Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Jason Hare <jaihare AT gmail.com>]

Ben,

It actually just makes sense to end a day at sundown. Midnight is
artificial for a day's beginning and is only truly possible with the
clock. Before people used regular clocks, all cultures began their day
either at dawn or at sundown. These are the natural marks for the
beginning of the new day. Anyone can look outside and see that the sun
is setting and know that the work day has ended. Similarly, anyone
would admit that dawn is a good time to start a new day, since it
actually *is* the beginning of the day. Both of these is perfectly
logical. It is the idea that somewhere in the dead of night the new
day begins that strikes me as odd.

Jason Hare
Rehovot, Israel

On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 2:24 PM, Ben Crick <ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk> wrote:
> On Wed  6 May 2009 (00:12:50 +0100), j.read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk wrote:
>> Among the things I was always interested in understanding were things
>> like
>>
>> 1) How do we know that Hebrews designated days from evening to
>> evening? Do we have any written evidence of this other than
>> interpretations of statements in Genesis 1?
>
>  [probably off-topic for B-Hebrew]
>
>  That is the way the Jews designate the Day change; why, I know not.
>  In Genesis 1 the Days of Creation are enumerated, "the 1st, 2nd, 3rd,...etc
>  Day". Each day is terminated with the statement "And the evening and the
>  morning were the first day, etc.". The term `eReB BoQeR evening/morning is
>  used elsewhere in Scripture to mean a "Day"; whereas surely an "`eReB 
> BoQeR"
>  is not a Day at all, but a Night!  One would have thought that the command
>  Y:HiY 'oWR (Genesis 1:3) would correspond to Dawn, not to Dusk!