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Month 10:24, Week 4:2 (Shanee/Matzah), Year:Day 5937:290 AM
Gregorian Calendar: Friday 24 January 2014
Day's Beginning
IV. What About Day's Ending?

    Continued from Part 3

    Introduction

    A brother recently asked what my view was of the belief that the Sabbath day only lasts as long as the hours of daylight. This is an interesting question and poses several other ones in its wake. This is a bit of a puzzle so let's first assemble the pieces.

    What Does a Day Begin?

    Firstly, we need to establish when a day begins. Contrary to Roman Catholic tradition, a new day does not start at midnight and contrary to Jewish tradition (adopted virtually wholesale by Messianics), a new day doesn't begin at sunset either. A biblical day starts at SUNRISE. For a complete biblical exegesis, please read the following articles:

    Is a Biblical Day 24 Hours or the Hours of Daylight?

    When in English we speak of a 'day', we can either be referring to a 24 hour period or to the period of day-light. The dark period we call 'night'. We have already shown that the Hebrews observed the beginning of day at sun-up but did they use the word yom ('day') in the dual sense that we do in English and in most languages today? And if they did, is there any way we can distinguish between the 24-hour 'day' and the daylight-day?

    Hebrew Hours are Not Like Ours

    Another difficulty we must be aware of is that the Hebrews didn't divide day-time in the same way that we do today. We divide a 24 hour day into 24 60 minute-long segments called 'hours'. The Hebrews divided 'day' into 12 equal-length segments of 12 'hours' and 'night' into another 12 equal-length segments of 12 'hours'. However, day-hours were not necessarily the same length as night-hours, depending on the season. In the winter, when daylight was shorter, each hour was shorter too and the night-hours correspondingly longer. The reverse was true in winter. So a Hebrew hour might, for example, be 50 modern minutes long or 70 modern minutes long, depending on the time of year. They didn't measure time in the same way that we do today.

    Yah'shua's 12-Hour Day

    When on one occasion Yah'shua (Jesus) spoke of a 'day' is was a daylight-day which He contrasted with spiritual day-time or light:

      "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world" (John 11:9, NKJV).

    Yah'shua is the Creator

    Remember, Yah'shua (Jesus) is the Creator (John 1:3), the author of time and of the seasons and divisions of night and day. He is Elohim (God) but here He speaks of a 'day' as a 24 hour-long period too:

      "And Elohim (God) saw the light, that it was good; and Elohim (God) divided the light from the darkness. Elohim (God) called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night" (Gen.1:4-5a, NKJV).

    The Erroneous Translation of Genesis 1:5b

    Now I have left off the last part of verse 5 because it is universally mistranslated and from this mistranslation have sprung all sorts of error about divisions of time. The verse concludes (in the erroneous translations):

      "So the evening and the morning were the first day" (Gen 1:5b, NKJV).

      "And the evening and the morning were the first day" (KJV).

    Other versions are closer but still misleading:

      "And there was evening and there was morning, one day" (Gen.1:5b, NASB).

      "And there was evening, and there was morning -- the first day" (NIV)

    A False Assumption About Talmudic Felicity

    Why have they done this? Because the translators have assumed that the Talmudic/Rabbinical method of reckoning a day is from sunset to sunset!

    A Chunk of Scripture Omitted

    Now let's look at the Hebrew and see what the translators have done in leaving out a chunk of Scripture altogether (KJV & NKJV) or arranging it to fit in with a pre-conceived idea:

    The correct literal translation should be:

      "And Elohim (God) called the light 'Day', and the darkness He called 'Night'. And it came to be Evening (Erev), and [it came to be] Morning (Boker) - Yom Echad (Day One)" (Genesis 1:5).

