Genesis 1:5
וַיִּקְרָא אֱלֹהִים׀ לָאוֹר יוֹם וְלַחֹשֶׁךְ קָרָא לָיְלָה וַֽיְהִי־עֶרֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹקֶר יוֹם אֶחָֽד׃ פ
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיִּקְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים׀ לָאוֹר֙ י֔וֹם וְלַחֹ֖שֶׁךְ קָ֣רָא לָ֑יְלָה וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם אֶחָֽד׃ פ
καὶ ἐκάλεσεν ὁ θεὸς τὸ φῶς ἡμέραν, καὶ τὸ σκότος ἐκάλεσεν νύκτα. καὶ ἐγένετο ἑσπέρα καὶ ἐγένετο πρωί, ἡμέρα μία.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Appellavitque lucem Diem, et tenebras Noctem: factumque est vespere et mane, dies unus.
Y llamó Dios á la luz Día, y á las tinieblas llamó Noche: y fué la tarde y la mañana un día.
God called the light “ day,” and the darkness He called “ night.” And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day. The Second Day
✦ What the text says
Summary
God assigns names to the light and the darkness, and the first day closes with the formula of evening and morning. The final numeral is a cardinal — "one" — not an ordinal, and the versions differ in how they translate it.
Key words
- i.yik.Ra' ("he called", H7121) — qal verb in narrative form.
- Yom ("day", H3117) — masculine singular noun; the name given to the light.
- Lai.lah ("night", H3915) — the name given to the darkness.
- 'E.rev ("evening", H6153) — masculine singular noun of the closing formula.
- 'e.Chad ("one", H0259) — cardinal number.
What the text says
The act of naming uses i.yik.Ra' ("he called", H7121) in narrative form, followed by la. ("to the", H9005), a preposition fused with the article: God ('E.lo.Him, "God", H0430) called the light ('Or, "light", H0216) Day (Yom, "day", H3117). The second half inverts the order: the complement "and the darkness" (Cho.shekh, "darkness", H2822) comes first, and the verb appears in the perfect — Ka.ra' ("he called", H7121), "completed action" — instead of the narrative form. The data thus show two different conjugations of the same verb H7121 within one verse: narrative in the first clause and perfect in the second, where the fronted complement no longer allows the narrative chain.
The close repeats the verb y.hi- ("there was", H1961) twice in narrative form: and there was evening ('E.rev, "evening", H6153) and there was morning (Vo.ker, "morning", H1242). The final count is Yom + 'e.Chad ("one", H0259), which the data tag as a cardinal number: "day one".
Differences between versions
The cardinal 'e.Chad ("one", H0259) is kept as a cardinal in the LXX (ἡμέρα μία), the Vulgate (dies unus), and the RV1909 («un día»), while the BSB translates with an ordinal: "the first day". In the naming clauses, the Hebrew repeats the verb H7121 twice, as do the LXX (ἐκάλεσεν… ἐκάλεσεν), the RV1909 («llamó… llamó»), and the BSB ("called… He called"); the Vulgate condenses both acts under a single verb (Appellavitque lucem Diem, et tenebras Noctem).
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.