SRR #75 | The 70th Week of Daniel - Danielic Imperative Part 13

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Daniel 9 as a Mosaic Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks

This week in Simple Riff from on the radio, Timothy Kaufman walks us through the final week of Gabriel's prophecy, showing that the 70th week of Daniel was to follow the 62 weeks, just as Gabriel prophesied, rather than following the 69 weeks as is traditionally assumed.

Timothy Kaufman walks us through the seven year confirmation of a covenant between the Jews and the Gentiles, during which the people, the city, and the sanctuary in Jerusalem were redesolated, including a decree in the middle of the week, prohibiting sacrifices, and finally, the recovery of the temple mount by the Jews, followed by the cleansing of the sanctuary in accordance with Daniel chapter eight, verse 14, and the rededication and anointing of the most holy, the altar, in accordance with Daniel chapter nine, verse 24, and the Lord's instruction in Ezekiel 43.

All of this happened under the old covenant in a Mosaic Levitical context, just as Daniel foretold. For more, here's Tim.

Okay, thank you, Tim. That's a great introduction. I appreciate it. And I'm glad to be back. I'm glad that we've finally got to a point where we can discuss the 70th week of Daniel. Over the last few weeks, we have made a case that Daniel 9 is a prophecy that is inescapably Mosaic in nature and not Messianic.

It is based on what we call the Leviticus 26 protocol, which not only calls for desolations as a punishment for Israel's sins, but also requires a seven-fold multiplication of the punishments if Israel fails to repent.

Daniel had been reading the book of Jeremiah when he prayed to the Lord about the 70 years of desolations of Jerusalem and confessed that during the 70 years, the Jews had failed to repent. Gabriel arrived to answer Daniel's prayer and multiply the 70 years by seven, informing Daniel that even though the city and the sanctuary would be rebuilt and the people would be returned to the land, it was so that they would be redesolated.

As Gabriel said, desolations are determined. This is all Mosaic because Leviticus 26 is the only place in the Pentateuch that God imposes desolations as a punishment for sins and multiplies those punishments seven-fold when the Jews do not repent.

As Daniel said in his prayer, As it is written in the law of Moses, All this evil has come upon us, yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth.

That's Daniel 9 13. All those desolations of Jerusalem were Mosaic according to the law of Moses in Leviticus 26 and the Jews did not repent. What we have also been showing in several ways is that the 77s are in fact related to the 70 years and are a continuation of the 70 years.

First, the 70 years were intended to complete and satisfy the Lord's indignation against the Jews. He explained his indignation to Jeremiah prior to the 70 years in Jeremiah 10 10, then explained that he had indignation against the Jews all those 70 years in Zechariah 1 12.

And as we saw in Ezra and Nehemiah, the Jews were still engaged in the abominations of the Gentiles even as they rebuilt the foundation, the altar, and the temple after they returned from captivity. And when Gabriel spoke to Daniel in chapter 8, he said the explicit purpose of his vision in Daniel 8 was to show him what shall be in the last end of the indignation.

That's Daniel 8 19. The last end of the indignation would be when a king came to desolate the people in the sanctuary. That king would be against the sacrifices and the indignation would finally end when the sanctuary was cleansed as a sign of repentance.

And that is exactly what is described in Daniel 9. The 77s end only when the most holy is anointed after the coming king destroys the people, the city, and the sanctuary and desolates the altar. The most holy, of course, refers to the anointing of the sanctuary and both the sanctuary and the altar are cleansed at the end of the indignation.

That is why Daniel 8 says the indignation ends when the sanctuary be cleansed in Daniel 8 14. And Daniel 9 says the 77s end when the most holy is anointed, Daniel 9 24. It's all about the Jews repenting of how they have defiled the sanctuary and the altar.

And they were told by Ezekiel in the 25th year of their captivity how they were to express their shame and their sorrow and their repentance. That's in Ezekiel chapter 43. We are revisiting this and emphasizing the connection between the indignation and the 70 years in Leviticus 26 and Jeremiah and Gabriel and Israel's profanation of the sanctuary and the altar in order to make two main points.

First, that all of this from Leviticus 26 to Jeremiah to the 70 years to Daniel's prayer about the end of the 70 years to Gabriel's response about the 77s all shows that it was purely Levitical in nature and the end of the indignation and the end of the 77s are all about cleansing the sanctuary, rededicating the altar and anointing them both and restoring the sacrificial priesthood.

