1:12). But the hope was taken up again by Daniel, among others, in one of the most famous and lastingly influential prophecies, that of the seventy weeks of years (Dan. 9:24–27). It is generally accepted that the author was writing in the Maccabean period and saw himself as standing in the final week,464 of which half (three-and-a-half ‘times’ = three-and-a-half years)465 would be experienced under foreign subjection (7:25; 8:14; 9:27). So ‘Daniel’ fully expected that ‘the end of days’ was imminent