THE STREET AND THE WALL ARE ONE AND THE SAME
By Arthur Bud Chrysler © 2024 Arthur Chrysler
Daniel’s vision covers a period of seventy weeks of years, or 490 years. As will be shown, fulfillment began in 445 B.C. and will end (with a gap accommodating the age of grace) at Christ’s return to anoint the most holy at the beginning of the millennial age.
Daniel 9:25 – Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks (7x7 = 49 prophetic yrs.), and threescore and two weeks (62x7 = 434 prophetic yrs.): the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
Daniel 9:25a – Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks:
The “going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem” is found in the Book of Nehemiah:
Nehemiah 2:1-6 – And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid, And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it. And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.
Daniel 9:25 – Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks (7x7 = 49 prophetic yrs.), and threescore and two weeks (62x7 = 434 prophetic yrs.): the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
Daniel 9:25a – Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks:
The “going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem” is found in the Book of Nehemiah:
Nehemiah 2:1-6 – And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid, And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it. And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.
Royal Sepulchers at the southern end of the City of David. Photo by Arthur Chrysler
Nehemiah, writing by divine inspiration, records the exact date of the commandment: “in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king” (Nehemiah 2:1).
Daniel 9:25b “…the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.”
- Dr. Alva McClain, former president of Grace Theological Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana wrote:
Daniel 9:25b “…the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.”
Foundation level of Hezekiah’s mid-slope wall above the Gihon Spring. Its width at this point is 5 meters (16.4 feet). Photo by Kathleen Kenyon
Overhead view of a cobblestone walkway (bottom left) atop Nehemiah’s/Hezekiah’s mid-slope wall in the City of David (Shilo’s Area D2). Photo by Arthur Chrysler
Stratum 9 (the time of Nehemiah) repairs to Hezekiah's mid-slope wall in area D2 (Qedem 19, p. 49)
Dame Kathleen Kenyon argued that Nehemiah built a new wall on the eastern ridge and abandoned Hezekiah’s mid-slope wall. One of her reasons for this argument was that Nehemiah 4:10 says: there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall. Nehemiah 4:10 is not the end of the story, however. Nehemiah 4:15 tells us that the work of rebuilding Hezekiah’s broken wall continued and was not abandoned: …we returned all of us to the wall, every one unto his work.
When Dr. Yigal Shiloh began the City of David excavations in 1978, he followed the assumption of Kathleen Kenyon that Nehemiah’s wall was on top of the eastern ridge of the City of David. He was surprised then to find that in his excavations of Hezekiah’s mid-slope wall, “the pottery of the Persian period was found scattered throughout most of the excavational areas.” Dr. Shiloh’s confusion became apparent when he continued: “It is presently impossible to define more precisely the nature of this stratum, located on the eastern slope of the City of David, outside the new line of fortifications - which in the accepted opinion, was built in this period on the bedrock at the top of the eastern slope.” (Yigal Shiloh, Excavations at the City of David I, Qedem 19, 1984, p. 29).
Dr. Shiloh could not understand why artifacts dating to Nehemiah’s Persian period were found between the wall at the top of the ridge and Hezekiah’s wall farther down the slope. The truth is that Nehemiah did not build a new wall on top of the ridge but repaired Hezekiah’s mid-slope wall. Later, the wall at the top of the eastern slope was found to be from the Hellenistic period (Yigal Shiloh, Excavations at the City of David I, Qedem 19, 1984, p. 8), after Shiloh found white, limestone, chips from a Persian period quarry beneath it.
In describing the work on the wall, Nehemiah used the word “repaired” 35 (5x7) times in Nehemiah chapter 3. The wall that he repaired was none other than Hezekiah’s wall that had been breached by the Babylonians.
Dr. Shiloh could not understand why artifacts dating to Nehemiah’s Persian period were found between the wall at the top of the ridge and Hezekiah’s wall farther down the slope. The truth is that Nehemiah did not build a new wall on top of the ridge but repaired Hezekiah’s mid-slope wall. Later, the wall at the top of the eastern slope was found to be from the Hellenistic period (Yigal Shiloh, Excavations at the City of David I, Qedem 19, 1984, p. 8), after Shiloh found white, limestone, chips from a Persian period quarry beneath it.
In describing the work on the wall, Nehemiah used the word “repaired” 35 (5x7) times in Nehemiah chapter 3. The wall that he repaired was none other than Hezekiah’s wall that had been breached by the Babylonians.
