Context: In the first year of Darius (539 BC), Daniel, having studied Jeremiah's prophecy of a seventy-year exile (Jer 25:11-12; 29:10), prays a great confessional prayer (9:4-19) that closely mirrors the Leviticus 26:40-41 covenant-curse confession formula. Gabriel's answer (vv. 24-27) transposes Daniel's expectation: what Daniel hoped for in seventy years (mere restoration from exile) God has purposed in seventy sevens (שָׁבֻעִים שִׁבְעִים, shabu'im shibim) — seventy "weeks of years" culminating not simply in rebuilding Jerusalem but in six decisive, eschatological ends: (1) "to finish the transgression," (2) "to put an end to sin," (3) "to atone for iniquity" (לְכַפֵּר עָוֺן, lekapper 'avon), (4) "to bring in everlasting righteousness," (5) "to seal both vision and prophet," (6) "to anoint a most holy place" (v. 24). The third clause is lexically decisive: lekapper is the Day of Atonement's core verb, identical to its usage in Leviticus 16:6, 16, 17, 30, 33. Within the book of Daniel this answer responds to chs. 7-8's beast-kingdoms and the 2,300 evenings-and-mornings desolation of the sanctuary (8:13-14): the exile will end, but the real desolation — sin itself — will end only when an "anointed one" (מָשִׁיחַ, mashiach, v. 25) is "cut off, but not for himself" (v. 26).
Hebrew Key Terms:
OT-to-OT Development: The lexical choice לְכַפֵּר in 9:24 activates the entire Levitical atonement lexicon Daniel inherits. The verb appears 16× in Leviticus 16 alone. By projecting this verb onto a single, eschatological, time-bounded accomplishment, Daniel compresses Yom Kippur's annual rhythm into a once-for-all telos. Parallels run to Isaiah 53:10-12 (the Servant's soul as אָשָׁם / guilt-offering "makes many to be accounted righteous" — the same transaction Daniel names as bringing in "everlasting righteousness"); to Zechariah 3:9 ("I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day"), written nearly contemporary with Daniel's post-exilic horizon; to Jeremiah 31:34 ("I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more"); and to Ezekiel 37:23 ("I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them"). "Anointed one" (מָשִׁיחַ) in v. 25-26 connects back to Psalm 2:2 (the LORD's anointed opposed by the nations) and forward to the Davidic messianic expectation of Isaiah 11, Jeremiah 23:5-6, and Zechariah 6:12-13. The "cut off, but not for himself" of v. 26 finds its OT pre-echo in Isaiah 53:8 ("cut off out of the land of the living").
Connections:
Christological Connection: In its own context, Daniel 9:24-27 announces that Israel's exile is a symptom of a deeper malady — sin and iniquity — whose resolution requires not merely geographical return but atonement. The six purposes of the seventy weeks form an escalating structure: three negatives (finish transgression, end sin, atone for iniquity) paired with three positives (bring everlasting righteousness, seal vision and prophet, anoint most holy). This is nothing less than the dismantling of the fall and the inauguration of the age to come. Critically, all six purposes are assigned to a single agent: the Messiah who is "cut off, but not for himself" (v. 26). His death is not self-referential; it accomplishes the atonement-for-iniquity the weeks were decreed to effect.
The New Testament identifies the fulfillment. Christ at His first coming "appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Heb 9:26) — deliberate verbal echo of Daniel's "end sin... atone for iniquity." The Messiah was indeed "cut off" on Calvary, and not for Himself: "the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God" (1 Pet 3:18). His death "in the middle of the week" (v. 27) "put an end to sacrifice and offering" — which is exactly the conclusion Hebrews 10:18 draws ("where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin"). The "anointing of the most holy" is fulfilled either in Christ Himself as the anointed holy one (Acts 10:38) or in the inauguration of the heavenly sanctuary (Heb 9:23-24) consecrated by His blood. The escalation over the annual Yom Kippur is categorical: the ritual pointed forward to a single moment when sin itself — not merely its covering — would be ended.
The already/not-yet staging is explicit in the text. The decisive atoning "cut off" happens within the seventy weeks (accomplished at Calvary); yet "until the end there shall be war, desolations are decreed" (v. 26b). The sin-ending accomplishment is finished objectively but awaits consummation in the removal of the final desolator (v. 27) — a horizon Jesus Himself draws into the eschatological discourse (Matt 24:15). Believers live in the gap between "atonement for iniquity" accomplished and "everlasting righteousness" fully applied.
Connection Method(s): Promise-Fulfillment (primary) — Daniel 9:24 is verbal prophecy with a specified agent (Messiah, v. 25), a specified timeframe (seventy weeks), and a specified accomplishment (atonement for iniquity). Christ's death-and-resurrection is the direct fulfillment; Hebrews 9:26 consciously echoes Daniel's language. This is not typology in the Fairbairn sense — Daniel is not instituting a type but prophesying an antitype. Typology (secondary) — insofar as Daniel draws on Leviticus 16's lekapper verb, the eschatological atonement is described using Yom Kippur vocabulary, reinforcing the institutional type → antitype relationship from the other direction. All five criteria of typology apply to the Day of Atonement → Christ pairing (correspondence, historicity, escalation, pointing-forwardness, retrospective interpretation), but in this passage the controlling category is explicit prophecy of fulfillment.
Trajectory Table: 044 - Day of Atonement (Christ's Atoning Sacrifice)