It is Mosaic to the core, not Messianic. The second point is that the 77s is a prolongation of the 70 years and therefore must have a common starting point with the 70 years. Whatever is going to happen at the end of the 70 years is extended to the end of the 77s and thus the 77s and the 70 years have a common starting point which as we have noted is 605 BC.

And that's where we were last week. The 77s are a prolongation of the 70 years which began in 605 BC. So, our listeners might ask why not just fast forward 490 years from 605 BC to 115 BC to find the fulfillment of the prophecy.

The reason is very simple. The text does not support that. What we also focused on last week was that Gabriel not only multiplied the 70 years by 7 but then divided the 77s into 3 subsets of weeks. 7 weeks, 62, and 1.

We cannot simply add them back together to find the fulfillment. We have to handle them the way they are revealed to us. And the way they are revealed to us is as 3 divided sets. First, he said 7 sevens and 3 score and 2 sevens instead of 3 score and 9 sevens which is the way you would normally say 69.

Second, he put a hard punctuation mark between the 7 sevens and the 62 sevens showing that the 7 sevens have a different starting and ending point than the 62. The 1611 King James Bible recognized it.

The Jewish Publications Society 1917 translation recognized that. The Roman Catholic New American Bible recognizes it. The Protestant English Standard Version recognizes it. They all put a semicolon or a period between the 7 sevens and the 62 sevens recognizing the original Hebrew as it is revealed to us.

Additionally, Gabriel used a specific word that means divide when he said 77s have been divided. And then he proceeded to discuss them in their divided form. He actually said that they were divided and then went right on talking about them as if they had been divided.

He did not do as our modern translations do and simply put them back together to try to make them refer to Christ. Most notably, after saying that there are 7 sevens and there are 62 sevens, he said that the final week occurs after the 62 sevens.

Quite noticeably, not after the 69 and not after the 7. The whole revelation unfolds as if Gabriel had did the weeks into three sets of 7, 62, and 1 and Gabriel proceeds accordingly. What we also discussed last week was that 77's prophecy is intrinsically related to the 70 years.

But the 7 sevens has a starting point in 587 B .C. and the one week starts after the 62. And therefore the 62, the only set without a starting point given in the text, must begin in 605 B .C. The same starting point is the 70 years.

Fast forward 62 sevens or 434 years from 605 B .C. gets us to 171 B .C. The year Onias III, the high priest, was murdered in exile. Thus, as the text says, not only was the city rebuilt during the 62 sevens in accordance with Daniel 9 .24, but an anointed, that is the high priest, was cut off at the end of the 62 sevens.

That was in 171 B .C. Now to drive our point home, we notice that Cyrus, king of Persia, was an anointed ruler who was raised up by the Lord in 538 B .C. to rebuild the temple according to Isaiah 44 .28 to 45 .1.

And Onias III was an anointed high priest who was murdered in 171 B .C., having nothing. So far, everything is mosaic. What happened next was a seven-year period. One week, it started with confirming the covenant and ended with the altar and the sanctuary being rededicated and anointed.

In other words, three sets of sevens. After seven sevens, an anointed is raised up to rebuild the city and the temple. After 62 sevens, an anointed high priest is murdered. And after one seven, the most holy, the altar is anointed.

It's exactly what Gabriel said would happen. And the prophecy was entirely mosaic. Now, before we get ahead of ourselves, let's relive that last week, the 70th week of Daniel 9. And we'll start with the detailed prophecies from Gabriel.

And then we'll walk through it line by line. This is Daniel 9 26 to 27. And please note that we are correcting some of the interpretations. Namely, in Daniel 9 26, instead of saying, After three score and two weeks shall the Messiah be cut off, but not for himself.

We have corrected it to read after three score and two weeks shall an anointed be cut off having nothing. So let's proceed with Daniel 9 26 to 27. And after three score and two weeks shall an anointed be cut off having nothing.

And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. And the end thereof shall be with a flood. And unto the end of the war, desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with the 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.

OK, let's take this one piece at a time. We've already covered that after the three score and two weeks. So let's pick up with and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.

Antiochus IV was the reigning king at the time of this period, and he is known to have conducted two expeditions against Egypt. Both are important to our discussion, but it is the first expedition that is of interest to us here.