The Broad Wall (Nehemiah 3:8) in the Jewish Quarter. Notice the remains of a house lying under the wall at the upper-right of the picture (Isaiah 22:10). Photo by Arthur Chrysler
A portion of the wall ran west from the Temple Mount toward the western corner of the southwestern hill and was unearthed in the 1970s by Israeli archaeologist Nahman Avigad. He dated it to the reign of King Hezekiah (late eighth century B.C.). The unbroken length of wall is seven meters (23 feet) thick. It runs 71.1 yds long and is preserved in places to a height of 3.6 yds. It was previously believed that the city in this period was confined to the fortified, narrow hill running to the south of the Temple Mount known as the City of David. Avigad's excavations demonstrated that by the late eighth century the city had expanded to include the hill to the west of the Temple Mount.
Nehemiah 4:6 – So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.
When Nehemiah says. “Unto the half thereof,” in verse 6, he is not saying that they have progressed half-way around the city, but he speaks here of the height of the wall.
Nehemiah 4:7-8 – But it came to pass, that when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth, And conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it.
According to these verses, one of Nehemiah's worst enemies was Sanballat, a leader of the Samaritans.
German excavations between 1906 and 1908 of Elephantine Island in Egypt produced some of the most important Aramaic sources for understanding the history of Judeans and Arameans living in 5th century B.C. Egypt under Persian occupation. The Berlin Museum houses a collection of papyri found by Dr. O. Rubensohn. Professor Sachau of Berlin copied and translated three of these papyri. They consist of a letter sent to Bagos, the governor of Judah from the Jews at Elephantine, together with a copy of it and a memorandum of the reply that was received.
Part of the papyrus reads: “Moreover, all these things in a letter we sent in our name to Delaiah and Shelemiah, sons of Sanballat, governor of Samaria.” It continues, “We have sent a letter about it to our lord and also to Jehohanan… and to Ostan his brother, i.e. ‘Anani, and the freemen of the Jews.” Jehohanan is a longer version of the name “Johanan,” son of Eliashib the high priest, who served during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah (Ezra 10:6 and Nehemiah 12:22-23). It is interesting to note that Sanballat’s daughter was married to Jehohanan the high priest (Nehemiah 13:28).
Nehemiah 4:6 – So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.
When Nehemiah says. “Unto the half thereof,” in verse 6, he is not saying that they have progressed half-way around the city, but he speaks here of the height of the wall.
Nehemiah 4:7-8 – But it came to pass, that when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth, And conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it.
According to these verses, one of Nehemiah's worst enemies was Sanballat, a leader of the Samaritans.
German excavations between 1906 and 1908 of Elephantine Island in Egypt produced some of the most important Aramaic sources for understanding the history of Judeans and Arameans living in 5th century B.C. Egypt under Persian occupation. The Berlin Museum houses a collection of papyri found by Dr. O. Rubensohn. Professor Sachau of Berlin copied and translated three of these papyri. They consist of a letter sent to Bagos, the governor of Judah from the Jews at Elephantine, together with a copy of it and a memorandum of the reply that was received.
Part of the papyrus reads: “Moreover, all these things in a letter we sent in our name to Delaiah and Shelemiah, sons of Sanballat, governor of Samaria.” It continues, “We have sent a letter about it to our lord and also to Jehohanan… and to Ostan his brother, i.e. ‘Anani, and the freemen of the Jews.” Jehohanan is a longer version of the name “Johanan,” son of Eliashib the high priest, who served during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah (Ezra 10:6 and Nehemiah 12:22-23). It is interesting to note that Sanballat’s daughter was married to Jehohanan the high priest (Nehemiah 13:28).
Elephantine Papyri letters
Sanballat had been governor of Samaria before Nehemiah’s first term in Judea beginning in 445 B.C. The Jews from Elephantine requested help not from Sanballat, but from his sons Shelemiah and Delaiah. The Elephantine Temple Papyrus is a fascinating document which provides extra-biblical evidence of the existence of Nehemiah’s enemy Sanballat and the High Priest Jehohanan.
Nehemiah 4:16-18, 21 – And it came to pass from that time forth, that the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons… . They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded… So we laboured in the work: and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared.
Nehemiah 6:1-2 – Now it came to pass when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein; (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates;) That Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief.
There can be little doubt that these were indeed “troublous times” (Daniel 9:25).
Nehemiah chapter 12 describes the dedication of the wall, at which time “two great companies” were brought up to the top of the wall:
Nehemiah 12:27 – And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites out of all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem, to keep the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgivings, and with singing, with cymbals, psalteries, and with harps.
Nehemiah 12:30-31 – And the priests and the Levites purified themselves, and purified the people, and the gates, and the wall. Then I brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall, and appointed two great companies of them that gave thanks, whereof one went on the right hand upon the wall toward the dung gate.
