The Flood and War of Daniel 9:26

The Sapphire Review Vol. 3 | No. 13 • April 17, 2026

Daniel 9:26c

…and the end thereof [shall be] with a flood,
and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

Introduction

There is no doubt that the general application of the Seventy Weeks of Daniel 9:24–27 is with the decree of Artaxerxes (B.C. 457), Christ’s earthly ministry (A.D. 27–31), the close of the national Jewish probation (A.D. 34),¹ and the siege and overthrow of Jerusalem (A.D. 70). The twenty-sixth verse deals specifically with the destruction of the holy city by the Romans, according to the prophets and our Lord. (Mic. 3:12; Jer. 26:18; Matt. 23:37–38, 24:2.) These things being well established among students of prophecy, our present concern is with the closing words of the twenty-sixth verse, which are too often passed over with little notice. For the latter third portion of the verse appears to speak plainly of a flood—yet, the destruction of Jerusalem did not end with any literal flood, and neither can its besiegement be properly called a war.

What shall we say then? Has the prophecy failed? Unlikely, for God’s word cannot fail, and the prophecy has been perfectly fulfilled in every other particular. Have we been dealt a mistranslation? Not so, for the original sheṭep̄ (שֶׁ֫טֶף) in the present usage signifies “flood” proper, and not a mere overflow of arms (as in Daniel 11:22, which refers to the arms of Tiberius Caesar being overflown, or as in Daniel 11:26, 40), as some have supposed. Likewise, the preposition b (בְּ) rendered here as “with” is the most accurate translation in this place. It cannot rightly be rendered “like a flood” or “as a flood” without doing violence to the text, for such wording would require a different construction than that which is given. It might be represented as “by a flood,” but this is simply an instrumental shade already contained within “with a flood” (besheṭep̄). We must therefore seek another application that honours both the literal force of “flood” and the precise expression “with a flood.”

Examination

Let us begin with an examination of the construction of Daniel 9:26 as it reads in the English translation:²

26a) And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself:

26b) and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;

26c) and the end thereof [shall be] with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.³

We see that “the end thereof” (26c) can only refer back to “the city and the sanctuary” just introduced in 26b, so we may understand the phrase as “and the end of the city and the sanctuary.” The conjunction and (וְ) does not here introduce a new subject, but carries the thought forward from their destruction to its consummation “with a flood,” so that “end” stands in synonymous parallel with the destruction already announced.

If we read the English without the supplied words—“and the end of the city and the sanctuary with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined”—we observe that the two clauses “with a flood” and “unto the end of the war desolations are determined” lie side by side and both proceed from that same destruction.

In this context, “with a flood” must signify either:

1. by means of a flood

2. accompanied by a flood

3. in some particular connection to a flood, or

4. in a floodlike manner (i.e., an overwhelming, sweeping judgment), as some have supposed.

If it be taken by means of a flood, then “flood” must certainly be figurative, and, applied to verse 26b, is commonly made to denote the Roman armies as the instrument of Jerusalem’s overthrow. In substance this differs little from taking it in a floodlike manner (signification 4), for both readings make the “flood” a mere figure for the overwhelming force of the siege in A.D. 70. To adopt such a view is to bind the whole expression of 26c to that single crisis, and to treat “with a flood” as an idiom for the Roman legions, while leaving the distinct mention of “war” and of “desolations… unto the end” without a clear and separate fulfilment in the prophetic history.

