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Author	: Bill Kochman
Publish	: Jul. 5, 2025
Update	: Jul. 5, 2025
Parts	: 13

Synopsis:



Continuing our discussion from part nine, let us now look at the next phrase in the Seventy Weeks Prophecy. We have already identified General Titus and the Romans, who along with their allies -- including King Herod Agrippa II and a host of others -- have slowly marched down from northern Israel over the past few years. Some cities and villages have voluntarily submitted themselves to Roman might, but due to their arrogance, others have been utterly burned to the ground and destroyed and their entire populations have been slaughtered when they foolishly refused to yield to Rome's overpowering military machine.

Let me mention here again that the war details I'm providing in this series are very much abbreviated. If you want to know who the protagonists and the antagonists were, what motivated each side, where the major battles were fought, what happened within the walls of Jerusalem, and the extreme suffering that the Jerusalemites endured during those four terrible months that the Roman siege lasted, then consider reading "Vespasian, Titus and the Fall of Jerusalem".

Phrase:

"shall destroy the city and the sanctuary"

Explanation:

It is a historical fact that Roman General Titus achieved his objective of subduing Jerusalem. According to secular sources such as Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus, and Jewish general and historian Flavius Josephus, and as many Jews and Christians know, this Roman military victory culminated in the complete destruction of the city of Jerusalem, and the Second Temple -- also known as Herod's temple -- precisely as Jesus Himself had warned and prophesied about four decades earlier. Consider the following group of Bible verses as evidence:

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down."


"And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here! And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down."


"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."


"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. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation."


"And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said, As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down."


Phrase:

"the end thereof shall be with a flood"

Explanation:

The Hebrew word that is translated as "flood" in the above phrase is "sheteph". This word literally means a flood or an overflowing of waters. However, in this case, it appears that it's intended to be understood in a metaphorical sense. In other words, it's really referring to the flood of Titus' army which wreaked havoc on the city of Jerusalem, and which destroyed the temple compound down to its very foundation blocks. Trust me when I say that the blocks which were used in the three perimeter walls, and in the construction of the temple itself, were massive! In fact, they were so strong, large and thick, that it took the Romans not just days, but literally weeks and months to breach all three walls with their ramming engines, before they could actually enter the city.

To put this feat into perspective for you, according to the Wikipedia website, with regard to the blocks in the Western Wall, it states that most of the blocks weighed between two and eight U.S. tons each. However, other blocks weighed even more, with one rather extraordinary block north of Wilson's Arch measuring 44.5 feet long, 11.0 feet high, 5.9 to 8.2 feet deep, and weighing between 280 and 330 U.S. tons!

Now if you find those figures mind-boggling, consider that with regard to the stone blocks which were used to build the temple itself, some measured 40 feet long, 11 feet wide, and 16.5 feet high. They could weigh several hundred tons, and some of them reached as much as 570 to 630 tons in weight! The largest block that was ever quarried is 64 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 18 feet high. Its weight is estimated to be approximately 1,650 U.S. tons! My friends, now imagine the ancient Romans disassembling the temple and the surrounding walls which were constructed of limestone blocks so huge. Yet they were able to accomplish it in precise fulfillment of the Lord's words. That just blows my mind!

Returning to the metaphorical use of the word "flood" for a moment, we can say that in a sense, the temple and the city were swept away by the flood of Roman forces. We can verify that this metaphorical interpretation is the correct one by comparing this verse with another verse that is found only a few chapters later. In Daniel chapter eleven we read the following verse:

"And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant."


In the previous verse, the word "arms" is derived from the Hebrew word "zerowa"-- or zer-o'-ah -- which not only means a physical arm, but which is also used to symbolize an arm of strength. That is to say, political or military might. I also think that it is significant that we are told that the end -- emphasis on the word "end" -- will be with a flood. In my mind, the question is this: The end of what? Well, we know that it was obviously the end of Jerusalem, as well as the end of the temple compound, and by extension, the end of the hypocritical, pharisaical religion that it represented.

