H3117 — יוֹם (yôwm)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H3117
Original: יוֹם
Transliteration: yôwm
Pronunciation: yome
Part of Speech: Masculine noun
Root: Unused root meaning "to be hot" — a day as the warm hours
Occurrences: 1926 unique verses (2742 tokens) in 39 books (entire OT)
First Occurrence: Gen 1:5 — "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

From an unused root meaning to be hot; a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb): — age, always, chronicles, continually(-ance), daily, ((birth-), each, to) day, (now a, two) days (agone), elder, end, evening, (for) ever(-lasting, -more), full, life, as (so) long as (…live), (even) now, old, outlived, perpetually, presently, remaineth, required, season, since, space, then, (process of) time, as at other times, in trouble, weather, (as) when, (a, the, within a) while (that), whole (age), (full) year(-ly), younger.

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
day / days	916	47.6%
this day / to day	173	9.0%
the days / the day	219	11.4%
in / in the day / in the days	275	14.3%
on / on the day	68	3.5%
time / the time	32	1.7%
for ever / evermore / ever	20	1.0%
continually / alway / always	18	0.9%
daily	28	1.5%
of the chronicles	38	2.0%
Other (life, full, season, age, etc.)	~139	7.2%

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Obadiah	6	28.6
Zephaniah	14	26.4
Esther	40	24.0
Zechariah	36	17.1
1 Samuel	131	16.2
Haggai	6	15.8
Deuteronomy	146	15.2
Joel	10	13.7
Malachi	7	12.7
Micah	13	12.4
Hosea	23	11.7
Amos	17	11.6
1 Kings	92	11.3
Lamentations	17	11.0
Nehemiah	43	10.6
Leviticus	86	10.0
Judges	62	10.0
2 Kings	72	10.0
Ecclesiastes	22	9.9
Joshua	62	9.4
Genesis	138	9.0
Jeremiah	121	8.9
2 Samuel	61	8.8
Isaiah	110	8.5
Exodus	82	6.8
Numbers	88	6.8
Ezekiel	85	6.7
Daniel	20	5.6
Psalms	107	4.3
Proverbs	29	3.2
1 Chronicles	34	3.6
2 Chronicles	58	7.1
Job	52	4.9
Ezra	16	5.7

Dense in prophetic and historical narrative books; highest concentration in Obadiah and Zephaniah, which are brief books dominated by "the day of the LORD" theme. Psalms and Proverbs are lower in density but high in absolute count.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Literal Calendar Day (24-hour or daylight period)¶

The most basic usage: the day as a unit of time, whether the light period alone or the full evening-to-morning cycle (Gen 1 pattern).

Gen 1:5 — "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day."
Gen 1:8 — "And the evening and the morning were the second day."
Lev 7:15 — "The flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered."
Num 3:13 — "On the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Israel."

2. Historical Period / Era ("In the Days of X")¶

The plural yamim (days) frames biographical and regnal periods. Often identifies when a prophet ministered or when an event took place.

Amos 1:1 — "The words of Amos…which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah."
Mic 1:1 — "The word of the LORD…in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah."
Judg 2:7 — "The people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua."
2 Sam 2:11 — "The time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months."

3. Appointed / Holy Day (Ritual and Covenantal Days)¶

Days designated for worship, sacrifice, ordination, or divine encounter—where the specific day carries covenantal significance.

Lev 6:20 — "This is the offering of Aaron and of his sons, which they shall offer unto the LORD in the day when he is anointed."
Num 3:1 — "These also are the generations of Aaron and Moses in the day that the LORD spake with Moses in mount Sinai."
1 Sam 1:3 — "This man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the LORD of hosts in Shiloh."
Lev 8:35 — "Therefore shall ye abide at the door of the tabernacle…day and night seven days."

4. The Day of the LORD (Eschatological/Theophanic)¶

A concentrated prophetic use—"that day" or "the day of the LORD"—denoting divine judgment, deliverance, or theophanic intervention. This accounts for the extreme density of yom in Obadiah (28.6/100), Zephaniah (26.4/100), Joel, Amos, and Malachi.

Amos 2:16 — "He that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the LORD."
Obad 1:11 — "In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces."
Zeph 1:7 — "Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand."
Mal 3:2 — "But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth?"

5. Lifetime / Biographical Span¶

The plural yamim = the total span of a person's life; "length of days" = long life; "all the days of" = throughout one's lifetime.

