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  • Who Will Lead the Nations to Peace?
    Will There Ever Be a World Without War?
    • Seventy weeks: Jewish commentators almost universally understand this to mean weeks of years, in other words, 490 years. This is in harmony with the Scriptural prophetic calculation of “a year for each day.”​—Numbers 14:34; Leviticus 25:8; Ezekiel 4:6.

      “From the going forth of the word to restore and to build Jerusalem” (Daniel 9:25, JP): Nehemiah relates that in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, he was given the commission to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. This was in the year 455 B.C.E.​—Nehemiah 2:1-8; see Insight on the Scriptures, Volume 2, pages 614-16, 899-900, published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.

      Seven weeks: Seven weeks (of years, or 49 years) relates to the period of completing the restoration of the city, Jerusalem.

      Sixty-​two weeks: Sixty-​two weeks (of years, or 434 years) relates to the period after the completion of the city until the coming of the Messiah.i

      Adding these two time periods together, one comes to 69 weeks of years, or 483 years. Counting from the starting point of 455 B.C.E. shows the end of the 69th week to be 29 C.E.

      29 C.E.: A Jew named Jesus (Hebrew, Yeshua), born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth, from the line of David, begins preaching throughout the land of Israel.​—Luke 3:1-3, 21, 22.

  • Who Will Lead the Nations to Peace?
    Will There Ever Be a World Without War?
    • i The punctuation found in the present-​day Hebrew text (the original Hebrew text had no vowel pointing or punctuation), which causes a different understanding of this time division, is not original but rather is an addition by scribes in the Middle Ages who evidently were reacting to the interpretation of this text as being fulfilled in Jesus.

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