Day's Journey (רֶּרֶך יוֹם, מִהֲלִך יוֹם, ὁδὸς ἡμερησίη, Herod. 4:101), a distance such as (in the East) a person might travel in a single day. SEE SABBATH- DAY'S JOURNEY. According to Jon 3:3, the circuit of Nineveh was three days' journey. This mode of describing distances is also found in Greek, Roman, Arabian, and Persian writers (see Strabo, 17:835; Pliny, v. 4, 9; 6:35; Livy, 25:15; 30:29; Athen. 1:7). It needs scarcely be remarked that in itself (if strictly taken) it would be a very vague and fluctuating measurement, the length of a day's journey depending so much on the peculiar circumstances under which each pedestrian travels (see Casaubon ad Strab. 1:35; Ukert, Geogr. d. Griech. u. Rom. I, 2:58). But the ancient writers seem to have fixed on the average of what was usually performed by foot-travelers (Herod. 3, 9; 4:9). Herodotus in one place says (iv. 401) a day's journey amounts to 200 stadia (comp. Polyb. 3, 8; Livy, 21:15); in another (v. 53) to 150 (comp. Pausanias, 10:33, 2). According to Vegetius (Mil. 1:9), twenty Roman miles, that is, 160 stadia, were reckoned for a day's journey. In the Arabian geographers the length of a day's journey is equally variable; yet among them, as in the East at the present day (Tavernier, 1:48), it may be stated generally at about seven leagues, or from eighteen to twenty English miles, which is probably not far from the distance intended by that expression in Scripture, which occurs chiefly in the Pentateuch (Ge 30:36; Ge 31:23; Ex 5:3; Ex 8:27; Nu 11:31; De 1:2), but also elsewhere (1Ki 19:4; 2Ki 3:9), and even in the Apocrypha (1 Maccabees 5:24, 28; 7:45; Tobit 6:1), in the New Test. (Lu 2:44; Ac 1:12), often in Josephus, (Ant. 12:4, 6; Ap. 2:9; Life, 52), and in the Talmud (see Otho, Lex. Rabb. p. 421). SEE JOURNEY.
The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature was edited by John McClintock and James Strong. It contains nearly 50,000 articles pertaining to Biblical and other religious literature, people, creeds, etc. It is a fantastic research tool for broad Christian study.
John McClintock was born October 27, 1814 in Philadelphia to Irish immigrants, John and Martha McClintock. He began as a clerk in his father's store, and then became a bookkeeper in the Methodist Book Concern in New York. Here he converted to Methodism and considered joining the ministry. McClintock entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1832 and graduated with high honors three years later. Subsequently, he was awarded a doctorate of divinity degree from the same institution in 1848.WikipediaRead More