Originally Posted by Tom
... Years ago, one of the arguments (and there are many) that convinced me of the Y/E position is when I read that whenever the Hebrew word “Yom” is used in the OT with a numeral it always means a 24 hour period of time.
1. Perhaps you misunderstood or failed to notice the specific qualification concerning "yom" with a numeral which could quickly disqualify the phrase in Hosea 6:1,2? shrug The actual 'proof' is usually stated as:

"Argument from ordinal prefix. In the 119 cases in Moses’ writings where the Hebrew word “yom” stands in conjunction with a numerical adjective (first, second, third, etc.), it never means anything other than a literal day. The same is true of the 357 instances outside of the Pentateuch, where numerical adjectives occur."

In Hosea 6:2 we read, "after two days", not "after the second day".

2. Even, for the sake of argument, if the Hosea passage is understood to mean a longer period than 24 hours, which it certainly does, IMO... AND, it can be shown that this is an exception to the 'ordinal' argument, it still has little to no weight in refuting the overwhelming evidence that "yom" in Genesis 1 is to be understood as 24 hours.

For a brief but succinct defense of the traditional "6 day 24-hour" interpretation of the creation in Genesis 1, see here: The Length of Days in Genesis 1.

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simul iustus et peccator

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