The text does not say, "To finish their transgression" but rather "to finish the transgression" or simply "to finish transgression".
When interpreting Scripture, we need to consider all possible meanings of key words. To "finish" something can mean to bring it to an end, or to bring it to completion. The completion of the Jews' transgression was their rejection of their Messiah.
My NIV has a footnote on the word "finish": "or restrain". That would also work for a first-century fulfillment, as Jesus' ministry did bring in restraint of transgression through the power of the Holy Spirit in believers.
Actually it does,
Dan 9 starts of with Daniel confessing the sins of him and the people, and acknowledging that the reason they are here is because of their transgressions according to the law of Moses (Lev 26) his prayer being FOR his people, his holy city etc..
Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. 9 To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, [d]for we have rebelled against Him; 10 nor have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His teachings which He set before us through His servants the prophets. 11 Indeed all Israel has transgressed Your law and turned aside, not obeying Your voice; so the curse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against Him.
O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”
then as Gabriel gives his answer, he mentions exactly what Daniel is praying about.
24, Seventy [
t]weeks have been
decreed for your people and your holy city, to
finish the transgression,
your people, to finish the transgression
daniel prayeyed for his people who were and continued to transgress all the way to 70 ad and continue today,
Gabriels answer was that 70 weeks were determined for his people, to finish that transgression.
they are still in sin, to much prophecy states when the messiah comes Israel will repent and finished THEIR transgression, and sin no more to ignore the fact that this is not only talking of them, we have words which say it will come true
As for “to restrain” in the NIV
please note that
klh is the root used in Dan 9
1. Hebr. does not make a sharp morphological distinction between
klh “to cease” and klʾ “to hold back,” as the numerous assimilations in inflection indicate (BL 375, 424; KBL 436a). Both roots occur in Ug. (WUS no. 1311: kla “to close”; no. 1317: kly “to be at an end”); Akk. kalû, which also combines the meaning “to cease” with the basic meaning “to hold back,” should probably be treated as *klʾ (GAG §105c; AHw 428f.). Like Akk., Aram. also knows only the (common Sem.) root klʾ, in the senses “to hold back” and “to come to an end.” In Neo-Pun., klh pi. is not attested with certainty (KAI no. 145.11; DISO 121).
A glance at the semantic spheres of the two verbs indicates that they are closely related semasiologically. There seems to be an elemental semasiological process wherein the notion of “limiting” and “ending” develops from the basic meaning of “holding back” and “blocking off”; cf. Ger. “schliessen” and Lat. “claudere” with the same characteristic double meaning “to enclose” and “to close off.” A corresponding semasiological process lies behind the antonym → ḥll hi.: “to unloose, release” > “to begin”; cf. e.g., Eng. “to open” and Lat. “aperire” for the beginning of talks.
The relationship between the two verbs in Hebr. also receives its simplest explanation through the assumption that “to cease” developed secondarily from the local, more original “to hold back,” and that the expansion in meaning resulted in a corresponding, although not always strictly executed, morphological division of the roots.
and no matter which way we want to use it, it still concerns his people. Not you or I. in 70 Ad. Isreal was defeated according to Lev 26,
lev 26: 27 ‘Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me, 28 then I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will punish you seven times for your sins. 29 Further, you will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters you will eat. 30 I then will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and heap your [h]remains on the [i]remains of your idols, for My soul shall abhor you. 31 I will [j]lay waste your cities as well and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your soothing aromas. 32 I will make the land desolate so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled over it. 33 You, however, I will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste.
It’s all about davids people and holy city, it was laced waste after the messiah was cut off, and the people were scattered all around the Roman Empire, just as promised,
1