However, it was also the end of the Jewish people as well. Precisely as Jesus had warned His followers some forty years earlier, and exactly as had occurred centuries earlier when the Assyrian and the Babylonian invasions occurred, the Jews were enslaved and carried away by the Roman flood into other Roman provinces. Consider the following verses, taking note of the words I have placed in uppercase letters:

"And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, THAT ALL THINGS WHICH ARE WRITTEN MAY BE FULFILLED. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be LED AWAY CAPTIVE INTO ALL NATIONS: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."


While I describe all of these things in considerable detail in "Vespasian, Titus and the Fall of Jerusalem", let me just tell you that according to reports that leaked out of Jerusalem at the time of the four-month Roman siege, and according to what Roman historian Tacitus and Jewish historian Josephus wrote in their respective works, 600,000 to 1,100,000 Jews died during the siege. A huge number of Jerusalemites died from rampant famine and disease. Other Jews died while fighting in the war. Still others -- in the many thousands -- died from all of the inter-factional fighting which occurred between the three main groups which had taken control of different parts of the city. Many Jews were crucified by the Romans. And lastly, some Jews committed suicide due to their own desperation.

In addition to the aforementioned casualties of war, Josephus reports that 97,000 Jews were enslaved and sold in other Roman provinces. A great many of them were forced to engage in Roman sporting events where they unwillingly participated in violent and bloody gladiatorial fights, and where they were killed by wild beasts, just as would also occur to the Christians as well. Following is an excerpt from Book 6 Chapter 9 of "The Wars of the Jews":

----- Begin Quote -----

Now the number of those that were carried captive during this whole war was collected to be ninety-seven thousand; as was the number of those who perished during the whole siege eleven hundred thousand, the greater part of whom were indeed of the same nation, [with the citizens of Jerusalem,] but not belonging to the city itself: for they were come up from all the country to the feast of unleavened bread, and were on a sudden shut up by an army, which at the very first, occasioned so great a straitness among them, that there came a pestilential destruction upon them, and soon afterwards such a famine, as destroyed them more suddenly.

Now this vast multitude is indeed collected out of remote places, but the entire nation was now shut up by fate, as in prison, and the Roman army encompassed the city when it was crowded with inhabitants. Accordingly the multitude of those that therein perished, exceeded all the destructions that either men or God ever brought upon the world; for, to speak only of what was publicly known, the Romans slew some of them, some they carried captives, and others they made a search for under ground, and when they found where they were, they broke up the ground and slew all they met with."

----- End Quote -----

My dear friends, please notice in particular how Josephus very specifically states that "the multitude of those that therein perished, exceeded all the destructions that either men or God ever brought upon the world." Josephus' words sound very similar to what Jesus Himself prophesied in the Gospel of Matthew four decades earlier regarding the great tribulation which would eventually come upon the Jews. Let me share those verses with you:

"For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elects sake those days shall be shortened."



Phrase:

"unto the end of the war desolations are determined"

Explanation:

Considering everything that we have now discussed here, it should be evident to you that this terrible war which took the lives of so many Jews, can only be what historians refer to as the First Jewish-Roman War. It is likewise known as The Great Revolt. This seven-year war began in Judea in 66 AD, and ended in 73 AD. However, the war's peak occurred in 70 AD when the temple and Jerusalem itself were destroyed by Titus' forces. While this major historical event broke the spirit of the Jews, some pockets of Jewish resistance still persisted, such as the Zealots who had fled to the desert fortress of Masada and holed up there. Thus, as the phrase states, war desolations did continue until all of Israel had either been subjugated or destroyed.

Masada was in fact one of the last holdouts to fall to Rome. I discuss that battle in the article entitled "The Fall of Masada". What happened there was nothing short of tragic. As I read Josephus' account of that battle, I was taken back by the extreme to which the insurrectionists were willing to go, rather than allow themselves to become slaves of Rome. If you are interested in learning exactly what caused the war, and who the instigators were, then I again suggest that you consider reading the aforementioned series, "Vespasian, Titus and the Fall of Jerusalem".

