The number 490
Seventy sevens — forgiveness beyond counting; the decreed weeks
Four hundred ninety is seventy times seven — the number Jesus gives Peter when he asks the limit of forgiveness: 'I say not unto thee, Until seven times; but, Until seventy times seven' (Matthew 18:22), deliberately reversing Lamech's seventy-sevenfold vengeance (Genesis 4:24). In Daniel, 'seventy weeks [sevens] are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city' (Daniel 9:24) — 490 prophetic years running from the commandment to restore Jerusalem 'unto the anointed one, the prince,' the count the church has read toward Messiah ever since (the five reading traditions are laid out on the Seventy Weeks study).
In Hebrew and Greek
Hebrew
Daniel's word is shavu'im — 'sevens' — the text says seventy sevens, not seventy weeks of days.
First occurrence
Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city.
The pattern in Scripture
- 70 × 7 — vengeance (Gen 4:24) inverted into forgiveness (Matt 18:22)
- Daniel's seventy sevens, divided 7 + 62 + 1 (Dan 9:25-27)
Key verses
Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness.
Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times; but, Until seventy times seven.
If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.