What Is a Day According to Yahuah? — When Does It Start and When Does It End?
Part 2
6th-day, Month 11, 10th
Friday, January 30th, 2026
Shalom to my brothers and sisters who walk in the set-apart way with Yahusha Ha’Mashiach and guard covenant with Father Yahuah and love Him through obedience to His commandments. I pray that you and your families have had a blessed and fruitful week in the love, grace and peace of Yahuah.
Introduction
Last week, in Part 1 of What Is a Day According to Yahuah, we looked at what the scriptures say from the beginning and what the biblical definitions are of the words that are translated as “day”. We saw that there are actually two different definitions of a day and that is the “daylight day” and the “twenty four hour day” and that the main word for day, SHW 3117 יוֹם (yom), actually comes from an unused root that means to be hot, as the warm hours of the day.
This week we will look at scriptures that, if you look at them without the mainstream preconceived notion that a twenty four hour day is from evening to evening, plainly show a twenty four hour day is from day break to the following morning just before the next day breaks forth, or begins.
What the Scriptures Say in the Beginning
The Bere’shiyth Account:
The first day began when:
Bere’shiyth (Genesis) 1:3-5 – “And Elohiym said, Let there be light: and there was light. And Elohiym saw the light, that it was good: and Elohiym divided the light from the darkness. And Elohiym called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”
**The light was divided from the darkness and was called day and the darkness was called night. How did Elohiym divide the day the day from the night, that’s right, He divided the light from the darkness, the day from the night, by the evening and the morning. This verse does not say that Elohiym saw the darkness that it was good and He divided the darkness from the light and called the darkness night and the light He called day and there was evening and morning. This would seem the logical way it would have been described if the day began at evening just before the darkness but this would have resulted in the first day having two nights, as the night would have started the day before the day light and then the evening and the morning would have contained another night. The verse doesn’t read like this nor do the accounts of the next five days, the darkness was not defined as night until the light appeared, which started the day, and the evening, night and morning were the first day. Overlooking this simple fact, that the night occurs between the evening and morning, is what I believe leads people to the innocent conclusion that this statement is defining the whole day and not the time after the daylight. The enemy uses this innocent confusion that it created to place darkness for light.
Now that we have that cleared up, let’s read the verse with this omission included:
Bere’shiyth (Genesis) 1:3-5 with night included between the morning and the evening –
“And Elohiym said, Let there be light: and there was light. And Elohiym saw the light, that it was good: and Elohiym divided the light from the darkness. And Elohiym called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening, and the night and the morning were the first day.”
Wow! I hope that you are saying the same thing! How much easier it is to understand this ending clause of each day by just adding what the True Author intended us to understand in the simplest way if we just take into account what naturally occurs between the evening and the morning, the nighttime, that was divided from the light by the evening and the morning.
The sequence of events is even clearer if we use the translation for the word/phrase “וַֽיְהִי־ (and there was)”:
וַֽיְהִי־ (and there was) עֶ֥רֶב (evening) “וַֽיְהִי־ (and there was) לָ֑יְלָה (night)” וַֽיְהִי־ (and there was) בֹ֖קֶר (morning) ､(,)י֥וֹם (day) אֶחָֽד (one).
Looking at the structure of this statement “And the evening and the morning were the first day.“ and the other five like it, this appears to be the only logical way that it can be interpreted without completely forcing the issue that the day starts at evening.
The Shabbath Feast Days of Yahuah
The First Shabbath:
The first six days all follow this pattern, work done during the day concluding during the evening, rest from the days work at night and getting ready for the next days work in the morning, but the seventh day, Elohiym’s Shabbath Feast Day of Rest doesn’t follow this pattern:
Bere’shiyth (Genesis) 2:2-3 – “And on the seventh day Elohiym ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And Elohiym blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which Elohiym created and made.”
