The odd Hebrew phrase “in the bone of the day” (translated as “the very same day”) occurs in Genesis 7 (Noah enters the ark), Genesis 17 (circumcision of Abram’s household), Exodus 12 (Passover), and Leviticus 23 (day of atonement).
Though the phrase is used a few other times in the OT, perhaps the repetition of the phrase joins these events together. In the flood, the world is “circumcised” and we have a foreshadowing of the Passover and the ultimate atonement.
What makes these “bone” days? Literally, the “bone of the day” has been taken as a reference to noonday – the “strength” of the day. That may be, but why describe strength as “bone”? Bones are structuring organs for the human body. The bone of days are days that provide a skeletal structure to time.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
A Catholic Approach to Immigration
In the USCCB’s recent Special Pastoral Message, the bishops of the United States highlight the suffering inflicted…
The Classroom Heals the Wounds of Generations
“Hope,” wrote the German-American polymath Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, “is the deity of youth.” Wholly dependent on adults, children…
Still Life, Still Sacred
Renaissance painters would use life-sized wooden dolls called manichini to study how drapery folds on the human…
