I don't get why people all think that a day in the bible always means 24 hours, in my day we didn't have a problem with words or groups of words that mean one thing one time and then another thing another time.
Take 1st Kings chapter 12 verse 5 and 12, it says 3 days but it means bits of the 1st and 3rd days and all the 2nd day, and Matthew chapter twelve verse 40 is a bit like it. Surely people today can see that for themselves, surely they don't need it spelled out for them.
Sometimes a day is a distance like in Numbers chapter 11 verse 31, and in Zecharia chapter 14 verse 8 a day continues in summer and winter, but in this day and age people can't seem to get there heads around all that. They obviously didn't have that trouble in Jesus day or Moses day or any of the prophets days.
And its not just me whos saying this, you can get a book called 'A Religious Encyclopedia' and see what he says about how long a day can last.
In 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 8 a thousand years is as one day, you could look at Psalms chapter 90 verse 4 too and Ezekiel chapter 4 verse 6 and Numbers 14 verse 34.
Sometimes a day means 24 hours and other times it just means the light part of that 24 hours. I hope you get that one day.
Sometimes day and days means any length of time, especially if a special event happens, like in Genesis chapter 5 verse 5 all the days that Adam lived were 390 years.
I don't find that hard to understand, its as clear as day to me, so when Genesis says that God did so and so on such and such a day, Yohm in Hebrew, but it doesn't say how long that day was, I just think, so what? Good for him! If one day lasted thousands of years and another one lasted a few hours who cares? At the end of the day if God doesn't think I need to know exactly then that's good enough for me.
And in Genesis 2 verse 17 when God told Adam no to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because in that day he will die, but, again, doesn't say how long that day was, again, I think so what? The thing to understand is that Adam did disobey , they got chucked out of Eden and did die. I know that day was nearly nearly a thousand years because of Genesis 5 verse 5 but it wouldn't matter to me if Adam's day was as long as Charles dickens day or Charles Darwins day or anyone else's day. He still lost the day when God called it a day. But what interests me in all this is that because of the fall in Eden nobody ever since has been allowed to live forever as it says in Romans chapter 5 verse 12. That's more important than worrying about how long different days last.
In Genesis chapter 2 vers 4 where it says that, a day is a collection of days. In chapter one verse 5 its periods of light and darkness evening and morning. So what? God has given man a bible which has stood the test of time from generation to generation for the people who read it all and do so with common sense. In spite of opposition he has made sure we've gotten to know everything we need to know at any time.
Rest assured that if anybody really needed to know how long all this stuff took he would have told us. You can't read the bible like any other book but once you get used to it it all makes sense.
All quotes are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible.
™ Version 4.2