same meaning is given to the “three days and three nights” of Jesus’ stay in Sheol. As the record shows, he was raised to life on the “third day.” The Jewish priests clearly understood this to be the meaning of Jesus’ words, since, in their effort to block his resurrection, they quoted Jesus as saying: “After three days I am to be raised up,” and then they requested Pilate to issue a command for “the grave to be made secure until the third day.”—Matt. 27:62-66; 28:1-6; note other examples in Genesis 42:17, 18; Esther 4:16; 5:1.

No names were used by the Hebrews for the days of the week, except for the seventh day, called the sabbath. Reference was made to the various days by their numerical order. In the days of Jesus and his apostles the day preceding the sabbath was called the “Preparation.” (Matt. 28:1; Acts 20:7; Mark 15:42; John 19:31) The practice of naming the days after the names of the planets and other heavenly bodies was pagan. The Romans named the days after the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn, but, in northern Europe, four of these names were later changed into the Germanic equivalents of the Roman gods whom the days represented.—See WEEK.

Sometimes the word “day” is used to indicate a measure of distance, as in the expression “a day’s journey” and “a sabbath day’s journey.”—Num. 11:31; Acts 1:12; see WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

In prophecy a day is at times used to stand for one year. This can be noted at Ezekiel 4:6: “You must lie upon your right side in the second case, and you must carry the error of the house of Judah forty days. A day for a year, a day for a year, is what I have given you.”—See also Numbers 14:34.

Certain specific numbers of days given in connection with prophecies are: three and a half days (Rev. 11:9); ten days (Rev. 2:10); forty days (Ezek. 4:6); 390 days (Ezek. 4:5); 1,260 days (Rev. 11:3; 12:6); 1,290 days (Dan. 12:11); 1,335 days (Dan. 12:12); and 2,300 days.—Dan. 8:14.

The term “day(s)” is also used with reference to a time period contemporaneous with a particular person, as, for example, the “days of Noah” and the “days of Lot.”—Luke 17:26-30; Isa. 1:1.

Other cases where the word “day” is used in a flexible or figurative sense are: the “day of God’s creating Adam” (Gen. 5:1), the “day of Jehovah” (Zeph. 1:7), the “day of fury” (Zeph. 1:15), the “day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2), the “day of judgment” (2 Pet. 3:7), the “great day of God the Almighty” (Rev. 16:14), and others.

This flexible use of the word “day” to express units of time of varying length is clearly evident in the Genesis account of creation. Therein is set forth a week of six creative days followed by a seventh day of rest. Since the week assigned for observance by the Jews under the Law covenant given them by God was a miniature copy of that creative week, and since its days are each of equal length, it is logical that the days of God’s creative week were also of equal length. (Ex. 20:8-11) In the Scriptural record the account of each of the six creative days concludes with the statement: “And there came to be evening and there came to be morning” a first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth day. (Gen. 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31) The seventh day, however, does not have this ending, indicating that this period, during which God rests from his creative works toward the earth, continued on. At Hebrews 4:1-10 the apostle Paul indicated that God’s rest day was still continuing in his generation, and that was more than 4,000 years after that seventh-day rest period began. This makes it evident that each creative day or work period was several thousands of years in length. As A Religious Encyclopœdia edited by Philip Schaff observes: “The days of creation were creative days, stages in the process, but not days of twenty-four hours each.”—1894 ed., Vol. I, p. 613.

Note, too, that the entire period of the six time units or creative “days” dedicated to the preparation of planet Earth is summed up in one all-embracing “day” at Genesis 2:4: “This is a history of the heavens and the earth in the time of their being created, in the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven.”

In this latter half of the twentieth century, astronauts in space capsules circling this planet in an easterly direction have seen the sun rise and set many times in the course of one twenty-four-hour “day.” Their situation, of course, does not compare with that of the Creator, who does not reside within our solar system and who is not affected by its various cycles and orbits. Of God, who is from time indefinite to time indefinite, the psalmist says: “For a thousand years are in your eyes but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch during the night.” (Ps. 90:2, 4) Correspondingly, the apostle Peter writes that “one day is with Jehovah as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Pet. 3:8) For man, a thousand-year period represents some 365,242 individual time units of day and night, but to the Creator it can be just one unbroken time period in which he begins the carrying out of some purposeful activity and brings it on to its successful conclusion, much as a man begins a task in the morning and concludes it by the day’s end.

Jehovah is the Originator of our universe in which time, space, motion, mass and energy have all been proved to be inescapably interrelated. He is, therefore, beyond limitation by any of these dimensions, including time, and he controls them all according to his purpose. Yet, in dealing with his creatures on earth he makes definite time appointments for his own actions toward them, right down to the “day and hour.” (Matt. 24:36; Gal. 4:4) We can be assured that he will keep such appointments with the utmost punctuality.

DAY OF JEHOVAH

The special period of time, not twenty-four hours, when Jehovah actively manifests himself against his enemies and in behalf of his people. With divine judgment executed against the wicked, Jehovah comes off victorious over his opposers during this day. It is also a time of salvation and deliverance for the righteous, the day in which Jehovah himself is highly exalted as the Supreme One. Thus, in a double way it is uniquely and exclusively Jehovah’s great day.

This day is detailed in the Scriptures as a time of battle, a great and fear-inspiring day of darkness and burning anger, a day of fury, distress, anguish, desolation and alarm. “What, then, will the day of Jehovah mean to you people?” God asked wayward Israel by the mouth of his prophet Amos. This: “It will be darkness, and no light, just as when a man flees because of the lion, and the bear actually meets him; and as when he went into the house and supported his hand against the wall, and the serpent bit him.” (Amos 5:18-20) Isaiah was told: “Look! The day of Jehovah itself is coming, cruel both with fury and with burning anger.” (Isa. 13:9) “That day is a day of fury, a day of distress and of anguish, a day of storm and of desolation, a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick gloom.” (Zeph. 1:15) During such a time of trouble, one’s money is absolutely worthless. “Into the streets they will throw their very silver . . . Neither their silver, nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Jehovah’s fury.”—Ezek. 7:19; Zeph. 1:18.

A sense of urgency is attached to the day of Jehovah by the prophets, who repeatedly warned of its nearness. “The great day of Jehovah is near. It is near, and there is a hurrying of it very much.” (Zeph. 1:14) “Alas for the day; because the day of Jehovah is near.” “Let all the inhabitants of the