(As mentioned in the introduction, kings often had more than one name, which makes it a bit difficult to know who is who. My interpretation is based on study of the Bible, Jewish histories, and recent discoveries in Persia.)
1 In the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;
The Mede and Persian kings had banded together to take on Babylon. They evidently kind of took turns ruling as the chief kings.
One of the first of these co-kings (the one ruling Media who is known by several names, one of which sounds close enough to Ahasuerus to be interpreted by Jewish writers as such) married his daughter to his buddy, the king of Persia. They had a son named Cyrus who inherited the throne of Persia.
The king of Media also had a son named Darius who inherited the Median throne. It was these two, Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian, who conquered Babylon.
Darius the Mede’s daughter fell in love with her cousin Cyrus at a very young age and they were married, making Cyrus the next in line to be chief king of the combined kingdom.
This didn’t sit well with Darius the Mede’s son Ahasuerus (presumably named after his grandpa) who would murder Cyrus and take the rule of both kingdoms (and marry a Jewish girl named Ester.)
2 In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
Jeremiah (who was a priest) was about 34 when Daniel was carried off captive. Somehow, Daniel had Jeremiah’s prophecies with him in Babylon.
There is a Jeremiah listed in the book of Nehemiah as one of the priests that returned to Babylon, but we have no way of knowing if it is the same Jeremiah. If it was, he was a very old man, though God did promise him he would go back to Canaan personally after the captivity, so it’s entirely possible Nehemiah’s Jeremiah is the author of the book by the same name.
Apparently, Darius the Mede only ruled after the destruction of Babylon for a very short time; a couple of years at most. So, in this, the first year of his control of the Babylonian territory, the Jews have been in captivity 68 or 69 years.
3 And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
Daniel sets in to pray for his people.
4 And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession and said, “O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep His commandments;
“You, God, are good.”
5 “We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from Thy precepts and from Thy judgments:
6 “Neither have we hearkened unto Thy servants the prophets, which spake in Thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers and to all the people of the land.
“We have sinned big time.”
7 “O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto Thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries withther Thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against Thee.
Daniel acknowledges that it is God who has scattered the Israelites throughout the whole known world.
8 “O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against Thee.
9 “To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him.
None of us deserve God’s forgiveness.
10 “Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets.
11 “Yea, all Israel have transgressed Thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey Thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against Him.
12 “And He hath confirmed His words, which He spake against us and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
God did just as He promised.
13 “As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand Thy truth.
And still Israel/Judah didn’t repent.
14 “Therefore that the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all His works which He doeth: for we obeyed not His voice.
15 “And now, O Lord our God, Thou hast brought Thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten Thee renown, as at this day: we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
“God, you rescued us from Egypt, and yet we disobey.”
16 “O Lord, according to all Thy righteousness, I beseech Thee, let Thine anger and Thy fury be turned away from Thy city Jerusalem, Thy Holy Mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.
“Please quit being angry with us, though we don’t deserve otherwise.”
17 “Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of Thy servant, and his supplications, and cause Thy face to shift upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.
“God, I know we have sinned and deserved to be punished, but please listen to me.”
18 “O my God, incline Thine ear, and hear; open Thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by Thy name: for we do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousness, but for Thy great mercies.
19 “O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive: O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for Thine Own sake, O my God: for Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name.”
“God You promised Jeremiah that You would return us to the city called by Your Name. You deserve no less than the glory for fulfilling that promise.”
20 And while I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the Holy Mountain of my God,
21 Yea, while I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
The same angel came to visit him that he had seen before.
22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, “O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.
23 “At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.
“God really loves you, so He is sending you a vision to explain things.”
24 “Seventy weeks …
A week means seven just as our word dozen means twelve. Nearly everyone agrees that this is talking about 490 years; 70x7 years…
… are determined upon thy people (Israel/Judah; God sees them as one people)
and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, (for Israel to end their sins)
and to make an end of sins, (their time is up)
and to make reconciliation for iniquity (Payment for sins- Calvary)
and to bring in everlasting righteousness, (Jesus’ work on Calvary)
and to seal up the vision and prophecy, (to complete everything ever prophesied to the Jews)
and to anoint the most Holy (Jesus).
These six things are going to happen in the next 490 years; specifically, they were fulfilled in Christ.
This is a time line, a schedule. It must stay intact in order to mean anything. Otherwise it would be like breaking the end off of a ruler, stapling a piece of elastic onto both pieces and trying to measure something.
25 “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment …
Given by Cyrus I in about 457BC
…to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince…
Jesus
…shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks…
A "score" is 20.
[7x7]+[62x7]=483 years.
…the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
No kidding. Read Ezra and Nehemiah. This is the first 49 years.
26 And after (the) threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off (crucified), but not for himself (for us):
Our system of dates (BC-AD) was set up by a monk in the 500’s AD. He used the records of the Roman Empire to figure the dates backward and set the birth of Christ in year 1AD. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize that the 15th year of Tiberius mentioned in Luke included a 5 year co-reign with Augustus. This made his dates 5 years too late. Christ was born, then, in what we would call 5BC (5 years “Before Christ”).
and the people of the prince…
The prince is Titus, the general who led the armies against Jerusalem in AD70. His father was appointed Emperor just beforehand. So “the people of the prince” are gentiles- Romans.
… 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.
In AD70 Titus destroyed Jerusalem with a flood of soldiers, made the city desolate, ended the greatest time of tribulation known to man, and the nation of Israel/Judah was no more.
27 And he
Christ
…shall confirm the covenant with many for one week
Seven years
…and in the midst of the week
After three and a half years of ministry
…he
Christ
…shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease
We don't have to torch sheep anymore since The Cross.
…and for the overspreading of abominations
Abundance of sins
…He
Christ through Titus.
…shall make it
The city
…desolate, even until the consummation
Consummation is “The end or completion of the present system of things;” -Noah Webster 1828 dictionary.
So “He shall make the city desolate until the end of the present system.”
…and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate
The Jews remaining in Jerusalem in AD70.
Christ was born about 5BC. This would make Christ thirty in AD25 (483 years after Cyrus told the Jews to go back home- 457BC), the age the Bible says He began His ministry.
He preached for three and a half years and was crucified (“cut off in the midst of the week”).
For some time after The Crucifixion no one but Jews were saved. I believe Cornelius (the first gentile) was saved three and a half years after The Crucifixion, completing the last “week” and ending the Jew's 490 years since Cyrus’ command to return.
After this time the doors of salvation were permanently opened to everyone, no matter what their nationality. The Jew’s time, the system of salvation by keeping the Mosaic Law, was permanently ended.