If, on the other hand, it be understood as accompanied by a flood, or as standing in some particular connection to a flood (significations 2 and 3), then the way is open to see that this “flood” belongs, not to the moment of the siege itself, but to the course of desolations which the verse declares to be “determined… unto the end of the war,” following upon the city’s fall. In any case, we are constrained to find a specific, prophetic application that truly answers to the figure and accords with the time and context. To confine “with a flood” to a mere figure for the Roman armies in A.D. 70 not only lacks any explicit textual indication of such usage in this passage, but fails to account for the distinct mention of “war” and “desolations” that follow, which ought themselves to be satisfied in the prophetic fulfilment.⁴

Criteria

Let us now define the prophecy’s criteria. Besides “flood,” we also read of “war” and of “desolations” being determined (that is, decided; decreed). Thus, the correct application must satisfy these three elements: (1) flood, (2) war, and (3) desolations. War, of course, denotes an active state or period of conflict and not a singular event. Likewise, the text does not indicate desolation singular, but “desolations” plural. Furthermore, “unto the end of the war” does not denote the end itself, for “unto” should encompass the whole period of the war, whatever it be. This naturally leads to the question, do “flood” and “war” here signify the same thing? From the brief information that the text supplies us, this is actually quite likely, for it seems apparent that this “flood” is internally defined as “the war.” Let us investigate further.

Investigation

Daniel 7:21

In the English translation, “war” occurs only twice in the entire book of Daniel:—the first occurrence in 7:21 and the second in 9:26. Daniel 7:21 reads: “I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them.” The little horn (see Dan. 7:8, 8:9) signifies Rome in its entire history, pagan and papal.⁵ The period of this war is defined in the twenty‑fifth verse: “and they [the saints] shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time” (see also Dan. 12:7; Rev. 12:14), which is elsewhere called “a thousand two hundred and threescore days” (Rev. 11:3, 12:6) and “forty and two months.” (Rev. 11:2, 13:5.) This period of “war” is none other than the 1,260 years so prominently marked in Daniel and the Revelation, during which the papal power held supremacy from A.D. 538⁶ until its deadly wound in 1798 (cf. Rev. 11:2–3; 12:6, 14; 13:3, 10).

In Daniel 7 the little horn “made war with the saints, and prevailed against them” for “a time and times and the dividing of time” (Dan. 7:21, 25), while in Revelation 13 the leopard‑like beast is given “a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies,” and “it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them,” during a span of “forty and two months.” (Rev. 13:5,7.) By the prophetic rule of a day for a year (Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:6), these “forty and two months” (1,260 days) are identical with the “time, times, and half a time” (three and a half prophetic years), each amounting to 1,260 years. Having thus identified the period of this “war,” we may now inquire whether there is any further witness in Scripture that connects this 1,260‑year span with the “great tribulation” foretold.

Matthew 24:15–22

In Matthew’s account of our Lord’s great prophecy, we read of a “great tribulation” that follows the destruction of Jerusalem:

“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: 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 elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” (Matt. 24:15–22, emphasis added.)

Jesus here explicitly refers to Daniel’s prophecy, connecting the destruction of Jerusalem with this “great tribulation.”⁷ This directly supports the view that Daniel 9:26c is in some way connected with the 1,260 days. That this “great tribulation” refers to the 1,260 years of papal persecution is, we believe, a matter of insurmountable evidence. Let us now briefly review that evidence.

Luke 21:20–24

In Luke’s parallel account of our Lord’s prophecy, we read:

“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.” (Luke 21:20–24, emphasis added.)

There are several points herein worthy of our attention:

1. We see that Luke’s parallel account defines Matthew’s “abomination of desolation… stand in the holy place” as “Jerusalem compassed with armies.”

2. We read that “they [God’s people] shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations.” (v. 24.) This had its immediate fulfillment in the foretold judgment upon Jerusalem under pagan Rome by an overthrow, at which time the Jews, having been nationally cut off from the olive tree of Israel, were scattered among all nations; yet the very same sword-and-captivity language is taken up in Revelation 13 in connection with Rome in her papal phase: “He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.” (Rev. 13:10.) This is in the context of the 1,260 years. (See Rev. 13:5,7.)