Josh 1:5 — "There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life."
Prov 3:2 — "For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee."
Prov 3:16 — "Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour."
Eccl 2:23 — "For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night."

6. Adverbial and Idiomatic Expressions¶

Yom in construct phrases that function adverbially: "this day" (today), "all the day" (continuously), "day and night" (without ceasing), "for ever" (extended beyond days). These are largely frozen idioms.

Deut 1:10 — "The LORD your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude."
Num 6:4 — "All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree."
Josh 1:5 — "All the days of thy life" (yom = throughout a defined duration)
Ps 42:3 — "My tears have been my meat day and night" (yom + layil as a merism for continuous time)

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
יְהֹוָה (YHWH)	H3068	593x (31%)	"the day of the LORD"; divine action on/in a day
כֹּל (kol, all/every)	H3605	536x (28%)	"all the days", "every day", "all day long"
בֵּן (ben, son)	H1121	305x (16%)	regnal/genealogical dating: "in the days of X son of Y"
עָשָׂה (asah, do/make)	H6213	291x (15%)	"what was done that day"; historical summaries
בּוֹא (bo, come)	H935	284x (15%)	"the day will come"; arrival on a specific day
יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisrael)	H3478	269x (14%)	national historical time markers
מֶלֶךְ (melek, king)	H4428	225x (12%)	"in the days of king X" (royal chronology)
אֱלֹהִים (Elohim)	H430	221x (11%)	divine speech/acts placed in time
פָּנִים (paniym, face)	H6440	193x (10%)	"before the face of the LORD all the days"
אֶרֶץ (erets, land/earth)	H776	190x (10%)	"upon the earth all the days"; "in the land"

Word Family / Cognates¶

H3119 יוֹמָם (yôwmâm) — adverb derived from H3117: "by day, in the daytime" (50 verses); antonym of "by night"; commonly in "day and night" (yomam walaylah) merisms
H3118 יוֹם (Aramaic yôwm) — Aramaic cognate in Dan/Ezra Aramaic sections (15 verses); same meaning

Synonyms¶

H8121 שֶׁמֶשׁ (shemesh) — overlap in the daylight field; this is not a calendar-day equivalent, but the sun/daylight association surfaced by search_relationships.py.
H216 אוֹר (or) — overlaps where yom means the lighted portion of the day rather than the full day-night cycle.

Antonyms¶

H3915 לַיְלָה (laylah) — the standard opposite in day/night merisms and temporal contrasts.

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
יוֹמָם (yôwmâm)	H3119	"day", "by day", "daily"	Derivative adverb, not a noun; marks daytime as contrasted with night; never used for the Day of the LORD
יוֹם (Aramaic)	H3118	"day", "days"	Aramaic form confined to Daniel and Ezra; functionally identical but distinct corpus
עֵת (ʻêth)	H6256	"time" (22v overlap)	eth = appointed moment/occasion, often implying the right or proper time; yom = the day as a unit of time
עוֹלָם (ʻôwlâm)	H5769	"for ever", "evermore" (16v overlap)	owlam = indefinitely long age or perpetuity; yom used in extended idioms like "all the days forever" where both appear, but owlam extends beyond countable days

Semantic Domains¶

UBS / Relationship Domains¶

[002002002010] Time — the core temporal-unit domain for ordinary uses of yom.
[002001003003] Complete — reflects "full day / completed span" uses.
[002001001038] Old — captures idioms where "days" means age or advanced years.
[003001017] Titles — a secondary domain created by formulaic uses such as "in the days of..." with rulers and named periods.
[001002008001014] Scrolls — reflects archival/chronicle formulas behind KJV renderings like "book of the chronicles of the days."

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Strong's	Co-occurrences	PMI Score	Notes
ἡμέρα (hēméra)	G2250	1485x	25.24	Primary — covers all semantic categories
σήμερον (sēmeron)	G4594	200x	18.33	Adverbial "today/this day" uses of yom
ἕβδομος (hébdomos)	G1442	58x	11.31	Ordinal "seventh (day)" constructions
ἑπτά (heptá)	G2033	97x	10.46	"seven days" count expressions

The LXX rendered ~77% of yom occurrences with ἡμέρα (G2250), making this the most direct Hebrew→Greek lexical bridge in the entire Bible by co-occurrence volume.