The record of his swift conquest of Egypt is recorded in First Maccabees, which reads. When Antiochus saw that his kingdom was established, he determined to become king of the land of Egypt, that he might reign over both kingdoms.

So he invaded Egypt with a strong force, with chariots and elephants and cavalry, and with a large fleet. He engaged Ptolemy, king of Egypt, in battle, and Ptolemy turned and fled before him. And many were wounded and fell, and they captured the fortified cities in the land of Egypt, and he plundered the land of Egypt.

After subduing Egypt, Antiochus returned in the 143rd year. He went up against Israel and came to Jerusalem with a strong force. The details of his treatment of the people, the city, and the sanctuary are recorded for us in First Maccabees 1, 21 -28.

He arrogantly entered the sanctuary and took the golden altar, the lampstand for the light and all its utensils. He took also the table for the bread of the presents, the cups for drink offerings, the bowls, the golden censers, the curtain, the crowns, and the gold decoration on the front of the temple.

He stripped it all off. He took the silver and the gold and the costly vessels. He took also the hidden treasures which he found. Taking them all, he departed to his own land. He committed deeds of murder and spoke with great arrogance.

Israel mourned deeply in every community. Rulers and elders groaned. Maidens and young men became faint. The beauty of women faded. Every bridegroom took up the lament. He who sat in the bridal chamber was mourning.

Even the land shook for its inhabitants, and all the house of Jacob was closed with shame. Antiochus was going to do a lot worse than this, but let's pick up with the next statement from Daniel 9, 26 -27.

It says,. And the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. Here, Gabriel is simply summarizing what the remaining verse describes in more detail, which specifically is that the people of the prince that shall come refers to King Antiochus and his soldiers coming to Jerusalem to desolate the people, the city, and the sanctuary, and that these desolations are determined all the way to the end of the indignation.

That is, that's the end that is in mind here. The end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. As we have noted, Daniel 9 focuses on the sins of the Jews, the Lord's indignation against them, and the implications of Leviticus 26, and the prescribed desolations for the sins of the Jews until the indignation be accomplished.

That is why the vision of Daniel 8, which covers this same time period, is explained by Gabriel as, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation. And here in Daniel 9, Gabriel again speaks of the end and unto the end, but is not speaking about the saints ruling with Christ, but rather the end of the indignation of the Lord against the Jews.

To give our listeners a foretaste of the atrocities committed by Antiochus IV against the Jews, and particularly as a fulfillment of the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined, we'll cite this short description of his murderous rampage through the city.

This is 2 Maccabees 5, verses 11 to 16. When news of what had happened reached the king, he took it to mean that Judea was in revolt. So, raging inwardly, he left Egypt and took the city by storm, and he commanded his soldiers to cut down relentlessly everyone they met, and to slay those who went into the houses.

Then there was killing of young and old, destruction of boys, women, and children, and slaughter of virgins and infants. Within the total of three days, 80 ,000 were destroyed, 40 ,000 in hand-to-hand fighting, and as many were sold into slavery as were slain.

Not content with this, Antiochus dared to enter the most holy temple in all the world, guided by Menelaus, who had become a traitor both to the laws and to his country. He took the holy vessels with his polluted hands, and swept away with profane hands the votive offerings which other kings had made to enhance the glory and honor of the place.

So, that's just a citation from 2 Maccabees 5, verses 11 to 16, an apocryphal book. It's not scripture, but it is a pretty good and interesting historical record, about which we'll talk a little bit more later.

But we note here for emphasis that Antiochus IV desolated the people, the city, and the sanctuary, and his oppression of the Jews was extreme. There were some who escaped, went into hiding, and formed a counter-insurgency that would eventually prevail.

We'll come back to the war that results from Antiochus' oppression of the Jews a little bit later, but we first wanted to cover Gabriel's summary of how bad things were going to get. Antiochus was going to make the lives of the Jews much more miserable, as we shall see, and in fact his oppression would become so severe that the Jews were organized into an armed resistance until the temple was taken back by force, and the sanctuary cleansed in accordance with Daniel 8 .14, and the altar rededicated in accordance with Ezekiel 43 .27, and anointed in accordance with Exodus 40 .10 and Daniel 9 .24.

So, let's proceed with Daniel 9 .27, which begins with,. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. In this verse, Gabriel has informed us that the prince that shall come shall confirm the covenant with many for one week.