    A Chiasm

    This is what is called a palistrophe, symmetric or chiastic structure in Hebrew, being a crosswise arrangement of concepts or words that are repeated in reverse order. It is used extensively throughout Scripture to emphasise, parallel, or contrast concepts or ideas. It's simplest type is A,B / B,A. Other examples of chiastic structures are the A,B,C / C,B,A and ABBAABBA…ABBA patterns. The passage we are looking at has this simple A,B / B,A structure and is labelled by Yahweh as Yom Echad or Day #1 at the end of the verse which is effectually making this a title of the chiasm, bracketing, as it were, its four elements:

      YOM ECHAD - DAY #1

        Light/Day (A1)
          Darkness/Night (B1)
        --------------------------
          Evening (Erev) (B2)
        Morning (Boker) (A2)

      YOM ECHAD - DAY #1

    Understanding the Chiastic Structure

    The first day, in reversed chiastic order, "came to be Yom Echad". The fact that the order is reversed from Light/Day > Darkness/Night to Evening > Morning doesn't mean that a day starts in the evening and ends in the morning - that makes no sense whatsoever because the two 12-hour periods were measured from sunrise-to-sunset and from sunset-to-sunrise in that order. You have to understand the chiastic structure to make sense of it.

    Erev and Boker are the Day and Night Portions of a Full Yom

    Erev (Evening) is the night portion of each Yom/Day and boker (evening) is the daylight portion of each Yom/Day - they are the two transition times of each Yom/Day:

    Can the Sabbath Only Be 12 Light-Hours Long?

    Those who claim that the Sabbath day only lasts during the sunlit hours, i.e. daytime, wish us to believe that "Sabbath day" = boker or just the light portion in a whole 24 hour yom or day:

      "Remember the Sabbath day (yom), to keep it qodesh (holy, set-apart)" (Ex.20:8, NKJV).

    How Can We Distinguish between 12- and 24-Hour Days?

    They claim that this passage says nothing about remembering a Sabbath night, and insist that day and night are clearly divided and do not overlap. Now while it is perfectly true that yom (day) can mean the 12 hours of daylight (as we saw earlier when Yah'shua (Jesus) used it as an illustration of Himself as daylight), it is also clear that it can also and usually refers to the full 24-hour span containing erev (evening) and boker (morning). So how can we know whether a sabbath (or ordinary day) is only 12 biblical hours or 24 biblical hours, bearing in mind that there aren't two words to differentiate them?

    The Seven 24-Hour Days of Creation

    The Creation Story itself is really all the evidence we need that the Sabbath is a whole 24-hour day simply because the creation narrative says that in the first six days Yahweh was creating from dawn-to-dawn (sunrise-to-sunrise) and on the seventh day He was resting from dawn-to-dawn (sunrise-to-sunrise). Nowhere does it day Yahweh created only for 12 hours on each of the first 6 days and rested during the second 12 hours. He was active for 6 24-hour periods or for 144 hours and He rested for 1 24-hour period or for 24 hours. The division of hours is between 144 and 24 (a total of 168 hours). To claim otherwise is to destroy much prophetic typology.

    Stealing Half a Sabbath from the Creator

    It's a risky thing to presume to deny Yahweh 50% of His Sabbath day even if a portion of it is spent asleep. Those who claim that we are only to rest ½ a yom (day) and work 6½ yammim (days) are destroying spiritual tavnith (pattern) and robbing Yahweh on pretty flimsy linguistic and exegetical grounds.

    Yom Kippur Proves Sabbaths are 24-Hours Long

    That the Sabbath is a 24-hour period is also proven by the 'exceptional' sabbath, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) which, unlike the regular sunrise-to-sunrise day, spans two regular yammim (days), the 9th and 10th days of the 7th month (Lev.23:26-32). This is, incidentally, the one-and-only proof-text used to justify a universal day régimen of sunset-to-sunset days and sabbaths - they choose to ignore that this is an exceptional feast day and that it spans two calendar days. Had sabbaths been from sunset-to-sunset, Yom Kippur would have only occupied one calendar day [1]. The Talmudists cannot have it both ways. That aside, it is perfectly clear that this particular Sabbath covers a 24-hour period, the only difference between it and the regular Sabbath being that the 24-hour period has been shifted from sunrise-to-sunrise to sunset-to-sunset, for reasons that are explained elsewhere.