3. Luke’s “times of the Gentiles” is thus to be understood with reference to the same 1,260‑year period brought to view elsewhere in prophecy. In the eleventh chapter of the Apocalypse we read: “But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.” (Rev. 11:2.) By the prophetic rule of a day for a year (Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:6), these forty and two months—being 1,260 days—denote the 1,260 years of papal supremacy, the very same period already defined in Daniel 7 and Revelation 12–13. But were the times of the Gentiles fulfilled in 1798, when that period closed? Not so. We read in Daniel: “How long [shall be] the vision concerning the daily, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” (Dan. 8:13–14.) The treading under foot thus continues, in a broader sense, to the close of the 2,300 days, when the cleansing of the sanctuary in heaven began in a special manner, and thence onward until the work of Christ’s ministration in the most holy place is finished and He stands up to judge the wicked and to deliver His people. (Dan. 8:14, 12:1; Rev. 7:2–4; 14:1, 15:5; see also Rom. 11:25.)⁸ Therefore the times of the Gentiles, in their full extent, are not fulfilled until that work is accomplished, and the people of God are no more trodden under foot; then “all Israel shall be saved.” (Rom. 11:26.)

There is yet one more text we may review as a supporting evidence:

Daniel 11:31–35

“And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do [exploits]. And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, [many] days. Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. And [some] of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make [them] white, [even] to the time of the end: because [it is] yet for a time appointed.” (Dan. 11:31–35, emphasis added.) (cf. Dan. 12:3,10.)

Here is yet another text that brings to view the reign of the papal power using much of the same language. The “abomination (transgression) that maketh desolate” (v. 31) refers not to the Roman armies encompassing Jerusalem in A.D. 70, but rather to the setting up of the papacy. (See Dan. 8:11, 12:11; Rev. 13:2.) The “time of the end” refers to the termination of the 1,260 days in 1798 when the papacy was overthrown by the French, which is denoted in Scripture as her “deadly wound.” (Rev. 13:3, 10.) Having considered all these facts, it is well founded that the “great tribulation” spoken of by our Lord is the 1,260-year reign of the papacy.⁹ Now, should this be the period referred to by the “flood” and “war” of Daniel 9:26c, shall we not expect to find a confirmation of this elsewhere in Scripture employing similar language? Most certainly. Do we have such a text? Affirmative.

Application

Revelation 12:13–17

In the twelfth chapter of the Revelation, we read of the great red dragon (pagan Rome) and the birth and ascension of a man child (Christ) which was brought forth of the woman (the Church). (vv. 2–5.) Following this, the 1,260-year supremacy of the papacy is introduced. (v. 6.) Shortly thereafter, we read the following:

“And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man [child]. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (Rev. 12:13–17, emphasis added.)

What more could we ask for as a confirmation of the application we have made? The papacy’s long war against the woman—the faithful church during her wilderness sojourn—is here represented by the figure of a flood cast out of the dragon’s mouth (see Psa. 18:4). Recall that in Daniel 11:31–35 “the people that do know their God… shall be holpen with a little help.” (vv. 32, 34.) Have we not read the same here in Revelation 12? “And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.” (v. 16.) Here is noted the work of the Reformation, led by Luther and his associates, with Germany herself providing the “little help” which propelled the advancement of the Protestant cause amid the papacy’s relentless career of persecution.

It should further be observed that, while the woman’s wilderness sojourn and the serpent’s flood belong specifically to the 1,260‑year period, the closing verse of the chapter carries the conflict forward beyond 1798: “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (Rev. 12:17.) This “remnant” denotes that later offspring of the church who arise after the wilderness period, distinguished by obedience to all of God’s commandments and by the possession of the testimony of Jesus (cf. Rev. 14:1–5, 19:10), and against whom the dragon’s war is taken up in a final surge and carried forward through the closing scenes of earth’s history until the appearing of the Son of man.

Conclusion

All our criteria have thus been met in the application made. In light of the Scripture evidence, it is clear that papal Rome, as the desolating power called the “transgression (or abomination) that maketh desolate,” made war with the saints 1,260 years; this war, called “great tribulation,” is during that period represented by a flood cast out of the serpent’s mouth, which flood answers to the “flood” of Daniel 9:26c.¹⁰ Thus the war that raged against the saints throughout the 1,260 years is not wholly spent in 1798, but, after the failure of the flood to destroy the woman, is taken up in a final surge against the remnant of her seed who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus, and continues until they are delivered at Christ’s coming.

