Who are the seventy weeks and the time of trouble for?

The short answer Settled

For Israel and Jerusalem, by name. Gabriel assigns the seventy weeks to Daniel's people and holy city. Jeremiah and Daniel both describe a time of trouble unlike any before it, and both carry the named people through it to deliverance.

For your people and your holy city

Daniel prays for "Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain" (Daniel 9:16), while "confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel" (Daniel 9:20). Gabriel comes to give him understanding, and answers: "Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city" (Daniel 9:24).

Gabriel does not leave the recipients unnamed, and he does not introduce a new people or city. "Your people" are the people Daniel has just called Israel, and "your holy city" is the city he has just called Jerusalem. Whatever further timeline the following verses may set out, the seventy weeks are assigned to them.

Jacob's trouble, and Jacob's rescue

Jeremiah's words are "concerning Israel and Judah" (Jeremiah 30:4). He describes a day unlike any other: "it is the time of Jacob's trouble, But he shall be saved out of it" (Jeremiah 30:7). A few verses later God says, "I will save you from afar" and "I will not make a complete end of you" (Jeremiah 30:10-11).

Daniel hears the same. "There shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation" (Daniel 12:1). And the promise follows at once: "at that time your people shall be delivered, Every one who is found written in the book" (Daniel 12:1). The deliverance is limited to those written in the book, and this page keeps that limit. It does not promise that every person is delivered. But the people named in the distress are the people named in the rescue.

The usual objection

The objection says that because the seventy weeks speak of reconciliation and everlasting righteousness, they can be detached from Israel and Jerusalem and given to a broader or replacement people. It adds that Israel's severe judgment may be the end of the nation, with any later deliverance belonging to someone else.

But the texts name their people. Gabriel answers Daniel's prayer for Israel and Jerusalem with "your people" and "your holy city." Jeremiah and Daniel never remove the named people between the distress and the deliverance.

The words behind it