    Conclusion

    There is no historical evidence that I know of that Israel ever observed a 12 biblical-hour Sabbath from sunrise-to-sunset or that 'days' were measured exclusively in 12 biblical-hour periods but there is plenty of Scriptural evidence that both the regular day and the regular sabbath were 24-hour periods of time. The chiastic structure of the Creation Days plus the time periods in which Yahweh worked and rested also overwhelmingly support 24-hour yammim (days) and therefore sabbaths. I'll not risk robbing Yahweh of His time and even if I was in doubt I would defer in favour of giving Yahweh maximum glory and maximum time.


    APPENDIX 1
    More Proof that a Day Starts at Dawn

    Lot's Daughters

    In the story of the incestuous union of Lot with his daughters, it is clear that a new day begins at dawn or sunrise:

      "So they made their father drink wine that night (KJV, yesternight = last night, 'emesh). And the firstborn went in and lay with her father, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. It happened on the next day (tomorrow - mochorath) that the firstborn said to the younger, 'Indeed I lay with my father last night (KJV, yesternight = last night, 'emesh); let us make him drink wine tonight (KJV this night - layil) also, and you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father'" (Gen.19:33-35, NKJV).

    If a day started at sunset, the following morning would have been considered the same day and not the "next day". This is also confirmed by several other incidents during the time of the judges.

    The Dismembered Concubine

    In the story of the dismembered concubine, the father of the young woman views the nighttime as the close of day rather than the beginning of a new one, and the morrow begins in the early morning:

      "And when the man stood to depart -- he and his concubine and his servant -- his father-in-law, the young woman's father, said to him, 'Look, the day (yom) is now drawing toward evening (sundown - 'arab); please spend the night (luwn). See, the day (yom) is coming to an end (dusk - chanah); lodge here, that your heart may be merry. Tomorrow (machar) go your way early (shakam), so that you may get home" (Judg.19:9, NKJV).

    Decimation of the Benjaminites

    In another account, when the Israelites built an altar to Yahweh after the decimation of the Benjaminites, they do it early in the morning when the next day begins:

      "So it was, on the next morning, that the people rose early and built an altar there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings" (Judg.21:3-4, NKJV).

    Saul's Attempted Assassination of David

    When Saul tries to kill David in the nighttime, David's wife Michal refers to the morning as the next day:

      "Then Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away from Saul's presence; and he drove the spear into the wall. So David fled and escaped that night (layil). Saul also sent messengers to David's house to watch him and to kill him in the morning (at dawn - boker). And Michal, David's wife, told him, saying, 'If you do not save your life tonight (layil), tomorrow (machar) you will be killed'" (1 Sam.19:10-11, NKJV).

    Gathering of the Quail

    That the day begins at sunrise is confirmed elsewhere too. In the account of the gathering of quail by the Israelites in the desert, the people get up to gather the birds all day and night and "all the next day":

      "And the people stayed up all that day (yom), all night (layil), and all the next day (yom), and gathered the quail" (Num.11:32, NKJV).

    When Yom is Coupled With Mochorath

    The idiomatic use of "day" and "night" is in plain use here in the first part of the passage but - and this is important - in the second part, yom ("day") is not - instead we find the adjective mochorath, "the morrow" as mochorath yom which is commonly used when yom refers to a complete 24-hour calendar day. The second yom must therefore refer to an entire diurnal period or 'day'. In other words, the next 'day' is not the next 'daytime' but the next full 'day'. Therefore, incontrovertibly, 'day' begins at the conclusion of the nighttime, i.e. at sunrise.

    Gideon

    In actual fact, if you search more you will find example after example of the diurnal 'day' starting at sunrise and not sunset. In the story of Gideon (Judg.6:34-40; 7:2-11,13-22a,22c-25), a fleece is laid out overnight and the next morning is considered the next day:

      "'Look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.' And it was so [that night - hayah]. When he rose early the next morning (shakam) and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water" (Judg.6:37-39, NKJV).

