original creation (Genesis 1). Similarly, “seven times” were the period for the re-creation (repentance and restoration) of Nebuchadnezzar (see the commentary on 4:13 [ET 4:16]). “Seventy” (9:24) draws on the “seventy years” in Jeremiah (see 9:2) to signifying that desolated Jerusalem would be rebuilt, and the “weeks” draw on Genesis 1 to signify re-creation. “Seventy” and “weeks” are commonly used for symbolic time in apocalypses written after Daniel, and many of these apocalypses represent a kind
Page 453