Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 15/04/2006 19:17, Karl Randolph wrote:
> Peter:
>
> If you can find an example of "day" in the context 
> of a number describing the "day" where the context 
> indicates that it refers to something other than 
> the equivalent of a 24 hour day, then you can say 
> that Biblical Hebrew practice was different than 
> modern English. I know of no such examples. I also 
> believe that the English practice was influenced by 
> Biblical Hebrew through early translations.
>
> The observation is that every time a number is 
> used to describe day(s) that "day" refers to the 
> equivalent of 24 hours or a part thereof.
>
> My evidence is Tanakh.
>
>   
It is a well known logical fallacy to argue that something is 
universally true on the basis of a rather small number of examples of it 
being true, taken in this case from a limited corpus - even supposing it 
is true of every case in the corpus. Besides, this is poetic or 
semi-poetic language in which the meaning of words can always be 
stretched beyond their regular dictionary definitions.

Anyway, how about Zechariah 14:7, where the yom exad, is clearly the 
same yom as in v.6 and v.8 where the "day" embraces summer and winter 
and so is more than 24 hours long. And what about 2 Chronicles 21:19, 
where yamim shenayim is often understood as "two years".

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/