    Joshua's Passover and the Day After

    There are those who claim that Yahweh ordered Pesach (Passover) to be celebrated in the evening because that was the start of a new day. However, that is incorrect. The reason Yahweh commanded the Pesach (Passover) meal be celebrated in the evening was simply because the evening was the time of their coming up out of Egypt (Dt.16:6). When Joshua refers to "the day after the Passover" on which the people can eat the produce of the land, the clear implication is that their eating of the land's yield occurs on the following morning and afternoon, i.e. during daylight. (They would have gathered the produce during the daytime of Passover Day as the first Day of Unleavaned Bread was always a Sabbath). The morning after the Passover is therefore the beginning of the next diurnal day.

    The Levitical Understanding

    Finally, the Levitical cohenim (priests) clearly understood a day to begin at sunrise. When the "sabbath/index.html">Sabbath is instituted during the desert wanderings, Moses says:

      "Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest (ceasing), a qodesh (holy, set-apart) Sabbath to Yahweh" (Ex.16:23, NKJV).

    And when the following morning arrives, Moses says:

      "So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it. Then Moses said, 'Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to Yahweh; today you will not find it in the field'" (Ex.16:23-25, NKJV).

    The new day clearly begins in the morning. Indeed the Torah commands:

      "The flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day it is offered. He shall not leave any of it until morning" (Lev.7:15, NKJV).

    The morning is here clearly understood to be the following day:

      "On the same day it shall be eaten; you shall leave none of it until morning: I am Yahweh" (Lev.22:30, NKJV).

    For those who are willing to dig deeper, many other examples may be found throughout Scripture in support of this proposition.


    APPENDIX 2
    A More Detailed Examination of the Creation Account

    The Creation Couplet

    The phrase, "the evening came, and the morning came" is not, as we have seen in the main article, a descriptive of chronological happening. We can finally lay to rest the sunset-to-sunset argument by looking at the following considerations:

      Two Lesser Parts of a Day

    • 1. The combination "evening" (erev) and "morning" (boker) is not equivalent to "nighttime" (lailah) and "daytime" (yom), and in fact does not add up to a complete diurnal day, but amounts only to two lesser parts of one day. We cannot therefore understand the twofold refrain as constituting some kind of summation of two parts of an entire day of Creation;

      The Consecutive Waw

    • 2. The appearance of the consecutive waw before the refrain suggests that the evening and morning are part of a sequence of events. We should not therefore understand them in isolation from the rest of the events mentioned on any given creation day. The sequence is as follows:

      • A. Act or acts of creation;
      • B. Evening; and
      • C. Morning.

      The evening clearly follows the creative activity that occurs during the day;

      Morning Signals the New Day

    • 3. If the evening follows Yahweh's creative acts on any given day, the evening cannot be the beginning of the day, but rather would be the concluding part of it. It is the morning that would signal the transition from one day to another; and

      Chiasm

    • 4. This is, in any case, a chiastic structure (see main body of article).

    Far from demonstrating that the day begins in the evening, the Creation Account adds further support to the conclusion that day begins at sunrise.


    APPENDIX 3
    Understanding the Exceptions

    The Exceptions Listed

    As we have seen in the main body of the article, and in the three articles before this one, there are a number of exceptions in the timing of certain festivals like Pesach (Passover) (Ex.12:6; Lev.23:5; Num.9:3,5,11), the starting and ending of Chag haMatzah (Feast of Unleavaned Bread) (Ex.12:18-19) and the spread of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) (Lev.23:32) from one evening to another.

    The Exceptions Have a Purpose

    However, the fact that the Torah has to specify that certain observances and special performances take place in the evening or run from evening to evening suggests that such was not normally the case. If the day began at sundown, then only the necessary information would be the date of the observance (e.g. that the Sabbath is on the seventh day of the week). It would already be understood that such days begin and end in the evening. Yet the Torah makes a point to highlight that such observances must commence in the evening. This evidence actually implies a day that does not usually begin at such a time [2].


