Canuckster,
Dr. Denis Alexander again, in a short 4 minute video speaking about the fall of man and noting the significance of the use of the word "yom" noting its proximity to the creation narrative and clearly if the death spoken of was to be on the "day they ate of the fruit" (yom used here) then either the death spoken of is not physical by spiritual because obviously that 24 hour day they didn't physically die. Or you have to accept too, that yom is used in the 2rd chapter where the warning is given is a period of time outside of 24 hours. Both situations are difficulties to answer and to maintain consistent hermeneutics for many typical YEC positions.
As an old-earther, I would caution against using this as evidence for long
yom.
This is the Hebrew (transliterated) of Genesis 2:17:
Beyom (in the day)
acholcha (you eat)
mimenu (from it)
mot (die)
tamut (you die)
The back-to-back uses of
mut (die) emphasize the certainty of the result. That is why most translations translate the two words as "surely die." The more I have looked at the sentence, the more I believe it was referring to when the outcome would become certain, not when the outcome would take place.
"In the day you eat from it your dying shall be certain." In Genesis 3:4 the Serpent does not argue about the timing, he just denies the result. Also, God brings up the fact that Adam would not die immediately (Genesis 3:17), but that his dying was certain (Genesis 3:19). We see how God made Adam's future death certain (Genesis 3:22-24) and this was done immediately (that day).
This is very similar to what we see in 1 Kings 2:37, 42:
Beyom (in the day) [you leave Jerusalem]
yadoa (know)
teda (you know)
ki (that)
mot (die)
tamut (you die).
"In the day [you leave Jerusalem] you will know for sure that your dying is certain." Shimei's journey took at least 2 days and probably more like 3 or 4. Gath was at least 30 miles away and a day's journey was about 20-30 miles, plus he had to find his servants.
In both cases the meaning was something like "once you do this, you can be sure that you will die." The phrase referred to the certainty of the result, not its timing.