Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Peter and Jimmy,

> On 24/10/2005 02:13, Jimmy Doyle wrote:
>
> > I'm in a discussion with a creationist who believes in 6 literal 24-hour
> > days of creation. Can anyone point me to good resources for the use of yom
> > in the Biblical texts and Rabbnic texts? From what I gather in BDB, the
> > singular use of yom in the Biblical text generally refers to a single day,
> > but I feel as if I'm missing something here.
> I think so. The "day" of Numbers 3:1 and Deuteronomy 4:15 seems to have
> lasted 40 days, that of Ezekiel 39:13 seven months, that of 1 Samuel 7:2
> for 20 years, and that of Judges 18:30 for about 70 years - and that of
> Genesis 2:4 six "days".

HH: The word day, "YWM," when used with a prefixed preposition "in" 
often has the idea of "when" (Gen 2:4). It word can sometimes mean 
"time" (Judges 18:30) but does not have a numerical modifier in those 
cases. In 1 Samuel 7:2 YWM could still indicate a particular day (the 
day the ark began to abide in Kiriath-Jearim), although "time" could 
be the sense. The word refers to literal days when it has a numerical 
modifier.

                                Yours,
                                Harold Holmyard