    APPENDIX 4
    Zechariah 14:6-7

    Further evidence that "evening" is normally associated with "dark" and that same evening is considered part of the diurnal 24 hour day (yom) is shown in the following passage of scripture:

      "It shall come to pass in that [day] that there will be no light ; the lights will diminish (lit. 'the light {'ohr} shall not be clear {yaqar} nor dark' {qafa}). It shall be one day (yom) which is known to Yahweh -- neither day (yom) nor night (layil). But at evening time ('erev 'eth) it shall happen that it will be light ('ohr)" (Zech.14:6-7, NKJV).


    Endnotes

    [1] The Talmudic Rabbis cheat by creating two days of Yom Kippur - see Yom haKippurim 2013: Applying the Five Atonements in Earnest
    [2] Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 23-27 (Doubleday, NY: 2001), pp.1967-1969, 2025-2026,

    Acknowledgements

    [1] David Ringo Miano, Shadow on the Steps: Time Measurement in Ancient Israel

    Comments from Readers

    [1] "Totally agree with this article. This previous autumn it all came together. Namely, Isaiah 58 and Leveticus 23 were what gave me the breakthrough. As a side benefit Shabbat preparation is WAY LESS stressful now, especially during the winter months. Regarding the chiastic structure, that is something that for quite some time that I suspected might be there..." (CS, USA, 24 January 2014)

    [2] "I have been studying this further, and its worth to look more deeply into it... check out when the quails were given, it was on the 15th at evening, or rather "between the evenings" and what erev means. It can't mean night, because layla means night. Erev is just the transition between light and darkness. Yom is defined as light, as opposed to darkness. This is a spiritual pattern! The night is a remains of the rebellion of the angels, and was not created! Yom kippur is an exception, while every other feast is holy and light and joy" (SW, Germany, 30 January 2014).

    Author's response: The idea that night is the result of the malak (angel) rebellion is without any kind of scriptural warranty and fails to take into account several facts:

    • (1) Plants, animals and humans need dark in order to function properly, which means that is a part of the Creator's design and not any malak interference;
    • (2) This is confirmed when Yahweh Himself declares that HE is the author of physical darkness: "I form the light and create darkness" (Isa.45:7, NKJV);
    • (3) Yahweh says after each creative 24 hour day, consisting of light and dark, that it was tov (good), not evil - if night had been a left-over of malak (rebellion), he would not have called it tov (good);
    • (4) Darkness can symbolically be either good or evil, depending on the context; ans
    • (5) Yahweh says: "I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, Yahweh, Who call you by your name, am the Elohim (God) of Israel" (Is.45:3, NKJV), demonstrating that tov (good) and desirable things are to be had from His darkness.

    To claim that yom always means the 12 hours of light I have disproven with many examples in the article. It can be demonstrated from Scripture absolutely that the Sabbath has to be a diurnal period of 24 hours so it's not up for debate. The following article, Yom HaKippurim, Celebration, and Proof of the Dawn to Dawn Day (© Chris Schaefer 2014), leaves no room for doubt:

      Wayiqra/Leveticus 23:26-32

        26 And YHWH spoke to Musa, saying, 27 Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be Yom Kippurim: it shall be a miqra kodesh to you; and you shall AFFLICT YOUR SOULS, and offer an offering made by fire to YHWH. 28 And you shall do no work in that same day: for it is a Yom Kippurim (Day of Atonements), to make kapporah5 for you before YHWH Your POWER. 29 For whatsoever SOUL it be that shall not be AFFLICTED in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. 30 And whatsoever soul it be that does any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people. 31 You shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 32 It shall be to you A set-apart SABBATH and you shall AFFLICT YOUR SOULS: in the NINTH DAY OF THE MONTH AT EVENING, FROM EVENING TO EVENING shall you CELEBRATE YOUR SABBATH.