Due to this preponderance of both Scriptural and historical evidence, I'm personally convinced that this war was in fact the precise fulfillment of the final 70th week of Daniel's Seventy Weeks Prophecy. In other words, Jesus was crucified at the end of the 69th week in direct fulfillment of earlier parts of this same prophecy. Then about forty years later, the final 70th week likewise came to fruition. This leaves us with just one more verse to examine in the Seventy Weeks Prophecy, and that is the following one:

"And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate."


As some of my readers will probably already know, Daniel 9:27, more than the other three verses which comprise this prophecy, has been a strong source of disagreement amongst scholars, theologians and regular Bible students alike. In particular, if you ask a Futurist what this verse means, you will be given one explanation. If you ask a Preterist the same question, it will elicit a very different response. As I explain in articles such as "Jesus Christ's Return: Have We Been Deceived?", for some forty years of my life, I was a dedicated Futurist who fervently believed in and taught Futurism. At that time in my life, you would not have been able to convince me to believe anything else. Certainly not Preterism.

However, God has a way of eventually getting through to us, if we are willing, and that is exactly what happened to me. Thus, I lean A LOT more towards the Preterist understanding of Bible prophecy, than I do towards the Futurist point of view. According to the doctrines of Futurism, Daniel 9:27 has not yet been fulfilled. While the first 69 weeks -- or 483 years -- of the Seventy Weeks Prophecy were fulfilled almost 2,000 year ago, just as I did for a long time, the Futurists insist on divorcing the final 70th week -- that is to say, the "Last Seven Years" -- from the rest of the prophecy, and moving it up to our current time.

In fact, if you happen to be a regular participant on any of the social networks -- Facebook in particular -- then you may know that right now there is quite a bit of chatter regarding U.S. President Donald Trump, the Abraham Accords, the devastating war in Gaza, final preparations to build a third Jewish temple, etc. Some Christians insist that we're already in the Great Tribulation, while others say that it will begin soon. There is a lot of excitement, as well as great anticipation amongst these Christians, because they are convinced that these events will soon lead to Christ's return, and the rapture of the Saints.

But, my friends, is there really any truth to these rumors, or is it possible that regardless of how sincere they may be in their beliefs, these Christians have unknowingly been given over to doctrinal error? Is the covenant which we see in Daniel 9:27 really the Abraham Accords, or is it really something else? Rather than distort the meaning of certain Bible verses so that they conform to our particular belief system and understanding, we need to accept them for what they say, and read them in context.

Having said that, in order to arrive at the truth regarding Daniel 9:27, the first thing that we need to do is to more closely examine the phrase "he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week." Our first task is to identify the "he" in this phrase. Working backwards in the text, we see that it must be referring to "the prince that shall come". Who was he? We already know that it was General Titus. To be clear, the phrase can't be referring to "Messiah". Why not? Because He has already been cut off -- or killed -- sometime after the conclusion of the 69th week of the prophecy. But we are now in the 70th week after the prince -- meaning Titus -- has come.

So assuming that I am correct in identifying General Titus as "the prince that shall come", what is this covenant that he confirms with many for one week? When I was a Futurist many years ago, similar to many other Futurists, I thought that it was some kind of political agreement which would allow the Jews to build a third temple in East Jerusalem, and then resume their animal sacrifices. As I've explained before, everything that the Futurists still believe today, I too believed back then. That is why I know how they all think. I know for a fact that this is exactly why so many Christians in America are excited regarding Donald Trump and the Abraham Accords.

But you see, in my view, that entire scenario is very wrong, because the Seventy Weeks Prophecy has absolutely nothing to do with our modern times. As I mentioned earlier, we cannot just take the final 70th week, divorce it from the rest of the prophecy, and move it up to our modern day. Doing so is taking Daniel 9:27 out of its proper context. Well, I will be honest with you. If you've already read "Vespasian, Titus and the Fall of Jerusalem", then you will know that I spent a lot of time -- months in fact -- reading the historical works of Flavius Josephus, Publius Tacitus, Suetonius and a few others.

