Daniel 9:24

 Seventy weekshave been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place. NASB

Transgression spoken of here is certainly what Daniel had prayed about in verse eleven: “Yes all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice…”  Therefore, Israel’s transgression was a blatant disobedience to God, which is rebellion against God and a rejection of His laws and teachings.

But the definite article attached to the word in verse 24—the transgression—suggests that there is a more specific transgression that Israel as a nation is guilty of.  We don’t see the definite article in verse eleven, I suppose because Daniel is not aware of any specific sin…

Daniel 9:24

Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place.  NASB

 Have been decreed for.  This term may reveal more than you think.  It could either be translated as “are determined for,” “are decreed for,” or “have been decreed for.”  The preposition “for” may also be translated as “upon.”  The basic meaning of this verb is “cut” or “divide.”  According to Barns, “The meaning would seem to be, that this portion of time—the seventy weeks—was “cut off” from the whole of duration, or cut out of it, as it were, and set by itself for a definite purpose.”  Dr. Leon Wood (from Thomas Ice’s commentary) says, “The thought is that…