but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day (בְּי֛וֹם) that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17, NKJV)
but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:17, NIV)
Which is the correct translation?
Bible Gateway lists 50 different translations. Only 14 do not use the word "day:"
TLB 1971, NIV 1973, NIVUK 1979, ICB 1986, MSG 1993, GW 1995, NIRV 1995, NET 1996, NLT 1996, NCV 2005, NABRE 2010, EXB 2011, NOG 2011, TLV 2015
The decision to replace the specific “day” with a general reference to time is relatively recent. The same word is used almost 200 times. Translations like the NIV do not translate it as “day” during any creation record (2:4, 2:17, 3:5, 5:1, and 5:2). Yet the usage is day:
The child grew and was weaned, and on the day (בְּי֖וֹם) Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. (Genesis 21:8 NIV)
A possible reason for the difference is that when “day” is included, a reader would have two expectations. One would be that the man would die before sunset of the day he ate; the other is that the man would die 24-hours after eating. In effect modern translations interpret rather than translate the word to be consistent with the actual events:
After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years...So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died. (Genesis 5:4-5 NKJV)
The death proclaimed when the command was given occurred 930 years after eating.
As Joseph’s answer here and David’s answer to a similar question shows [Genesis 2:16] the infinitive absolute of the Hebrew is a way to explain why the man did not die soon after eating. Apparently some modern translators use this type of analysis to replace “day” with language that follows the actual events to simplify a more complicated aspect of the Hebrew language.
There is another way to understand the original language.
Since a day ends at sunset that would be the soonest time the death sentence would be carried out:
And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3:8 NKJV)
Many commentators understand “the cool of the day” as the evening breeze. [Genesis 3:8] If the sentence were carried out immediately, the man had only a few hours left. However, a day in the command could also mean the full day of 24-hours.
The LORD who gives the command is merciful. For example:
And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth (Exodus 34:6 NKJV)
A merciful LORD would wait as long as possible before executing judgment. In this case He waited 930 years. This raises the question: what calendar was He using?
Psalm 90 offers an answer:
Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
You turn man to destruction,
And say, “Return, O children of men.”
For a thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it is past,
And like a watch in the night. (Psalm 90:1-4 NKJV)
The Psalm opens recounting creation and the "1,000 years are like yesterday when it is past and like a watch in the night." All of these references fit the circumstances of eating in the Garden of Eden.
The man did not live a full 1,000 years. He lived 930. Two points can be drawn from this life span. First, he fell 70 years short of a full 1,000 year day:
For we have been consumed by Your anger,
And by Your wrath we are terrified. You have set our iniquities before You,
Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance. For all our days have passed away in Your wrath; We finish our years like a sigh. The days of our lives are seventy years; (Psalm 90:7-10 NKJV)
The "missing 70 years" are also placed in the Psalm. The years the first man "lost" are now what the Psalmist (Moses) sees for all men.
The second point is that the 70 years is 7% of the total 1,000 years. In a 24-hour day 7% is 1 hour and 48 minutes. If the man ate late in the day, this means that the actual life span of 930 years was prorated against the 1,000 year day. In other words, instead of giving the man a full 1,000 years, the LORD cut short his life by 7%, the amount of time left in the day when he ate.
The LORD was both merciful and just before carrying out the death sentence proclaimed in Genesis.