The Prophet Ezekiel was to act out prophecy with strange performances, one of which was to lie on his side for a total of 430 days. Each day on his side would represent 1 year of judgment on Israel.
Ezekiel 4:4 Also lie on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; according to the number of days that you shall lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 6 And when you have fulfilled them, lie again on your right side, and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days; a day for a year; a day for a year, I have set for you.
So we see he is told about 390 and 40 years of judgment for a total of 430 years. Each day was expressly to represent a year of judgment against the nation. Now we know they did 70 years in Babylonian Captivity, as part of the punishment for not letting the land rest. That leaves 360 years (430 minus 70 time served) unaccounted for.
The 360 years do not seem to fit any period of Israel’s history. It has been suggested by some that there might be a clue in Leviticus 26, where God indicates that: …if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. – Leviticus 26:18. So if we take 7 times the 360 years we end up with (7×360) = 2520 years.
These “problem” 360 years by seven yields 2520 years, is “approximately” the duration of time from the exile of Judah to the final re-establishment of Israel in her own land, some two and half centuries later.
Sir Robert Anderson, in his classic work The Coming Prince, noted that the Bible uses 360-day years in both Genesis and Revelation. We call that a prophetic year.
In attempting to reconcile the 2520 of 360-day years to our Roman calendar, one is faced with the discrepancies between the sidereal year and the solar year. In 1572, it was recognized that errors had accumulated to 11 days too many, and adjustments were required.
In the Gregorian Reform, September 4th was declared September 14th, and the formula for leap years was changed to exclude centuries unless divisible by four (and millennia by 400).
So 2520 years of 360-days each contain 907,200 days, which are equal 2483 years, 9 months and 21 days on our to current solar calendar.
2520 years x 360 days in a year = 907,2000 days.
Another problem occurs when we examine more closely the “Babylonian Captivity.” There are two different invasions that are candidates:
1) “Servitude of the Nation,” in 606 BC.
2) “Desolations of Jerusalem.” in 587 BC
Each of these was prophesied to be seventy years in duration and most people think they refer to the same time. There were actually three sieges of Nebuchadnezzar upon Jerusalem.
