Day

William Smith's Bible Dictionary

The variable length of the natural day at different seasons led in the very earliest times to the adoption of the civil day (or one revolution of the sun) as a standard of time. The Hebrews reckoned the day from evening to evening, (Leviticus 23:32) deriving it from (Genesis 1:5) "the evening and the morning were the first day." The Jews are supposed, like the modern Arabs, to have adopted from an early period minute specifications of the parts of the natural day. Roughly, indeed, they were content to divide it into "morning, evening and noonday," (Psalms 55:17) but when they wished for greater accuracy they pointed to six unequal parts, each of which was again subdivided.


These are held to have been-

• "the dawn."

• "Sunrise."

• "Heat of the day," about 9 o'clock.

• "The two noons," (Genesis 43:16; 28:29)

• "The cool (lit. wind) of the day," before sunset, (Genesis 3:8)-so called by the Persians to this

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