483 years. How do we know this?      The answer is found in the Hebrew words translated as “seven weeks” and “sixty-two weeks” in our English Bibles. The literal Hebrew is “sevens seven” and “sevens sixty-two” or 7 multiplied by 69, or 483. It is a multiplication problem. The Hebrew grammar in this passage is also the same as that used in a conversation between Jacob and his uncle Laban.      In the following passage, Jacob has just finished working for seven years in order to marry a beautiful, young woman called Rachel (Gen. 29:20-25). But on the wedding day, her father Laban switched his daughters and Jacob ended up with Leah on the wedding night instead. So Jacob and Laban have the following conversation,         < Back   Next >
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