The wording here does not suggest merely the making of a covenant, but rather the strengthening of one that is already in place. The word rendered as confirm in Daniel 9 .27 is the Hebrew word gabar, which means to strengthen or to make stronger, as in Zechariah 10, verse 6, and Zechariah 10, verse 12, which say, And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will strengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk up and down in his name, sayeth.

The Lord.

That's the same word used for strengthen in Zechariah 10 as Gabriel used for confirm in Daniel 9 .27. Other renderings of the term in the Old Testament are prevailed or stronger or make great or greater in some way.

The point is that the word used for confirm means that in the 70th week there is a strengthening or prevailing of a pre-existing covenant, and what we'll find is that an agreement had been made by Antiochus IV with the Jews in 175 BC to raise their children in the Greek way of life, and then in 171 BC that agreement prevailed or was strengthened and was implemented to a much greater extent.

So, we're going to spend a little time on the first four years of the reign of Antiochus and how after four years the initial agreement in 175 BC was strengthened or confirmed in 171 BC. So, when King Antiochus came to power in Syria in 175 BC, the apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees chapter 1, verses 10 to 16, says that some time between the ascension of Antiochus to the throne in 175 and his first invasion of Egypt, the people of Israel entered into a covenant with him to adopt the Greek way of life.

This was instigated by Jason after he usurped the high priesthood from his brother Onias III. Here is how it is recorded in 1 Maccabees 1, verses 10 to 16, as the author records the rise of Antiochus IV, the great persecutor of the people of God.

From them came forth the sinful root Antiochus Epiphanes, son of Antiochus the king. He had been a hostage in Rome. He began to reign in the 137th year of the kingdom of the Greeks, which is 175 BC. In those days lawless men came forth from Israel and misled many, saying, Let us go and make a covenant with the Gentiles round about us, for since we separated from them, many evils have come upon us.

This proposal pleased them, and some of the people eagerly went to the king. He authorized them to observe the ordinances of the Gentiles. So they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, according to Gentile custom, and removed the marks of circumcision, and abandoned the holy covenant.

They joined with the Gentiles and sold themselves to do evil. When Antiochus saw that his kingdom was established, he determined to become king of the land of Egypt, that he might reign over both kingdoms.

And then from that point forward he describes the invasion of Antiochus IV into Egypt. Now that's from the first book of Maccabees. The second book of Maccabees gives us a little bit more detail about Jason's intentions when he entered into this covenant with Antiochus IV to convert the Jews to the Greek way of life.

His secularization policy was largely related to his desire to allow the Jews to participate in the quadrennial games, or what we now call the Olympics. What we want to point out here is that Jason, as sinful as he was, appeared largely interested in accruing power and integrating the Jews into secular Greek society.

And his focus was on getting the gymnasium built and naturalizing the Jews as citizens of Antioch so they would be eligible for the games. He was not so much against the Jewish religion as he was for the Greek way of life.

And his motive in forging an agreement with the king in 175 BC appears to be centered on participating in the Olympic games the following year. Here is 2 Maccabees 4, 7 -15 relating a little bit more detail for us.

When Seleucus died and Antiochus, who is called Epiphanes, succeeded to the kingdom, Jason, the brother of Onias, obtained the high priesthood by corruption, promising the king at an interview 360 talents of silver, and from another source of revenue 80 talents.

In addition to this, he promised to pay 150 more if permission were given to establish by his authority a gymnasium and a body of youth for it, and to enroll the men of Jerusalem as citizens of Antioch.

When the king assented and Jason came to office, he at once shifted his countrymen over to the Greek way of life. He destroyed the lawful ways of living and introduced new customs contrary to the law.

For with alacrity he founded a gymnasium right under the citadel, and he induced the noblest of the young men to wear the Greek hat. There was such an extreme of Hellenization and increase in the adoption of foreign ways because of the surpassing wickedness of Jason, who was ungodly and no high priest, that the priests were no longer intent upon their service at the altar.

Despising the sanctuary and neglecting the sacrifices, they hastened to take part in the unlawful proceedings in the wrestling arena after the call to discus, disdaining the honors prized by their fathers, and putting the highest value upon Greek forms of prestige.