My dear friends, I really dug into it, and trudged through it, because I wanted to fully understand what happened, why it happened, and how it happened. Of course, as Christians, we already know God's reason for allowing it to happen. It was His judgment against the stiff-necked, unbelieving Jews who crucified His Son. As I point out in the aforementioned series, Jesus clearly warned of the coming wrath of God and the terrible destruction that would fall on the Jews. While it seems that Josephus did not embrace Christ as his Savior, nevertheless, throughout his tragic account, he makes it a point to mention multiple times that it was God Himself who was allowing these things to befall the Jews.

But as I've mentioned on previous occasions, God will often work through human agents to perform His Will. We see this happening countless times in the Scriptures where the Lord used the enemies of the Israelites to chastise them. They served as God's "vessels of wrath" against the Israelites. Just reading through the pages of the Bible, we see various wars with the Philistines, Midianites, Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians and more, to name a few.

So as I was reading through all of that historical material, I kept an eye out for anything which might be linked in any way to fulfilled Bible prophecy. Of course, one thing I was looking for was any mention of this mysterious covenant we see in Daniel 9:27. To my disappointment, I did not find anything which seemed to be tied to it. However, as I was sitting here in my desk chair, working on this series, and pondering Titus as the prince, thinking about the covenant, and wondering how to make sense of everything, I decided to look up the word "covenant" in the Brown, Driver, Briggs, Gesenius Hebrew Aramaic English Lexicon. Now, I had done it before, years ago no doubt, but I decided to take a renewed look at the original Hebrew word.

My friends, what can I say? My mind is blown! Why? Because I now know what the covenant was which the prince -- Titus -- confirmed with many for one week! In Daniel 9:27, the Hebrew word that is used is "beriyth". In the KJV Bible, this word is most often translated as "covenant". However, it is also translated as league, confederacy and confederate. But that is not all. In the provided definition, the lexicon states that "beriyth" likewise refers to an alliance, agreement or pledge. And then it all just clicked together, and it hit me like a ton of bricks!

Out of curiosity, I decided to check out a seven-part series I authored back in 2012 entitled "Psalm 83 War False Doctrine Exposed!". In the series, I expose yet another false doctrine which has been promoted by the Futurists for quite a number of years now. This erroneous doctrine claims that Psalm 83 is not about a past historical event. Rather, it is a prophecy -- at least so the Futurists claim -- concerning a future war which will be fought between the modern state of Israel, and its Muslim and Arab enemies. So I wrote a seven-part series to explain why it just wasn't so. But the point is this. In Psalm 83, the very same Hebrew word -- "beriyth" -- is used, as we see by the following verses:

"They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. For they have consulted together with one consent: THEY ARE CONFEDERATE AGAINST THEE: The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah."


Returning to Daniel 9:27, let me ask you a question. Who are we talking about here? It is obviously "the prince". Who is the prince? It is Titus. Who is Titus? He is the son of the new Roman emperor, and also a general in the Roman army who is leading a major assault against Israel, and in particular against Jerusalem. In short, what this covenant he confirms is talking about is a military alliance, plain and simple, just like the military alliance we see in Psalm 83. It has absolutely nothing to do with the 21st century. Neither does it have anything to do with President Donald Trump signing the Abraham Accords so that the Orthodox Jews can rebuild their temple someday soon. That is simply false doctrine in my view. ‭‭ What is mind-boggling about this new personal revelation is the fact that I ALREADY knew the answer regarding the issue concerning the covenant. I simply did not recognize it as the answer, because I was looking at the information in the wrong way. You see, in my series "Vespasian, Titus and the Fall of Jerusalem" -- yes, there I go again with some more promotion -- I read about and wrote about the alliance as Roman historian Publius Tacitus describes it in "Histories" Book 5 Chapter 1. In particular, in part eight of my series, I wrote thusly. I have added a few words in brackets for clarification for the sake of those of you who haven't yet read my series:

