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Day for Year in prophecy


There is much evidence for understanding one day in prophesy as one year. Here are the two most commonly-used Bible texts to explain this principle =>

Numbers 14:34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years...

Ezekiel 4:6 And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year. {Heb. a day for a year, a day for a year}

Notice that in the Hebrew, the phase "a day for a year" is twice repeated. Why is this?

A good answer to this question is available in the following quote from a magazine in 1968:

<Begin Quote>

If we look at the marginal reading of Ezekiel 4:6 in some of our K.J.V. Bibles, we shall see it stated twice—"a day for a year, a day for a year." Now, why is this? Is this merely a translator's note? Is it an alter­native translation of the Hebrew text? Some of our English Bibles render it this way in their actual text' The fact is that it ap­pears in the double form in the Hebrew text, and also in the Aramaic Targum text. So the marginal rendering after all is cor­rect.

Now, what is the significance of this repetition? Did it have a special meaning to the Hebrew mind? According to Hebrew authorities this form indicates, among other things, the idea of definite emphasis. We see an instance of this in Isaiah 26:3 . This is one of the comforting and assuring prom­ises of our God. It reads: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace." Notice the adjective, but this is not in the Hebrew text. There it reads, "Peace, Peace." That doesn't convey to our minds what it did to the Hebrew reader. But the repetition did mean something to him. He might not use adjectives and adverbs as we would, as in the word "perfect." With the Hebrew concept in mind, we could just as well read the text, "Thou wilt keep him in peace, yes inexpressible peace, peace that is wonder­ful beyond all description."

Might not this text from Isaiah have been in the apostle's mind when he wrote to the church at Philippi: "The peace of God which surpasses all power of com­prehension" ( Phil. 4:7 )?

This same emphasis must be carried over to "a day for a year, a day for a year." It is as though Moses and Ezekiel were saying, "A day for a year," "Yes, and never forget it, that is what I mean."

<End Quote>

Much more info about this Bible principle is available here => https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/1968/08/day-for-a-year-principle

A related Bible prophecy study is to help us understand that every month in the Bible has exactly 30 days => http://sidnash.org/docs/30_360_days.html


Desiring to live by every word that comes from the mouth of Jehovah ( Deut8:3; Matt4:4 )

-Sid Nash: 12/26/2024. Latest version: http://sidnash.org/docs/PropheticDayYear.html