Hebrew words, the same as in other languages, can have two or more meanings. An example is the Hebrew word for nose (H639 aph) which can also means anger, for example when the nostrils start flaring. A literal interpretation of 1 Samuel 20:34 is, "And Jonathon rose from the table with a burning nose," where the phrase "burning nose" means a "fierce anger" which is how it appears in the translations. So full marks to the translators. The message is, not to take things too literally.
Here are some more examples.
ברך (curse – bless);
חסד (kindness – disgrace);
רנן (shout for joy – moan (Lam 2:19));
מרזח (revelry (Am 6:7) – lamentation (Jer 16:5));
נבל (distinguished, Arab. (2Sam 25:20) – despicable);
קלס (mock – praise), in the Bible and Ben Sira 11:4 only “mock” but in post-biblical Hebrew and Syriac “praise”;
רגע (disturb – be at rest);
בוקק (luxuriant (Hos 10:1) – empty, waste (Isa 24:3));
מתאב (despise (Am 6:8) – desire);
עזב (leave, forsake – assist, strengthen), both meanings in Ex 23:5; פסח (leap – limp); etc.
Cf. R. Gordis, “Studies in Hebrew Roots of Contrasting Meanings,” JQR 27 (1936), XXX.
In addition there are many words that are spelled the same but are completely different--and sometimes pronounced differently. One example is Bet Shin Resh which in Exodus 12:8 refers to the flesh of the Passover lamb "בָּשָׂר" basar, but the same spelling is used in Isaiah 61:1 בַשֵּׂר -said vasser, and there it means "good news" or "gospel"--interestingly BOTH these sections of scripture are alluded to as fulfilled by Jesus. Posted by BerhaneSelassie
https://forums.catholic.com/t/hebrew-words-that-have-at-least-two-meanings/369317/4
Now we come to the point of this thread which will undoubtedly lead to a debate about the age of the earth, and certainly whether-or-not six twenty-four hour days in our time was sufficient to provide the lush vegetation capable of supporting wildlife like dinosaurs. For example will a tree grow a hundred feet or more in a two days?
The Hebrew word in question is yom which simply means a period of time, either long or short.
yom: day
Original Word: יוֹם
Part of Speech: Noun Masculine
Transliteration: yom
Phonetic Spelling: (yome)
NASB Translation
afternoon* (1), age (8), age* (1), all (1), always* (14), amount* (2), battle (1), birthday* (1), Chronicles* (38), completely* (1), continually* (14), course* (1), daily (22), daily the days (1), day (1115), day of the days (1), day that the period (1), day's (6), day's every day (1), daylight* (1), days (635), days on the day (1), days to day (1), days you shall daily (1), days ago (1), days' (11), each (1), each day (4), entire (2), eternity (1), evening* (1), ever in your life* (1), every day (2), fate (1), first (5), forever* (11), forevermore* (1), full (5), full year (1), future* (1), holiday* (3), later* (2), length (1), life (12), life* (1), lifetime (2), lifetime* (1), live (1), long (2), long as i live (1), long* (11), midday* (1), now (5), older* (1), once (2), period (3), perpetually* (2), present (1), recently (1), reigns (1), ripe* (1), short-lived* (1), so long* (1), some time (1), survived* (2), time (45), time* (1), times* (2), today (172), today* (1), usual (1), very old* (1), when (10), when the days (1), whenever (1), while (3), whole (2), year (10), yearly (5), years (13), yesterday* (1).
I firmly believe that context is vitally important when understanding scripture, and with that in mind I will leave it to others, to decide whether or not ‘day’ means a single rotation of the earth round the sun, which did not exist in the beginning, or whether it means a ‘day’ in the sight of God. Just to add, a day on Venus is 5,832 hours in our time. Light years are something else. Light travels at 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers per second), and it would take 100,000 years to cross the Milky Way at the speed of light. That is a lot of days. As the word origin says, a day does not necessarily mean 24 hours.