Again, that's 2 Maccabees 4, verses 7 to 15. So, to this point, the greatest offenses of Jason were in the introduction of wrestling and the discus, and when the Jews got caught up in Olympic fever, the priests began to neglect the service of the altar.

And when the Olympic Games came around, Jason sent the Jewish Olympians to the games in Tyre with a tribute to Hercules, for whom the games were being played. And Hercules, of course, was the paragon of masculinity.

Those assigned to the task of carrying the tribute were not comfortable with offering a tribute to Hercules, so they opted instead to donate the tribute toward the construction of Antiochus' navy. The authors of 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees were deeply offended by these acts of Jason, but in 171 it was going to get much, much worse.

In 171 BC, Jason, who had usurped the high priestly office from his brother Onias, the Levite, was himself outbid for the office of high priest by Menelaus of the tribe of Benjamin. This is how it is recorded in 2 Maccabees 4, 23 to 25.

After a period of three years, Jason sent Menelaus to carry the money to the king and to complete the records of essential business. But he, when presented to the king, extolled him with an air of authority and secured the high priesthood for himself, outbidding Jason by 300 talents of silver.

After receiving the king's orders, he returned, possessing no qualification for the high priesthood, but having the hot temper of a cruel tyrant and the rage of a savage wild.

Beast.

Again, that's 2 Maccabees 4, 23 to 25. To the degree that we can understand the historical record, it appears that what got started by Jason in 175 BC to introduce the Jews to the Olympics was taken to a whole new level by Menelaus.

When Menelaus found himself unable to make the payments to the king, he started stealing and selling the gold vessels from the temple, something Jason had not even entertained. Jason's agreement to introduce the Jews to the Greek way of life in 175 BC was thus taken over by Menelaus, who actually started to sell off the priestly utensils and to dismantle the articles of the sanctuary.

It was that act that raised the objection of Onias III, who was then murdered for raising an objection against him. All this happened in 171 BC. Keep in mind that to this point, Antiochus and his men have not yet entered the temple.

It was the Jews who voluntarily converted to a new way of life in 175 BC, and it is the Jews who started stealing from the temple in 171 BC to maintain the agreement with the king. And that is where the covenant with the Gentiles got really interesting.

Because Menelaus and his brother started to steal the holy vessels from the temple in order to pay the king and to bribe others, the conservative Jews started to revolt. And that is when things took a turn for the worse for the Jews.

Under Jason, the Jews simply succumbed to a case of Olympic fever and started getting excited about wrestling in the discus to the point that they were neglecting their priestly duties. But under Menelaus, who fortified the existing agreement by usurping Jason, the confrontation between the Jews and Antiochus turned violent.

This is where the trampling down of the Jews began. This is from 2 Maccabees 4, 39 -48, detailing the sacrilege of Menelaus and his brother Lysimachus after the death of Onias III and the resulting death penalty that was imposed on the Jews who had revolted.

Again, 2 Maccabees 4, 39 -48. 2 Maccabees 4, 39 -48. Menelaus, the cause of all the evil, he acquitted of the charges against him while he sentenced to death those unfortunate men. And so those who had spoken for the city and the villages and the holy vessels quickly suffered the unjust penalty.

Again, that 2 Maccabees 4, 39 -48, detailing the beginning of the oppression of the Jews who were actually standing up to defend the sacred vessels from the temple that Menelaus and his brother had begun to steal and sell off and use to bribe people.

We have revisited all this time period for a few reasons. First, to show that the 62 sevens of Daniel 9 ended in the same year that the 70th seven began. And second, that even more relevant to our discussion this week is to show that the king was to confirm a covenant for one week, according to Daniel 9, 27, in the sense that he made the agreement more firm and more expansive.

Thus, when Antiochus IV had started in the usurpation of Onias in 175 BC, when the Jews agreed to become like Greeks, he completed by affirming Menelaus more extreme secularization policies in the usurpation of Jason in 171, the same year Onias III was murdered, after the threescore and two weeks.

In fact, we might even say that in his elevation of Menelaus to replace Jason, Antiochus IV had strengthened the covenant that he had made earlier with the Jews to adopt the Greek way of life, or that the covenant he had made earlier finally prevailed.

We are dwelling on this because in the eschatologist's haste to find Christ in the prophecy of Daniel 9, he will often assume that the he in Daniel 9, 27 refers to Christ, as in, Christ shall confirm the covenant with many for one week.

