442 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY, 



will lead us to several more agreements between his statements and 

 the results of the modern geology, than are indicated by our common 

 English translation. This will lead us into a critical examination of 

 several of these terms. We do not mean to hinge much of these crit- 

 icisms on grammatical niceties, but to rest them chiefly on an examin- 

 ation of other passages of Hebrew Scriptures, where the terms are al- 

 so employed, and where the context throws such light on them, as 

 puts an end to all doubt about their true import. This is a process of 

 criticism which is universally allowed to be quite satisfactory, where 

 we have sources for employing it, as happens to be the case in the 

 present instance. 



To make our criticisms intelligible, without the labor of turning to- 

 the passages quoted, we shall quote the common English translation 

 to such an extent as may be necessary. 



The term, the meaning of which we shall first investigate, is "day" 

 (in the Hebrew, yom.) The interpretation of this, in the sense 

 "epocA" or "peHocZ," has been a subject of animadversion, of an un- 

 necessary severity in some cases. A careful examination of the first 

 chapter of Genesis itself, leads unavoidably to the conclusion, that our 

 natural day of one revolution of the sun cannot be meant by it, for we 

 find that no fewer than three of the six days had passed before the 

 measure of our present day was established. It was only on the 

 fourth day, or epoch of the creation, " that God made two great lights 

 to divide the day from the night, and to be for signs, and for seasons, 

 and for days and for years." The very first time that the term oc- 

 curs in the Hebrew text, after the history of the six days' work, and 

 of the rest of the seventh, as if to furnish us with definite information 

 regarding its true import, we find it employed in a similar manner to 

 that in which we must understand it here ; for, in Gen. ii. 4, we have, 

 *' These are the generations of the heavens and the earth, in the day 

 (beyom) that the Lord God made the earth and heavens." The use 

 of the term in this indefinite sense is so common in the Hebrew wri- 

 tings, that it would be a great labor to quote all the passages in which 

 it is found ; and we shall satisfy ourselves by at present referring to 

 Job xviii. 20, where it is put for the whole period of a man's life, 

 "They that come after him shall be astonished at his day'''' (yomu) ; 

 and Isaiah xxx. 8, where it is put for all future time, " Now go note 

 it in a book, that it may be for the latter day (leyom), for ever and 

 ever." It is quite obvious, from these examples, that the Hebrews 

 used the term (yom) to express long periods of time. The very con- 

 ditions of the history in this chapter, prove that it must be here so un- 

 derstood. 