**The seventh day does not contain the statement “And the evening and the morning were the seventh day.“
Does this mean that there was no evening, night and morning for the seventh day? Not at all, it simply means that the daylight day of the seventh day was made to rest, not to do any work, and therefore there is no need to state the fact that work is done during the day and the night is made for resting after the day’s work and it is clarified by Yahusha Ha’Mashiach:
Yochanon (John) 9:4 – “I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.”
with further clarification given two chapters later:
Yochanon (John) 11:9 – “Yahusha answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.”
**Mashiach lets us know that there are twelve hours in the “daylight day” and that rest from the day’s work comes at night after that day’s work. If it had been ordained from the beginning to have the rest happen before the work, the day beginning with evening/night, then the Shabbath should have been on the first day of the week, what is now called sun-day, just as it is in this upside down world we live in that is ran by the enemy. Yahuah’s rest always follows work and not the other way around. We are all working right now to enter into the rest of Father Yahuah, through His Son Yahusha Ha’Mashiach Who is the true Shabbath of rest.
The Feast of Yom Kippuriym:
The Shabbath Feast Days of Yahuah all follow the protocol of the first seventh day Shabbath found in Bere’shiyth 2:2-3 except for one, and it is Yahuah’s Feast Day of Atonement, Yom Kippuriym:
Vayiqra (Leviticus) 23:27 & 32 – “Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be Yom Kippuriym: it shall be a set-apart assembly unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto Yahuah. & 32. It shall be unto you a Shabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your Shabbath.”
**Yom Kippuriym is the exception to the Shabbath protocol, not the normal, and it is clearly stated as such. The commandment is to observe Yom Kippuriym on the tenth day of the seventh month with the phrase “from even unto even” given, which must mean that a day goes from evening to evening, and this is where most people leave it without looking at the entire commandment. The Shabbath actually starts at the end of the ninth day at evening, if the evening is the start of the day, then the ninth day would have been the Shabbath of Yom Kippuriym and there wouldn’t have had to even been the explanation that is given for this Shabbath…
But this is not the case, the ninth day is not the Shabbath of Yom Kippuriym, the tenth day of the seventh month is the Shabbath. This is where more confusion comes in with forcing the text to say something it doesn’t. If a day is supposed to start with “and the evening and the morning” then the ninth day’s evening would have been the start of the ninth day, with the ninth night following the evening then the morning and then the ninth day itself followed by the start of the tenth day at it’s evening, meaning there would be no Feast Day during the daylight day of the tenth day, there would only be the tenth day’s evening for Yom Kippuriym or the Feast day would be two daylight days in length, neither of these scenarios are supported by the text. The text uses the same word “עֶ֔רֶב (evening)“ that is found at the end of each day of creation:
בְּתִשְׁעָ֤ה (On [day] nine) לַחֹ֙דֶשׁ֙ (of the month) בָּעֶ֔רֶב (at evening) ､(,) מֵעֶ֣רֶב (from evening) עַד־ (to) “עֶ֔רֶב (evening)“ תִּשְׁבְּת֖וּ (you shall celebrate) שַׁבַּתְּכֶֽם׃ (your Shabbath).
**Now if a day is from evening to evening then Yom Kippuriym would be on the ninth day and not the tenth if a day were indeed from evening to evening according to the structure of verse thirty two but this is not the case because verse twenty seven says that Yom Kippuriym is to occur on the tenth daylight day, to end at the evening of the tenth day and to begin on the evening of the ninth day, after the daylight day of the ninth day. From the structure of the text, without forcing anything, Yom Kippuriym is to be observed starting on the ninth day at evening, going through the night and morning of the ninth day and celebrated on the tenth daylight day until the evening of the tenth day, ending before night.
Once again, Yom Kippuriym is the exception to the Shabbath daylight day protocol established in Bere’shiyth chapter two, it is not setting the protocol for all Shabbaths.
The Feast of Pesach and Matstsah:
The next day we will look at is the Pesach which occurs during the evening, night and morning of the fourteenth day. The commandment on how to guard the Pesach is first given in:
Shemoth (Exodus) 12:6-10 – ” And ye shall guard it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole multitude of the assembly of Yashar’el shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and matstsah; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof. And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.”
