Bible Prophecy Numbers:

The Writing on the Wall

Evidently, therefore, the "390 days" that Ezekiel besieged Jerusalem simply denotes a prophetic year with the leap month added; it is but the first "time" ("390") of the "time, times, and half a time." Furthermore, since Ezekiel acted out his siege precisely 7 years before the city fell (i.e., seven "times," cf. Dan. 4:16,23,25,32), thus we have here a "time, times, and half a time" (3½ years), twice repeated between Ezekiel and the fall of the city; (i.e., 3½ "times" multiplied by 2 = 7 years). (All three time-lines here in table ‘11’ are of equal value.)

Therefore, Ezekiel’s "390" has a part in the breakdown of the 1290 of Daniel as much as the full "430" of Ezekiel did, (i.e., 430 x 3 = 1290; and 390 + 720 + 180 = 1290 too). In the next two chapters, all of this will be fine-tuned to the exact "hour and day and month and year, that they should kill the third part of men" (Rev. 9:15, cf. Ezk. 5:2). But for now, we add the "390" of Ezekiel’s siege together directly with the actual siege-days of Jerusalem, as if they were but one siege. To repeat, we discover that the total number of days of Ezekiel’s symbolic siege added to the actual siege equals 1290 days––less one day––which agrees therefore with the 1290 years––less one year–– from Joseph's 7-year famine! (see table ‘9a’ and ‘9b’). Moreover, this also means that there are 1260 days in the gap between these two sieges! What great precision, Oh Master Watchmaker! "Who shall not fear, O Lord, and glorify thy name" (Rev. 15:4)?

Three times in the Bible we are told that the actual siege of Jerusalem lasted precisely 2½ years less-a-day (2Kg. 25:1-7; Jer. 39:1-4; 52:4-11):

"And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it, and built forts against it round about.

So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land." (Jer. 52:4-6).

{Compare this last verse with the famine of Joseph and notice the obvious thematic parallels: "And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore" (Gen. 47:13). Furthermore, both episodes repeat the same prominent theme––the sojourn into Egypt (at the time of Joseph, Isa. 52:4), and the exile into Egypt (at the collapse of Jerusalem, Jer. 43:7).}