The day-for-year principle (Num. 14:34; Ezek. 4:6)

Bible prophecy commonly utilizes the figure of a day to represent one year. Without One of the simplest ways to determine whether the day-year principle is being employed is in simply reading the details of the prophecy. For example, the prophecy of Daniel chapter 8 clearly states that the 2300 prophetic days will encompass the reign of the Medo-Persian Empire, the Grecian Empire, the Roman Empire and beyond. 2300 literal days is just over 6 years. A literal interpretation could not possibly fit! Likewise in Daniel chapter 9, 70 weeks are to reach from the reign of the Persian King Artaxerxes I to the time of Christ, a span of 483 years; however, 70 literal weeks is barely more than 2 years!

Daniel 9:24: Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

Daniel 9:25: Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
26: And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
27: And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.