Daniel's prayer and the seventy weeks
Reading Jeremiah's prophecy of seventy years, Daniel confessed his people's sins and prayed for Jerusalem; Gabriel answered with a prophecy of seventy “weeks” leading to the Anointed One.
“Know therefore and discern that from the going out of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem to the Anointed One, the prince, will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be built again, with street and moat, even in troubled times.”
Daniel 9:25 (World English Bible)
Daniel's prayer is a model of confession: he doesn't excuse his people but appeals only to God's mercy. Gabriel's answer counts “seventy weeks” (usually understood as weeks of years, 490 years) from a decree to rebuild Jerusalem to the coming of the Anointed One and the end of sin.
Christian interpreters have long seen this fulfilled in Christ's ministry and death. Ussher counts the 490 years from the decree to Nehemiah in 454 BC, which will appear in a later batch.
Places
JerusalemChaldeaMost Holy Place
Dating notes
The first year of Darius the Mede (Daniel 9:1), 538 BC in Ussher. The starting point and details of the seventy weeks are debated among conservative interpreters.