----- Begin Vespasian Quote -----

In other words, now that the civil war was over [meaning the "Year of the Four Emperors" war in Italy], and a new emperor had been selected [meaning Vespasian], it was time to once again turn their attention back to the ongoing war in Israel. Then he writes that is was "more expedient" for Vespasian to return to Rome, while Titus "should remain with the army." As he continues his description of the war, in Book 5 Chapter 1, Tacitus explains how General Titus gathered his forces and finally arrived at Jerusalem:

----- Begin Quote -----

Early in this year Titus Caesar, who had been selected by his father to complete the subjugation of Judaea, and who had gained distinction as a soldier while both were still subjects, began to rise in power and reputation, as armies and provinces emulated each other in their attachment to him . . . He found in Judaea three legions, the 5th, the 10th, and the 15th, all old troops of Vespasian's. To these he added the 12th from Syria, and some men belonging to the 18th and 3rd, whom he had withdrawn from Alexandria. This force was accompanied by twenty cohorts of allied troops and eight squadrons of cavalry, by the two kings Agrippa and Sohemus, by the auxiliary forces of king Antiochus, by a strong contingent of Arabs, who hated the Jews with the usual hatred of neighbours, and, lastly, by many persons brought from the capital and from Italy by private hopes of securing the yet unengaged affections of the Prince. With this force Titus entered the enemy's territory, preserving strict order on his march, reconnoitering every spot, and always ready to give battle. At last he encamped near Jerusalem.

----- End Quote -----

----- End Vespasian Quote -----

As if that is not already enough, I just now realized that in part nine of this same series, I shared the very same excerpt from Tacitus' "Histories" with you, in order to show you how he referred to Titus as "the Prince". But, my friends, just look at the huge size of the army that Titus organized before he began to move down into northern Israel by way of Ptolemais on the western coast of Israel. Actually, it was Vespasian who started the march from there, and then Titus took over after his father returned to Rome. At any rate, at the very least, Titus had six Roman legions under his command. For those of my readers who may not be aware, a legion consisted of 5,000 to 6,000 soldiers who were all Roman citizens. In turn, a legion was divided into ten cohorts. Each cohort consisted of six centuries, and each century consisted of eighty men. These were divided into an even smaller unit called a contubernia, which consisted of eight soldiers.

So right off the start, Titus had as many as 36,000 soldiers, all of Roman citizenry. In addition, he had twenty cohorts of allied troops -- meaning as many as 12,000 more men -- eight squadrons of cavalry provided by King Herod Agrippa II and by the Syrian king Sohaemus of the Emesan kingdom -- which adds as many as 960 horsemen to the alliance -- plus auxiliary forces provided by Antiochus IV of Commagene, a contingent of Arabs, and mercenaries brought from Rome and other parts of Italy. In Book 2 Chapter 18 of his "The Wars of the Jews", Flavius Josephus also describes the huge army which had begun to gather at Ptolemais in order to fight under Vespasian and his son, Titus, as they began the long war against the Jews. Consider the following excerpt:

----- Begin Quote -----

"And this was the miserable calamity which at this time befell the Jews at Alexandria. Hereupon Cestius thought fit no longer to lie still, while the Jews were everywhere up in arms, so he took out of Antioch the twelfth legion entire, and out of each of the rest he selected two thousand, with six cohorts of footmen, and four troops of horsemen, besides those auxiliaries which were sent by the kings; of which Antiochus sent two thousand horsemen, and three thousand footmen, with as many archers; and Agrippa sent the same number of footmen, and one thousand horsemen; Sohemus also followed with four thousand, a third part whereof were horsemen, but most part were archers, and thus did he march to Ptolemais. There were also great numbers of auxiliaries gathered together from the [free] cities, who indeed had not the same skill in martial affairs but made up in their alacrity, and in their hatred to the Jews what they wanted in skill. There came also along with Cestius, Agrippa himself, both as a guide in his march of the country, and a director what was fit to be done;"

----- End Quote -----

Please go to part eleven for the continuation of this series.

⇒ Go To The Next Part . . .

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