Daylight was divided into twelve hours counted from sunrise (≈ 6 AM), so the third hour ≈ 9 AM, the sixth ≈ noon, the ninth ≈ 3 PM. Daylight itself stretched with the season, so an “hour” did too. The day began at sunset, not midnight, “there was evening and there was morning.” Night was kept in “watches”, Scripture names a middle watch and the sequence evening · midnight · cock-crowing · morning.
Daily life in Bible times
Hours & the day
Time & the day
Sources, trace every one
Every cited verse, in full. Tap any reference to open it in the reader.
- John 11:9bsb
Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? If anyone walks in the daytime, he will not stumble, because he sees by the light of this world.
- Genesis 1:5bsb
God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day.
- Leviticus 23:32bsb
It will be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall humble yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to keep your Sabbath.”
- Judges 7:19bsb
Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after the changing of the guard. They blew their horns and broke the jars that were in their hands.
- Mark 13:35bsb
Therefore keep watch, because you do not know when the master of the house will return — whether in the evening, at midnight, when the rooster crows, or in the morning.
On contested questions we show every major view, attributed and cited, and pick no winner. Answers are synthesized from primary sources, truth you can trace, not opinion.