Why Does the Torah Say a Day for God Is Like a Thousand Years?

Zak asks: "Hello. It is known that the concept of ‘time’ applies only to material things — without matter, there is no time (as the Rambam explained). If so, why do we say that ‘one day’ for God equals a thousand years? Since God is not physical, the concept of time cannot apply to Him. Thank you for your answer!"

* * *

Hello Zak, and thank you for your thoughtful question.

Indeed, time is dependent on matter. Modern physics defines time as the measurement of movement within matter — without matter, there is no time. The Rambam already explained this 800 years ago: “Time is among the created things, for time is attached to movement” (Guide for the Perplexed II:13).

Before the universe existed, there was no concept of matter, time, or even space. (Space means “separation between objects,” but before matter appeared, there was literally “nothing.”)

The very first verse of the Torah revealed this truth, thousands of years before modern science: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). The Sages explain: “In the beginning” — time, “the heavens” — space, “the earth” — matter. All three were created together, yesh me’ayin (something from nothing).

Nachmanides (Ramban) adds that in the very beginning, the entire universe was concentrated in a single, extremely condensed state — what the Greeks called hyle. From this first matter, everything else was shaped and formed. Modern cosmology discovered only in the last century that the universe is expanding and once was condensed in a singular point. What science calls the “Big Bang,” the Torah described thousands of years earlier.

When God created the world, He created matter, space, and time together. God Himself is therefore beyond all of them — He is spiritual (not limited by matter), infinite (not limited by space), and eternal (not limited by time). His very Name, “He was, He is, and He will be,” expresses this timeless reality.

You asked about the verse: “For a thousand years in Your eyes are like yesterday that has passed, and like a watch in the night” (Psalms 90:4). This verse emphasizes God’s greatness compared to humanity. As David continues: “Before the mountains were born, before You formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, You are God” (Psalms 90:2). God sees all history at once, from beginning to end: “Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, the first, and with the last, I am He” (Isaiah 41:4).

So why describe a “day” for God as a “thousand years”? The point is not that God experiences time, but that from His perspective, vast stretches of human history are like a fleeting moment. The comparison highlights how brief and passing human life is: “The days of our years are seventy, or with strength eighty years; yet their pride is but toil and trouble, for they are soon gone and we fly away” (Psalms 90:10).

There is also a deeper layer. The Sages understood the verse as a key to God’s plan for history. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 97a) teaches:

• The world will exist for six thousand years, followed by a seventh “millennium of rest.”

• These six millennia are divided to two thousand years of “chaos,” two thousand of Torah, and two thousand of the Messianic era.

• Just as creation was completed in six days and rested on the seventh, so too history unfolds in six “days” (thousand-year periods), followed by a seventh “day” of redemption and rest.

Nachmanides writes: “Know that the six days of Creation include all the years of the world… for the world will exist six thousand years, which is why our Sages said: ‘One day of God is a thousand years’” (commentary on Genesis 2:3).

In other words, “a thousand years are like a day” is not about God being bound by time, but about how He structured history itself. Humanity’s journey, from Adam to the final redemption, is mapped out in these thousand-year “days.”

Thus, the verse expresses two truths at once:

1. God Himself is eternal, above time.

2. History, as He designed it, unfolds in “days” of a thousand years each, moving the world step by step toward its purpose of the Messianic redemption, when all nations will recognize Him and serve Him together.