15. What causes Daniel to pray to Jehovah, and what does Gabriel now make known concerning “seventy weeks”?

¹⁵ Messiah the Leader foretold (9:1-27). “The first year of Darius . . . of the Medes” finds Daniel examining Jeremiah’s prophecy. Realizing that the foretold 70-year desolation of Jerusalem is nearing its close, Daniel prays to Jehovah in confession of his own sins and those of Israel. (Dan. 9:1-4; Jer. 29:10) Gabriel appears in order to make known that there will be “seventy weeks . . . to terminate the transgression, and to finish off sin, and to make atonement for error.” Messiah the Leader will come at the end of 69 weeks, after which he will be cut off. The covenant will be kept in force for the many till the end of the 70th week, and finally, there will be desolation and an extermination.​—Dan. 9:24-27.

21. How did Daniel’s prophecy of the “seventy weeks” have a remarkable fulfillment?

²¹ Then, there is Daniel’s prophecy of the “seventy weeks.” After 69 weeks “Messiah the Leader” was to appear. Remarkably, 483 years (69 times 7 years) after “the going forth of the word” to rebuild Jerusalem, as authorized by Artaxerxes in his 20th year and put into effect by Nehemiah in Jerusalem, Jesus of Nazareth was baptized in the Jordan River and anointed with holy spirit, becoming Christ, or Messiah (that is, Anointed One).h That was in the year 29 C.E. Thereafter, as Daniel also foretold, there came “an extermination” when Jerusalem was desolated in 70 C.E.​—Dan. 9:24-27; Luke 3:21-23; 21:20.