What's the correct term for "day" in Genesis 3:8?

Question

In Genesis 3:8 ESV

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

There's a question about "ruah" - What is the proper translation of the Hebrew word רוּחַ (ruach) in Genesis 3:8? - which is usually translated as "wind", but this one aims at what comes after - "day".

I ask this because "wind of the day" doesn't sound right and Jeffrey Jay Niehaus agrees when he makes the following translation of the verse with "wind of the storm" on page 159

Answer 1

Ruach is translated (in the KJV) 232 times 'spirit', 90 times 'wind' and 28 times 'breath'. A few other times it is translated by other, similar, wordings.

Yom is translated 1,167 times 'day', 65 times as 'time' and, again, a smattering of other related terms otherwise.

Source - Young's Analytical Concordance.

There can be no doubt that the collocation means 'the spirit of the day' or 'the wind of the day' or 'the breath of the day'.

The previous mention of ruach is when the Spirit of God 'hovered' or 'fluttered' (YLT) over the face of the waters. This is activity but not progress.

A lot of exertion is required for birds that hover and some species are clearly gifted with special talent to do so, such as the kestrel. That they do so is usually a matter of focusing on that which is happening below them.

What was below was a darkness, an obscurity, which belied penetration. The depths held a secret that was dark, Genesis 1:1-5.

This secret comes to the fore when a serpentine spirit, Genesis 3:1, acts out of proper authority (the spirit acting in holiness had addressed the man not the woman, Genesis 2:16,17).

Once the woman is influenced unto deception, and once the man is influenced unto transgression, the 'voice of the Lord' . . . 'walks' in the 'spirit of the day'.

'Lord' 'voice' and 'spirit' : three designations. The Lord, his word and his spirit.

And, now, progress. No longer hovering but in definite motion : 'walked'.

The 'wind of the day' happens in the cool of the evening and the KJV translators have expressed the practical idiom of the metaphor, not the spiritual interpretation. Understandably.

The day of rest is over.

Man has failed and is to be banished. Man has transgressed under temptation. The cherubim now appear, not attached to the first humanity. But 'God dwelleth the cherubim' ('between' is a mistranslation).

They are 'settled' at the furthest extremity of the garden, eastwards, awaiting the rising of the sun of a new day.

They shall be realised in another humanity - one that shall be promised as rising above the entity which brought sin into the world and (from above) bruising his head.

Ascension will achieve that.

But now, a patient waiting for the promised seed. A seed not of the man but of the woman.

Then the Sun of Righteousness, Malachi 4:2, shall arise and his beams (his 'wings') shall give healing. In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning ; He has the dew of his youth, Psalm 110.

All of this is resplendent with spiritual truth and pregnant with heavenly meaning.

Answer 2

In Gen 3:8, the word translated "day" is יוֹם (yom) which simply means "day" - an extremely common word in the OT, occurring about 2303 times. Let me summaries its variety of specific meanings:

1. Day as opposed to night, Gen 7:14, 15, 8:22, etc
2. Day as a unit of time, Gen 7:4, 10, 8:10, 12, Ex 20:9, Num 11:31, etc
3. Day as defined by eveing and moring, Gen 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 31, 2:2, etc
4. A specific day, such as a holy day, Ex 20:8, Deut 5:12, 15, Isa 58:13, etc
5. Day of the LORD (judgement), Amos 5:18, 20, Isa 2:12, 13:6, 9, etc
6. An indefinite period of time, "in the days of ..." Gen 10:25, 14:1, Judges 5:6, etc

This list is far from exhaustive.

In Gen 3:8 we have the phrase לְר֣וּחַ הַיֹּ֑ום = "breeze of the day" which most versions render, "cool of the day", the time of day when a light breeze would spring up. The context and wording of this phrase suggests that this was a regular occurrence for God to come walking in the garden at this time of day, to talk and commune with Adam and Eve.

Thus, the phrase could be interpreted as something like, "in the mid/late afternoon". The pulpit commentary offers this:

In the cool (literally, the wind) of the day. The morning breeze (Calvin); the evening breeze (Kalisch, Macdonald); τὸ δειλινόν (LXX.); auram post meridiem (Vulgate); cf. hom ha yom, "the heat of the day" (Genesis 18:1)

Answer 3

Wind seems a more appropriate translation for this word.

Quite a few translations use the word breeze.

Often wind is associated with Spirit.

◄ lə·rū·aḥ ► Englishman's Concordance lə·rū·aḥ — 4 Occurrences

Genesis 3:8 HEB: מִתְהַלֵּ֥ךְ בַּגָּ֖ן לְר֣וּחַ הַיּ֑וֹם וַיִּתְחַבֵּ֨א NAS: in the garden in the cool of the day, KJV: in the garden in the cool of the day: INT: walking the garden the cool of the day hid 2 Chronicles 18:21 HEB: אֵצֵא֙ וְהָיִ֙יתִי֙ לְר֣וּחַ שֶׁ֔קֶר בְּפִ֖י NAS: and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth KJV: and be a lying spirit in the mouth INT: will go become spirit deceiving the mouth Jeremiah 5:13 HEB: וְהַנְּבִיאִים֙ יִֽהְי֣וּ לְר֔וּחַ וְהַדִּבֵּ֖ר אֵ֣ין NAS: The prophets are [as] wind, And the word KJV: And the prophets shall become wind, and the word INT: the prophets become are wind and the word else Jeremiah 13:24 HEB: כְּקַשׁ־ עוֹבֵ֑ר לְר֖וּחַ מִדְבָּֽר׃ NAS: straw To the desert wind. KJV: that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness. INT: straw drifting wind to the desert.