In this way the “war” whose desolations are said in Daniel 9:26c to be “determined… unto the end” is seen to be the very conflict which, in its closing phase, is described in Revelation 12:17 as the dragon’s war with “the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ,” carried forward to its appointed conclusion at the appearing of the Son of man.

We may therefore conclude that the “end… with a flood” and the “war” and “desolations” determined in Daniel 9:26c do not terminate in A.D. 70, but point onward to the long papal persecution which followed the fall of Jerusalem and extended through the 1,260‑year “great tribulation,” and, in its final phase, to the dragon’s last warfare against the commandment‑keeping remnant. In this way the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks not only foretold the cutting off of Messiah and the destruction of the city and sanctuary, but also sketched the subsequent history of the desolating power that would make war upon His saints.

Such a view preserves the integrity of the prophecy, harmonizes Daniel with our Lord’s own words and with the Apocalypse, and magnifies the faithfulness of God, who has not left His people without a sure word of testimony concerning the things which they must suffer and the final deliverance that awaits them. If any other view is to be preferred, it must needs show, from the Scriptures themselves, that it can answer to this flood, this war, and these desolations, and to the time appointed for them, without doing violence to the words of the prophecy. Let us, then, take heed to these things, that we may be found among those “that do know their God,” and who, though tried, are “made white” and stand at last with the Lamb.

Brandon Harper

Footnotes

1. Note.—It should be noted that Scripture itself defines Israel, Jew, seed, and circumcision in terms of union with Christ by faith, and not in mere fleshly descent. Jacob is first named Israel as a single man who prevails with God (Gen. 32:28), and his descendants are the “children of Israel.” (Exo. 1:1–5.) This covenant people is represented as an olive tree whose branches can be broken off under judgment. (Jer. 11:16.) Through Hosea God pronounces “Lo‑ammi”—“ye are not my people”—over unbelieving Israel, yet promises that in the same place it shall be said, “Ye are the sons of the living God.” (Hos. 1:9–10; 2:23.) The apostle Paul applies these very words to the calling of those who come to Christ, both of Jews and Gentiles (Rom. 9:25–26), and explicitly teaches that “he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly… but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly” (Rom. 2:28–29); that Abraham is “the father of all them that believe” (Rom. 4:11–18); that “they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham” (Gal. 3:7); and that “if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Gal. 3:29.) In the outworking of the Seventy Weeks this comes to a solemn head in the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7), when the faithful witness in Israel proclaims “the Son of man standing on the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56), thus sealing the nation’s rejection of the risen Messiah and marking the close of its special probation as a covenant polity. From that point forward the gospel is carried in a special manner to the Gentiles (Acts 8–11; 13), and those believing Gentiles who were once “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel” and “strangers from the covenants of promise” are now “made nigh by the blood of Christ,” so that He has made “both one,” creating “one new man,” and making them “fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” (Eph. 2:11–22.) Thus those who worship God in the Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh are declared to be “the circumcision” (Php. 3:3), and upon as many as walk according to the rule of new creation in Christ, the apostle pronounces peace and mercy “upon the Israel of God.” (Gal. 6:15–16.) Therefore, when this prophecy speaks of “thy people” (Dan. 9:24), and when it reaches the solemn point where “Lo‑ammi” is effectively pronounced (Dan. 9:26, margin), the continuing subject of God’s saving dealings is not an unbelieving ethnic polity standing apart from Christ, but the Israel of God—that olive‑tree people, comprised of believing Jews and Gentiles, in whom the promises to Israel are fulfilled.