**The Pesach is on the fourteenth day of the first month of Aviyv, more precisely the evening, the night and the morning of the fourteenth day which is the same wording from Bere’shiyth chapter one when describing a day, with the night being added in so there is no confusion on how to guard the Pesach, the only Feast Day of Yahuah that does not occur during the daylight portion of a day.
The Pesach is during the fourteenth day’s evening, night and morning because the children of Yashar’el ate the Pesach on the fourteenth night and the fourteenth night is when Yahuah went through the land of Mitsrayim and killed all the firstborn in whatsoever house there was not found the blood of the lamb on the doorpost.
Shemoth (Exodus) 12:11-12 – “And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is Yahuah’s Pesach. For I will pass through the land of Mitsrayim this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Mitsrayim, both man and beast; and against all the elohiym of Mitsrayim I will execute judgment: I am Yahuah.”
**Yahuah explicitly says the night of the Pesach, the fourteenth day’s night, He will pass through the land and kill the firstborn of any house that does not have the blood of the lamb on the doorpost, in other words Yahuah will pass over the houses with the blood, hence the name of the Feast, Pesach/Passover.
The start of the next day is a totally different Feast of Yahuah called the Feast of Matstsah and is introduced for the first time the next day after Yahuah has passed over the houses of Yashar’el and not killed their firstborn:
Shemoth (Exodus) 12:14-15 – “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to Yahuah throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. Seven days shall ye eat matstsah; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth chamets from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Yashar’el.”
**This is a point of confusion for some as they think that this is still the Pesach and confirms that the day starts in the evening, but it isn’t, this is the start of a new day at sunrise after the evening, night and morning of the fourteenth day (Pesach) and it is clearly defined as the start of the fifteenth day in the commandments given in the chapter on how to guard the Feasts of Yahuah:
Vayiqra (Leviticus) 23:5-6 – “In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is Yahuah’s Pesach. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Matstsah unto Yahuah: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.”
If a day starts at evening, then the Pesach and the fourteenth day would start in the evening and continue until the end of the next day, and the evening would start the fifteenth day. This would mean that there would be a full twenty four hours between the Pesach and the Feast of Matstsah, but this is not what the text says. The events of the Pesach are not recorded with this gap in time, the Pesach starts in the evening, after the daylight day of the fourteenth day, continues through the night, when Yahuah kills the firstborn of the Mitsriym and passes over the houses of Yashar’el, Yahuah commanding that whatever is left of the Pesach lamb in the morning to be burnt with fire and then the new day of the fifteenth is the Feast of Matstsah with this being fully explained in verses five and six of the twenty third chapter of Vayiqra.
Conclusion
The Shabbaths are important to Yahuah Elohiym and how we guard them is very important. I would like to thank all of you for your questions and support of this series and I pray that it has helped you gain a better understanding of Yahuah’s calendar and the way He designed for us to keep time according to His commandments.
I am by no means a scholar on this subject nor any subject, but I try to enter into everything with Yahuah from a clean and unbiased opinion and let Ruach Elohiym be my guide. The more I study the more I find that any preconceived ideas or theology I may hold must be rigorously tested against the word that is found in the canonized scriptures and most of the time those preconceived ideas have flaws in them or they are just wrong.
In all of our studying we must consistently come to Father Yahuah as a child and let Him and Him alone instruct us and guide our journey to Him through His Son Yahusha Ha’Mashiach and it must all be done in truth and His Ruach.
Please remember that we are to not take any man, woman or any other authority as the final word of Yahuah Elohaynu but we must study and test everything.
I think that this is the last teaching in this series unless any of you have another topic that you feel needs to be included.
I pray that you all have a blessed 6th-day and remember that Yahuah’s Shabbath Feast Day of Rest is tomorrow!
Shalom,
Sharath (שָׁרַת) Patrick
