Let us attempt to unriddle this enigma. The passage evidently talks of two Messiahs, or makes one live upwards of four hundred years; and is altogether unintelligible as it stands. For the better understanding of it, I shall quote some previous part of the same chapter, ver. 1. "In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans. 2. In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by books, the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. 3. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayers and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. 4. And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said." After this follows his prayer, until the 20th verse; and, in the 21st the angel began to unfold a prophecy to Daniel, which begins in verse 24, and he promises to explain the mystery that had so much grieved Daniel, that is, the prophecy of Jeremiah; then follows the passage I have quoted: the alterations I conceive ought be made in the reading of which, I now proceed to mention. In verse 25, the sentence stops after the seven weeks, as it is in the English Bible, because in the original we find here the stop Atnach. In verse 26, instead of, _shall Messiah be cut off?_ we ought to read, _the oblation shall cease_. This is the real meaning of the expression in the original, according to Tertullian, Eusebius, and Theodoretus. Eusebius says, _Unctum (vel Christum) nihil aliud esse quam successionem Pontificum, quos unctos nominare S. Literae consueverunt._ The Hebrew properly signifies _perdetur unctio_. Theodoretus understands by this word, the same as _sacerdotes uncti. Excidetur unctus,_ signifies the same as the _oblation shall be abolished_; for the verb _excido_ does not always signify to kill, but is applied to whatever falls into disuse that was once in practice, or any thing that perishes. It is in this sense used in many parts of Kings and Chronicles. Samuel says, _excidi de altare_. In Jeremiah, chapter xxxvii. ver. 18, the verb is used in the same sense, _non de sacerdotibus Levitis excidet ur homo coram me_, which is given in English, "neither shall the priests, the Levites, _want a man_ (or cease to have a man) before me." In verse 27, "and he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week," means no more than the exemption of calamities, and is tantamount to, _he shall let many remain in peace_, as in Genesis, chap. vi. ver. 18, it is used in this sense.