      What can be gleaned from this passage?

        1. Evening IS darkness. The darkness of EVENING is identified with the NUMBER OF A DAY, in this case, the DAY OF the 9th. Therefore the meaning of DAY in verse 32 is NOT merely “daytime”, but rather IS a FULL 24 hours.

        2. The Afflicting of one’s soul begins at the beginning of EVENING on the NINTH on the 7th month.

        3.Because EVENING BEGINS while it is still the NINTH, therefore the day of the 10th can NOT begin at sunset or dark, because EVENING is still on the Ninth. Thus the Beginning of the 10th starts after the EVENING of the 9th HAS ENDED -- presumably when dark ends on DAWN on the 10th.

        4. Since the AFFLICTING OF ONE’S soul goes from EVENING TO EVEINING, then it is safe to say that said AFFLICTION is to last at least 24 hours.

        5. The AFFLICTING OF ONE’S SOUL is an IDIOM that apparently the people already understood as a full fast, but this IDIOM is not defined in the Torah.

        6. The people are to CELEBRATE Yom HaKippurim. How can one CELEBRATE, if one is AFFLICTING One’s Soul? Granted, Yahusha said we should not difigure our facess and deliberately look all gloomy when fasting, but CELEBRATING is a whole different.

        7. In summation, the fast begins approximately at the beginning of the last third of the day of the 9th and the fast ends after the first two thirds of the day of the 10th have concluded. Then there still remains the EVENING of the 10th whith which to CELEBRATE. We know that the EVENING of the 10th is PART of the full day because the EVENING of the 9th is identified WITH THE 9th. So therefore to be consistent, then the EVENING OF the 10th must be identified with the full day OF the 10th.

        8. Yom Hakippurim is identified as a Sabbath. Not necessarily the weekly Sabbath, but a MOED Sabbath.

      So since Scripture interprets Scripture, where can we get a solid definition of AFFLICTING ONE’S SOUL?

        Yeshayahu/Isaiah 58 -- the WHOLE chapter must be viewed to get the WHOLE context.

        1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a shofar, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Yaqub their transgressions. 2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did right-ruling, and forsook not the ordinance of their Elohim: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to Elohim. 3 Therefore have we FASTED, say they, and you see not? Therefore have we AFFLICTED OUR SOUL, and you took no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your FAST you find pleasure, and exact all your labours. 4 Behold, you FAST for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: you shall not FAST as you do THIS day, to make your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is it such a FAST that I have CHOSEN? A DAY for a man to AFFLICT HIS SOUL? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? will you call this a FAST and an acceptable DAY to YHWH? 6 Is not this the FAST that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? 7 Is it not to GIVE YOUR BREAD TO THE HUNGRY, and that you bring the poor that are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh? 8 Then shall your LIGHT BREAK FORTH AS THE MORNING, and your health shall spring forth speedily: and your right-ruling shall go before you; the esteem of YHWH shall be your rear guard. 9 Then shall you call, and YHWH shall answer; you shall cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; 10 And if you DRAW OUT YOUR SOUL TO THE HUNGRY, and SATISFY THE AFFLICTED SOUL; then shall your light rise in obscurity, and your DARKNESS AS THE NOONDAY: 11 And YHWH shall guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and make fat your bones: and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of mayim, whose waters fail not. 12 And they that shall be of you shall build the old waste places: you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. 13 If you turn away your foot from THE SABBATH, from doing your pleasure on my Set-Apart DAY; and call the Sabbath a DELIGHT, the Set-Apart of YHWH, honorable; and shall respect him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words: 14 Then shall you delight yourself in YHWH; and I will cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Yaqub your father: for the mouth of YHWH has spoken it.

      What can we glean from this passage?

        1. In verses 3, 5, and 10 that AFFLICTING ONE’S SOUL is defined as A FAST. (this definition of AFFLICTING ONE’S SOUL cannot be found anywhere else).

