[dsc]

Yes, but His words quoted above seem to be a promise to the effect that, "I'll be back before you even have time to visit every town in Israel." That would seem to mean he was counting time on a human scale.

[NYer]

That would seem to mean he was counting time on a human scale.

From the New American Bible ... perhaps this will explain it.

¹¹ [23] Before the Son of Man comes: since the coming of the Son of Man at the end of the age had not taken place when this gospel was written, much less during the mission of the Twelve during Jesus' ministry, Matthew cannot have meant the coming to refer to the parousia. It is difficult to know what he understood it to be: perhaps the "proleptic parousia" of Matthew 28:16-20, or the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70, viewed as a coming of Jesus in judgment on unbelieving Israel.