Question:
How do you get around the fact that it seems far-fetched that Daniel 9:24-27 is an explanation of the vision of Daniel 8, when the vision in the 8th chapter was given fifteen years before the vision in the 9th chapter, when there is no hint in Daniel’s prayer (9:1-19) or Gabriel’s expounding the vision, of such a thing? How do you account for these two things? What year was the third year of the reign of Belshazzar? Was it 553 B.C.? Are there tablets to prove that Usher is wrong here?
Answer:
We’ll answer both together. There are not fifteen years between the two chapters. Usher is wrong. He supposed that Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon, mentioned in the records of history that came down to him, was identical to the Belshazzar of the Bible. If that were the case, the third year of Nabonidus was in 553 B.C. That did not satisfy all Bible students. One suggested that there must have been a second ruler in Babylon, intimated in Belshazzar’s promise to Daniel. Belshazzar promises Daniel if he reads the writing, that he will be the third ruler of the kingdom. That implies a second ruler.
Belshazzar was the second. There must have been a first. That was revealed in the tablets. One of the tablets records a prayer by Nabonidus for Belshazzar, his son whom he had associated with himself in his kingdom. Belshazzar reigned but three years, and in the third year of his reign, he was slain, and Babylon was captured. There is also a tablet recording the capture of Babylon and the death of Belshazzar, or the son of King Nabonidus. Therefore the time between the vision of Daniel 8 and 9 is but a matter of a few months instead of fifteen years.
You will note in Daniel 8 that the vision was explained to Daniel with one exception: the time. Gabriel was commissioned to make Daniel understand the dream and did so as far as Daniel could bear it, and the angel explained all but the matter of the time when Daniel fainted. Daniel was still anxious to know the rest of the vision and, therefore, prayed in chapter 9. He seemed to have connected the seventy years of captivity with the vision to some extent, so he prayed for understanding.
Gabriel, who had been commissioned to make Daniel understand, came again. That he had reference to the vision of the 8th chapter is evident from the very first words to Daniel: “At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision” (Dan. 9:23). Then, seventy weeks are cut off upon Daniel’s people; that is, seventy weeks of the 2,300 days/years. That seems very clear, indeed. If there is no connection between the chapters, then Gabriel leaves the vision of Daniel 8 unexplained, and there is no pertinency to the words of Gabriel as he meets Daniel the second time.