        2. In verse 5, the fast is identified as a FAST that YHWH has CHOSEN. While there were other days that YHWH called for a fast during the exile, those were not necessarily identified as a Sabbath. Here in this chapter, this FAST is identified AS A SABBATH. Since there are no other moedim or weekly Sabbaths which are chosen to be a fast, then this day in Yeshayahu 58 MUST BE YOM HAKIPPURIM.(see Wayiqra/Leveticus 23)

        3. The people being spoken to in verses 7 and 10 are commanded to FEED the HUNGRY. It is safe to say that the hungry people begin WITHIN the commonwealth of Israel. To be consistent with other passages in Scripture about the poor and hungry, these verses primarily refer to those within Yisrael - YHWH is not commanding the people to go out to the foreign nations to feed people who have not joined themselves with Yisrael.

        4. YHWH would NOT be telling the people to feed the poor in Yisrael DURING DAYLIGHT hours during Yom HaKippurim because that would be leading the poor Yisraelites astray -- the 24 hour fast is for everyone rich and poor alike.

        5. If this is a fast (and it is), then EVERYONE in Yeshayahu is hungry, not just the poor. What do hungry people do after a fast is concluded? They EAT! Do poor people have enough to EAT? No. So if after a fast has concluded, and those who have plenty are eating. It is no wonder that it is displeasing to YHWH that those with plenty AREN’T SHARING THEIR FOOD WITH THE POOR, beause the poor have just finished thier fast, and they need to eat too!

        6. As we have seen in Wayiqra/Leveticus 23:32, Yom HaKippurim is called a CELEBRATION. What do people do at a CELEBRATION? They EAT. Rich or poor, it should not matter, EVERYONE SHOULD EAT -- Rich, Middle Class, and Poor TOGETHER! Socioeconomic status should exclude NOBODY from this CELEBRATION WHICH INCLUDES EATING

        7. In verse 10, the feeding of the hungry is equated with the time of darkness. So this buttresses the idea that the fast concludes at the begenning of evening/darkness (as per Wayiqura 23:32). So YHWH is saying that when the well-to-do SHARE their MEAL with the poor when the Yom HaKippurim FAST has concluded at DARK, then that ACTION of SHARING will SHINE LIKE THE NOONDAY at DARK.

        8. Messianics are in error to presume that Yeshayahu 58:13 is talking about ALL weekly Sabbaths, because IF verse 13 is viewed in the WHOLE context of the whole chapter of Yeshayahu/Isaiah 58, it becomes clear that this is about a SPECIAL Sabbath: Yom HaKippurim.

        9. Yeshayahu/Isaiah 58 taken together with Wayiqura/Leveticus 23:26-32 conclusively proves that the day begins at dawn and concludes the following dawn. The Yom Kippurim FAST begins on approximatly the remaining third the 9th of the 7th month and concludes at the completion of the beginning two thirds of the 10th of the month, then the CELEBRATION of Yom HaKippurim (complete with feasting/eating) begins at the last third of the 10th of the month.

        10. Thus there are two meanings of day: daytime/daylight and a full 24 hour day. There are passages of Scripture which talk about day as daytime/daylight, and as we’ve seen in Wayiqra/Leveticus 23:26-32 and Yeshayahu 58, there are other passages that refer to a day as a 24 hour period. Context determines the meaning.

      To take it even one step further, let's test typical Judaism's definition of when a day begins, and try lining that up with when they actually observe Yom HaKippurim. (for the sake of argument, let's just hypothetically assume they have the month correct.)