2. Note.—Preterist interpreters often concede that Daniel 9:26b refers to A.D. 70, but then either (1) collapse the “flood” and “war” of verse 26c back into that single crisis, or (2) push them off vaguely into “consequences” without clear biblical definition. Yet Daniel already uses “war” (מִלְחָמָה, milchamah) for the 1,260‑year warfare of the little horn “against the saints” (Dan. 7:21, 25), and Revelation joins the figure of a “flood” with the dragon’s war during that same 1,260‑day persecution of the woman, and then carries that war forward in a final surge against the remnant of her seed. (Rev. 12:6, 14–17.) Any interpretation that confines Daniel 9:26 entirely to A.D. 70 must therefore explain, from Scripture, (1) what this specific “flood” is, exactly, (2) what this specific “war” is, exactly, and (3) how its desolations “unto the end” can be exhausted in a single first‑century crisis, without contradicting Daniel 7 and Revelation 12.

3. Note.—Dispensationalists on the other hand, in order to uphold a modern prophetic scheme, have ventured to tear the seventieth week away from the sixty‑nine, thrusting an unmeasured gap between them and casting that final week into a future “tribulation” age. By this device the seventy weeks—“determined” (i.e., decreed) as a single, continuous period—are rent asunder and severed from the 2,300 days of Daniel 8:14. In so doing, the very heart of the prophecy is removed from Christ and given to antichrist; for it takes the week in which Messiah was to confirm the covenant and cause sacrifice and oblation to cease, and wrests it from His cross and priesthood to bestow it upon a future deceiver. No such violence is warranted by the text, nor was it so understood by the great body of expositors before the rise of these latter‑day theories.

4. Note.—Some historicist expositors, while maintaining the continuous fulfilment of the Seventy Weeks, nevertheless understand the “flood” of verse 26c as a figurative description of the Roman armies in A.D. 70, or as a general idiom for the overwhelming force of that siege. On such a view the whole of 26c is virtually spent in the first destruction of Jerusalem, and the distinct expressions “war” and “desolations… unto the end” are left to be folded back into that single crisis without any clear, separate fulfilment in the subsequent course of history. Yet the verse itself sets before us not only a “flood,” but also a “war” and a series of “desolations” determined “unto the end,” and any exposition that confines the “flood” to A.D. 70 must still show, from the Scriptures, how it satisfies all three of these elements, in their order and extent, without doing violence to the prophetic word.

5. Technical Note on the “little horn” representing Rome, pagan and papal.—In Daniel 7, by the figure of the little horn, Rome is brought to view in its papal phase in particular, for the fourth beast out of which it comes already exhibits the empire in its pagan form. The horn does not introduce a different kingdom, but a later, ecclesiastical form of the same fourth power that has already appeared in its imperial, pagan character. In Daniel 8, however, the same Roman power is represented in both of its phases, pagan and papal—the former signified by “the daily” [desolation] and the latter by “the transgression of desolation;” first as a continual pagan desolator opposing God’s truth and people, and then as a professedly Christian desolator which takes up and perpetuates the same work under another guise. (See Dan. 8:9–13.) It is thus an error to restrict the symbol of the little horn to the papacy alone.

6. Note.—The year A.D. 538 marks the point at which papal Rome succeeded pagan Rome in actual civil supremacy. By the decree of Justinian, the bishop of Rome was recognized as “head of all the holy churches,” and with the uprooting of the three Arian horns that opposed this supremacy (the Heruli in A.D. 493, the Vandals in A.D. 534, and the Ostrogoths driven from Rome in A.D. 538), the papacy received the dragon’s “power, and his seat, and great authority.” (Dan. 7:8, 24; Rev. 13:2.) From this establishment of its temporal throne the 1,260 prophetic “days” are reckoned to A.D. 1798, when the papal dominion was broken by the sword and it received its deadly wound. (Rev. 13:3, 10.)

