The Relationship of Jewish and Gentile Believers to the Law Between A.D. 30 and 70 in the Scripture

173 The covenant allows for various degrees of unfaithfulness and promises commen– surate discipline in the form of curses , but the ultimate curse is exile- corporate disenfran- chisement from the land (Cf. 28:32, 36, 37, 41 , 48, 63 , 64, 68) . Deuteronomy 30:1-10 assumes that the nation will be cursed and exiled from the land but also gives hope for restoration based upon repentance. The same cycle of Sin-Exile-Return can be seen in Moses ' final words to the nation in chapters 31-32. 88 Thus the perspective of the six chapters (27- 32) involving covenant sanctions is predominantly corporate, predicting the punishment of the nation as a whole if gross national apostasy occurs while holding out the hope of future restoration. As the history of Israel unfolded the ultimate curse of exile was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem and deportation of the people to Babylon. Daniel 9: 1-10 records the reflections of Daniel on the seventy year exile of his people which lead him to prayer . As he anticipated the end of the exile his prayer of repentance is understandable since the covenant offers restoration from the exile based upon repentance (Deut 30:1-10). His thoughts in 9:11 summarize the theology of the exile in clear Deuteronomic fashion , " Indeed all Israel has transgressed Thy law ... so the curse has been poured out on us , along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses." Daniel describes the exile of the nation as "the curse" which God poured out on Israel , according to the covenant of Moses. What is more, in the en uing verses (9: 11-15) he implies that the nation still stands under the cur e of the law and pra for God to end it. 89 It is in thi context that God informs Daniel that in reality " event week have been decreed for your people .. . to fini h the tran gre ion, to make an end of in , to 88 The pattern of in, xile and Return i lab led " . .R ." b Mi h 1 Knibb , ' h xil in the Literature of the Interte tam ntal Period ," Heythrop Journal 17 (1 76) : 89 cott , " lati n 3:10," 1