Nehemiah 12:38 – And the other company of them that gave thanks went over against them, and I after them, and the half of the people upon the wall, from beyond the tower of the furnaces even unto the broad wall…
Hezekiah’s broad wall encompassed the entire city of Jerusalem (125 acres) during the late 8th century B.C. After personally observing the width of this wall (up to 23 feet in places), and considering the cobblestone pavement in Shiloh’s area D2, it is my contention that “the street” and “the wall,” mentioned in Daniel 9:25, are certainly one and the same. If this is not the case, Daniel 9:25 would seem to suggest that Jerusalem had only one street.
The “going forth of the commandment” has been shown to have occurred in 445 B.C., therefore, the “seven weeks” of years (7 x 7 = 49 prophetic years) in Daniel’s vision (Dan. 9:25) cover the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, the period of rebuilding during the “troublous times” between 445 B.C. and 396 B.C. The remaining “threescore and two weeks” (62 x 7 = 434 prophetic years), cover the remaining years “unto the Messiah the Prince.”
The triumphal entry of Messiah the Prince
There are a total of 69 weeks (sevens) of years or 483 years (49 + 434) mentioned in Daniel 9:25. Moving ahead 483 Gregorian (solar) years from 445 B.C. brings us to the year A.D. 39. But biblical evidence supports the use of a 360-day year in prophecy. When this is factored into the calculation (starting from 445 B.C.), the correct terminating point is A.D. 32; the year of the triumphal entry of Messiah the Prince.
Matthew 21:4-5 – All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.
Jesus Christ knew in advance the certainty of His rejection and wept over the city:
Luke 19:41-42 – And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
“thy day” in Luke 19:42 refers to the day that belonged to Israel, the day on which their “Messiah” would manifest Himself as the “Prince.”
“the things which belong unto thy peace” are the six things listed in Daniel 9:24.
Nehemiah 4:16-18, 21 – And it came to pass from that time forth, that the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons… . They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded… So we laboured in the work: and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared.
Nehemiah 6:1-2 – Now it came to pass when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein; (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates;) That Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief.
There can be little doubt that these were indeed “troublous times” (Daniel 9:25).
Nehemiah chapter 12 describes the dedication of the wall, at which time “two great companies” were brought up to the top of the wall:
Nehemiah 12:27 – And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites out of all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem, to keep the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgivings, and with singing, with cymbals, psalteries, and with harps.
Nehemiah 12:30-31 – And the priests and the Levites purified themselves, and purified the people, and the gates, and the wall. Then I brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall, and appointed two great companies of them that gave thanks, whereof one went on the right hand upon the wall toward the dung gate.
Nehemiah 12:38 – And the other company of them that gave thanks went over against them, and I after them, and the half of the people upon the wall, from beyond the tower of the furnaces even unto the broad wall…
Hezekiah’s broad wall encompassed the entire city of Jerusalem (125 acres) during the late 8th century B.C. After personally observing the width of this wall (up to 23 feet in places), and considering the cobblestone pavement in Shiloh’s area D2, it is my contention that “the street” and “the wall,” mentioned in Daniel 9:25, are certainly one and the same. If this is not the case, Daniel 9:25 would seem to suggest that Jerusalem had only one street.
The “going forth of the commandment” has been shown to have occurred in 445 B.C., therefore, the “seven weeks” of years (7 x 7 = 49 prophetic years) in Daniel’s vision (Dan. 9:25) cover the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, the period of rebuilding during the “troublous times” between 445 B.C. and 396 B.C. The remaining “threescore and two weeks” (62 x 7 = 434 prophetic years), cover the remaining years “unto the Messiah the Prince.”
The triumphal entry of Messiah the Prince
There are a total of 69 weeks (sevens) of years or 483 years (49 + 434) mentioned in Daniel 9:25. Moving ahead 483 Gregorian (solar) years from 445 B.C. brings us to the year A.D. 39. But biblical evidence supports the use of a 360-day year in prophecy. When this is factored into the calculation (starting from 445 B.C.), the correct terminating point is A.D. 32; the year of the triumphal entry of Messiah the Prince.
- 483 prophetic years x 360 = 173,880 days
- 173,880 days divided by 365 = 476 Gregorian years
- 445 B.C. – 476 years = A.D. 32
Matthew 21:4-5 – All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.
Jesus Christ knew in advance the certainty of His rejection and wept over the city:
Luke 19:41-42 – And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
“thy day” in Luke 19:42 refers to the day that belonged to Israel, the day on which their “Messiah” would manifest Himself as the “Prince.”
“the things which belong unto thy peace” are the six things listed in Daniel 9:24.
"Area D2. On the left, retaining wall W. 804, stratum 9, met by the layers of white gravel fill - waste from the stratum 9 quarry, of the Persian period (6th-4th centuries B.C.). Looking north, 1982." - QEDEM 19 - Plate 13
Area E1 - segment of Jebusite/Hezekiah's mid-slope wall W. 219 - Photo by Arthur Chrysler