7. Note.—Preterism typically begins with the assumption that “this generation” in Matthew 24:34 must denote only those physically living in Christ’s day, and then forces “all these things” into A.D. 70 to protect that assumption. This is contrary to sound interpretation. In Matthew 24, the phrase “this generation” occurs only after Christ has (1) traced an extended course of tribulation, (2) specified distinct signs in sun, moon, and stars which parallel the sixth seal of Revelation 6:12–13, and then (3) given the fig tree parable in order to identify the group that actually sees “all these things” that they may know His coming is near. The most natural sense is therefore the generation that witnesses those foretold signs, not merely those who first heard the discourse. By contrast, Luke 17:25 speaks of “this generation” in connection with His rejection and death at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and scribes—the very “wicked and adulterous generation” to whom no sign would be given but the sign of Jonah—and does not set out the later signs of the Olivet prophecy. To import the Luke 17:25 usage into Matthew 24 and make it control the whole prophecy is to conflate two distinct contexts and functions of the phrase “this generation,” and thus to build a doctrine upon a forced conflation rather than upon the plain order of the texts.

8. Note.—Full preterism insists that all prophecy—including the finishing of transgression, making an end of sins, and bringing in everlasting righteousness in Daniel 9:24—was exhaustively fulfilled by A.D. 70, and commonly takes Daniel 8:14 as already realized in that same period. On such a view, the heavenly sanctuary must have been “cleansed” and Christ’s work in the most holy place already brought to its final completion in the first century, with no further high‑priestly ministration extending through history. Yet the Scriptures present the cleansing of the sanctuary and the opening of the books (Dan. 7:9–10; 8:14) as belonging to a closing work of judgment, and Revelation speaks of a point at which men’s moral state is fixed (Rev. 22:11), presupposing a real close of probation that has not yet occurred. Though full preterists may not use the language of “close of probation,” their scheme effectively requires that the final judicial work in heaven and the decisive fixing of men’s cases lie behind us, which contradicts both the ongoing priestly intercession of Christ and the present universal call to repentance.

9. Technical Note on “with a flood,” “war,” and the 1,260 days.—First, the expression “with a flood” in Daniel 9:26 (בְּשֶׁטֶף besheṭep̄) is not cast as a simile. A comparative “like a flood” or “as a flood” would naturally require the particle k (“like/as”), which is not found here. The preposition used is b (“in/with/by”), and the phrase stands absolutely—“the end of thereof [shall be] with a flood”—which is most naturally taken in its proper force, whether literal or figurative, rather than as a mere idiom smoothed over in translation. Second, the word rendered “war” (מִלְחָמָה milchamah) appears in Daniel only twice: in 7:21 and in 9:26. In Daniel 7 it is the little horn that “made war with the saints, and prevailed against them,” and this very war is explicitly timed as lasting “a time and times and the dividing of time” (Dan. 7:25), a period elsewhere expressed as 1,260 days, or forty‑two months. (Dan. 12:7; Rev. 11:2–3; 12:6, 14; 13:5–7.) The natural reading is that Daniel’s second use of “war” in 9:26 refers to that same, already-defined conflict, not to some unrelated skirmish. Third, the prophetic rule of a day for a year (Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:6) is not an invention of commentators, but a principle the Scriptures themselves employ in symbolic prophecy, and which the 1,260‑“day” span admirably fits when understood as 1,260 years of papal supremacy, from A.D. 538 to 1798. In that light, the “end… with a flood,” the “war,” and the “desolations” determined in Daniel 9:26c find their proper place within the same 1,260‑year period so prominently marked in Daniel and the Revelation, and are confirmed by the parallel figure of the serpent’s “flood” and “war” against the woman and the remnant of her seed.

10. Note.—This is not an imported construct of denominational invention, but the straightforward linkage of (a) Daniel’s only stated “war” against the saints in the 1,260‑day (for a year) period (Dan. 7:21, 25), (b) Daniel 9:26’s “war” whose desolations extend “unto the end,” and (c) Revelation 12’s 1,260‑day “flood” against the woman together with the dragon’s continuing war, taken up in a final surge against the remnant of her seed who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus. (Rev. 12:6, 14–17.)