What is incorrectly assumed is that the covenant that he confirmed is that which Christ confirmed in his death, that is, by the blood of the covenant, according to Hebrews 10, 29. But that interpretation presumes that Gabriel's prophecy was about Christ.

The he in Daniel 9, 27, however, is actually the prince of the previous verse, who shall come and destroy the city and the sanctuary, according to Daniel 9, 26. That prince refers to Antiochus IV, not to Christ.

The covenant that is confirmed in Daniel 9 is not Jesus' confirmation of a prior covenant in his blood, but simply Antiochus IV's confirmation with Menelaus, the agreement he had made earlier with Jason.

This is confirmed for us in Daniel 11, 22 -23, which says that the vile person of Daniel 11, 21 is the one who makes a league or covenant with the people, and before whom the prince of the covenant, or the high priest, is broken.

Daniel 11, 22 -23 says,. And with the arms of a flood they shall be overflown from before him, and shall be broken, yea, also the prince of the covenant. And after the league made with him, he shall work deceitfully, for he shall come up and become strong with a small people.

It was Antiochus IV, not Christ, who is that prince who is to come, and his strengthened covenant, as we shall see, only lasted one week. It was strengthened in 171 B .C. and would come to an end in 164 B .C., seven years later, as we shall show.

Just by way of reminder, Jesus did not come to make a one-week covenant with us, but Antiochus IV did confirm, for seven years, a covenant to raise the Jewish people as Greeks and convert them entirely to the Greek way of life.

The Midst of the Week and the Abolition of Sacrifice

So, let's continue with the next section of the verse, and it is the part that says,. And in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. As we noted when we were discussing Daniel 11, the Senate of Rome was alarmed at the expansionist policy of Antiochus IV and sent Gaius Popilius Laianus as an envoy to put an end to Antiochus IV's invasion of Egypt, and Antiochus IV gave in to Rome's demand.

Still stinging from his humiliation before the Romans, Antiochus returned to Jerusalem. It was then that he implemented a much harsher policy of persecution against the Jews, as recorded for us in 1 Maccabees 1, verses 30 -40.

He suddenly fell upon the city, dealt it a severe blow, and destroyed many people of Israel. He plundered the city, burned it with fire, and tore down its houses and surrounding walls. And they took captive the women and children, and seized the cattle.

Then they fortified the city of David with a great strong wall and strong towers, and it became their citadel. And they stationed there as sinful people, lawless men. These strengthened their position, they stored up arms and food, and collecting the spoils of Jerusalem, they stored them there, and became a great snare.

It became an ambush against the sanctuary, an evil adversary of Israel continually. On every side of the sanctuary they shed innocent blood. They even defiled the sanctuary. Because of them the residents of Jerusalem fled.

She became a dwelling place of strangers. She became strange to her offspring, and her children forsook her. Her sanctuary became desolate as a desert. Her feasts were turned into mourning, her Sabbaths into a reproach.

Her honor into contempt. Her dishonor now grew as great as her glory. Her exaltation was turned into mourning. It was only after he had finished plundering the city, burning it, tearing down the walls, and fortifying the citadel that Antiochus published a decree that formally abolished the sacrifices and oblations of the altar.

This is what it says in 1 Maccabees 1 verses 41 to 51. Then the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, and that each should give up his customs. All the Gentiles accepted the command of the king.

Many even from Israel gladly adopted his religion. They sacrificed to idols and profaned the Sabbath. And the king sent letters by messengers to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah. He directed them to follow customs strange to the land, to forbid burnt offerings and sacrifices and drink offerings in the sanctuary, to profane Sabbaths and feasts, to defile the sanctuary and the priests, to build altars and sacred precincts and shrines for idols, to sacrifice swine and unclean animals, and to leave their sons uncircumcised.

They were to make themselves abominable by everything unclean and profane, so that they should forget the law and change all the ordinances. And whoever does not obey the command of the king shall die.

In such words he wrote to his whole kingdom. And he appointed inspectors over all the people and commanded the cities of Judah to offer sacrifice city by city. Thus did Antiochus IV abolish sacrifices and oblations in 167 BC.

Halfway through the 70th week. As Josephus reports, Antiochus IV spoiled the temple and put a stop to the constant practice of offering daily sacrifice of expiation for three years and six months. That's in Flavius Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book 1, Chapter 1, Paragraph 1.