      The mainstream Jewish day BEGINS AT DARK a.k.a. evening (yeah some differ over sunset or the end of nautical twilight -- either way, close enough for this test). So, using THEIR definition of "day", then the EVENING of the 9th of the 7th month is their FIRST PART of the 9th; so IF they truly followed their own definitions and applied Levieticus 23:26-32 to their construct, then they would BEGIN Yom HaKippurim on their BEGINNING OF the 9th, and would conclude at onset of THEIR definition of the EVENING of the 10th; meaning that by THEIR definition of when the day begins-- except that is inconsistent with what they actually do. None of them observe Yom HaKippurim from their definition of the evening of the 9th to their definition of evening of the 10th. According to THEIR definition of when the day begins, what they actually observe actually starts on THE EVENING of their presumed 10th and concludes at the Evening of their PRESUMED 11th. So they are trapped by their own definitions. The duration of what they actually observe for Yom YaKippurim is in violation of Scripture IF one were to go by mainstream Judaism's definition of when the day begins and ends. According to their own days, they observe Yom HaKippurimm a day too late. Ironically, IF they had the month right, then they'd be observing Yom HaKippurim correctly, but not any thanks to their misleading definitions of when a day begins and ends.

      Bottom line, the Mainstream Jewish Definition of when a day begins and ends is completely opposite of what Scripture shows.

    Even if we were to ignore this evidence (which obviously we cannot) it is still a very fickle thing to try and say the Sabbath day is only 12 hours because of the interpretation of what the word may mean (especially, as we have demonstrated, as the same word can mean different thing in different contexts). Yahweh said by 2 or more witnesses a matter will be established (Dt.19:15), and Paul sites this when speaking about how something would be confirmed in Scripture in more than one place (2 Cor.13:1; 1 Tim.5:19).

    Finally, we come to your piece of evidence concerning the quail. The burden of proof is, at this point, on you and you must disprove everything that has been said demonstrating a diurnal yom and Sabbath in order to make your quail theory somehow prove a universal 12 day-long yom (day) and Sabbath. Let's take a look at the passage in question:

      "Now a wind went out from Yahweh, and it brought quail (selav) from the sea and left them fluttering near the camp, about a day's journey on this side and about a day's journey on the other side, all around the camp, and about two cubits above the surface of the ground. And the people stayed up all that day, all night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail (he who gathered least gathered ten homers); and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of Yahweh was aroused against the people, and Yahweh struck the people with a very great plague. So he called the name of that place Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had yielded to craving" (Num.11:31-34, NKJV).

    Let us here observe two facts:

    • 1. The people went out collecting the quail over two periods of daylight (yom) and one period of night (layil) - there is no disputing that in this context, a yom is 12 hours;
    • 2. Yahweh was furious over their action and struck the people with a plague.

    The back ground to this incident was murmuring and complaining by the people:

      "Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!" (Num.11:4-6, NKJV)

    Some of them had already been burned up by divine fire but this was not enough to quosh their craving for meat and their dissatisfaction with manna:

      "Now when the people complained, it displeased Yahweh; for Yahweh heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of Yahweh burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp. Then the people cried out to Moses, and when Moses prayed to Yahweh, the fire was quenched. So he called the name of the place Taberah, because the fire of Yahweh had burned among them" (Num.11:1-3, NKJV).

    It really doesn't matter when Yahweh sent the quail since the people were already in violation of the mitzvot (commandments) and if He had intended them to eat it instead of the manna He would not have sent a plague among them. If they were gathering the quail on the Sabbath, then they were in violation of a the mitzvah (commandment) to do no work (they weren't allowed to gather manna on the Sabbath). There is also considerable debate as to whether quail is kosher since there are about 50 different species of quail with considerable difference in anatomical structure between some of them. Many Jews consider only domesticated quail to be kosher, which obviously the Sinai ones weren't. So there's a possibility that the people ate unkosher food and were willing to break the sabbath because of their craving for meat. Whatever the situation may have been (and it's not certain), there was nothing tov (good) in this situation, and the one trying to make something of this incident to try and prove a 12-hour sabbath yom (day) still has the overwhelming bulk of evidence against him.

    This ministry therefore finds nothing concrete in support of a 12-hour sabbath day with the overwhelming evidence in support of a 24-hour diurnal sabbath day. The ruling of this ministry is therefore that a 24-hour dawn-to-dawn 24-hour diurnal Sabbath is mandatory on Messianic Israel.

    Conrtinued in Part 5

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