The book of Daniel is a unique and fascinating task and, in its own prophetic section, the premonitory and apocalyptic components which constitute the cornerstone of Christian eschatology abound. The message is straightforward and great at precisely the exact same moment: God has command of background and can keep his or her people.

The Prophecy of Seventy Weeks is the narrative in chapter 9 of the Book of Daniel which tells how Daniel prays to God to act on behalf of his people and city (i.e., Judeans and Jerusalem), and in response is given a detailed but cryptic supposed prophecy of "seventy weeks" by the angel Gabriel.

The prophecy has proved notoriously difficult for readers, despite it having been the subject of "intense exegetical activity" since the Second Temple period. For this reason scholars continue to follow James Alan Montgomery in referring to the history of this prophecy's interpretation as the "dismal swamp" of critical exegesis.