And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
Daniel was a Jewish prophet living in Babylon — the empire that had conquered Israel and taken its people into exile around 600 BC. In a detailed vision, an angel delivers a prophecy about Israel's future told in units of "sevens," most likely representing periods of seven years each. The "sixty-two sevens" is a span of prophetic time leading up to the arrival of the "Anointed One" — in Hebrew, the Messiah, meaning one set apart by God for a sacred purpose. Most Christians understand this as a prophecy pointing directly to Jesus. The phrase "cut off and will have nothing" is widely interpreted as pointing to his crucifixion — rejected, executed, stripped of everything worldly. The destruction of "the city and the sanctuary" is understood as the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD, roughly forty years after Jesus' death. The verse closes with a sobering vision: even after the Messiah comes, wars continue and desolations are decreed. The world does not simply fix itself.
Lord, the world still feels broken — and sometimes so do I. But you saw all of this coming and you came anyway. Help me trust you in the places of my life that feel like war without end. You are not surprised. You are not absent. Amen.
Six hundred years before it happened, a man in a foreign captivity had a vision of a coming figure who would arrive at an appointed time — and then be violently rejected and left with nothing. No conquest. No golden throne. Just cut off. It's a strange kind of hope to hold onto: the most significant person in history arriving not in triumph, but in suffering and loss. And then the verse keeps moving, and it doesn't flinch. The city burns. Wars don't stop. Desolation is decreed. There is no tidy resolution after the Messiah comes — just an honest picture of a world that keeps fracturing. If you've ever prayed hard and watched things fall apart anyway — if you've ever tried to hold faith and grief in the same hands at the same time — this verse doesn't paper over that with false comfort. But hidden inside the prophecy is something worth sitting with: all of it was foreseen. The suffering wasn't a surprise. Even the darkness was charted. You can trust the one who saw every bit of this coming — and came anyway.
Daniel received this vision while Israel was in exile and captivity — how do you think that context shaped what it meant for him to hear about a coming Anointed One who would be 'cut off'?
How does it affect your faith to read a prophecy about Jesus written centuries before his birth — does it strengthen your trust, raise questions, or both?
The verse describes the Messiah being 'cut off and will have nothing' — how does this image of Jesus arriving in suffering and rejection challenge or deepen how you understand who he is?
The world in this verse does not get better after the Messiah comes — wars and desolations continue. How does that unflinching honesty affect how you pray for the world or make sense of ongoing suffering?
What does it mean to trust a God who foresaw even the darkest outcomes — and how might that trust change the way you face something uncertain or painful in your own life right now?
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
1 Corinthians 15:3
For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
Mark 10:45
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
Isaiah 53:8
The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
John 4:25
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
2 Corinthians 5:21
But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
Galatians 4:4
Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
Matthew 20:28
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
Galatians 3:13
Then after the sixty-two weeks [of years] the Anointed One will be cut off [and denied His Messianic kingdom] and have nothing [and no one to defend Him], and the people of the [other] prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.
AMP
And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed.
ESV
'Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end [will come] with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.
NASB
After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.
NIV
“And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.
NKJV
“After this period of sixty-two sets of seven, the Anointed One will be killed, appearing to have accomplished nothing, and a ruler will arise whose armies will destroy the city and the Temple. The end will come with a flood, and war and its miseries are decreed from that time to the very end.
NLT
After the sixty-two sevens, the Anointed Leader will be killed—the end of him. The city and Sanctuary will be laid in ruins by the army of the newly arriving leader. The end will come in a rush, like a flood. War will rage right up to the end, desolation the order of the day.
MSG