the recent past: "yesterday," and by extension "previously, up to now"
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
Although its basic sense is "yesterday," this word almost never marks a single calendar day. Far more often it teams up with a partner word for the day before that (שִׁלְשֹׁם) to form a set phrase that simply means "previously" or "up to now." Hebrew builds a general sense of "the past" out of two concrete recent days, much as the English "the other day" no longer counts days.
In that fixed pairing the word looks back over an established pattern: the way something has always been done, or a person's settled habit before now. It appears in phrases like an ox that "used to gore," a road "never traveled before," or a man "not hated beforehand." The point is continuity up to the present moment, not a literal span of two days.
Only a handful of times does the word stand on its own for the recent past, and even then it leans toward "a short while ago" more than a strict day. When Job's friends call human life a thing "of yesterday," they mean how briefly people have existed against the age of the world, not that anyone was born the day before.
Nuances
1aliterally "yesterday," or the very recent past: a short time ago
TranslatabilityDirect
1Sa 20:272Sa 15:20Job 8:9
1bin the set phrase "yesterday and before": previously, in time past, heretofore
Stands on its own as the plain word for "yesterday," the single day just past, without needing a partner word, as in the complaint that David had not come to the table "either yesterday or today."1Sa 20:27
Reaches for "recently" or "just now" when someone has newly arrived: Ittai the Gittite had "come only yesterday."2Sa 15:20
Turns figurative for how brief and recent human life is, so that "we are but of yesterday and know nothing."Job 8:9
Both
Both fuse into the stock phrase "yesterday and the day before," which does not name two literal days but simply means "previously, as things were before": the bricks were to be made "as before," and Laban's face toward Jacob was no longer "as before."Exo 5:7Gen 31:2
In legal settings the pair marks an established prior condition or premeditation: the ox already known to gore "in time past," or the killer who had not hated his victim "beforehand."Exo 21:29Deu 4:42
Together they can look back over a whole earlier era rather than a single day, as when the elders remind David that "in time past" they had already sought him as their leader.2Sa 3:171Ch 11:2
Almost never stands on its own. It is a bound partner word that only extends a preceding word for "yesterday" into the deeper past, so it attaches even to the alternate spelling of "yesterday" when that one is used, giving "as in times past."1Sa 19:72Sa 5:2
Its own contribution is the reach of "the day before yesterday," pushing the reference back beyond a single day to an earlier stretch of time, as when Israel recalls that even earlier, under Saul, David had led them out and in.2Sa 5:21Sa 4:7
קֶדֶםpoints to the remote, primeval past ("of old, ancient times"), while this word looks only to the recent past or "previously."
temol in the other biblical languages
χθέςGreek“yesterday”the Greek word for "yesterday"; in "the same yesterday, today, and forever" it reaches back from the recent past just as this Hebrew word does.
What scholars say about temol
The standard lexica (BDB, HALOT, DCH) treat תְּמוֹל as an adverbial time-word, "yesterday," that overwhelmingly appears in the fixed collocation תְּמוֹל שִׁלְשֹׁם, literally "yesterday (and) the third day (before)," a merism for "formerly, hitherto, in times past." The phrase is frequently governed by prefixed מִן ("from earlier days") or כְּ ("as before"), and functions to establish prior habit or precedent, as in the goring-ox law (Exod 21:29, 36) and the manslaughter statutes (Deut 4:42; 19:4, 6). Only rarely does תְּמוֹל stand alone with a strictly recent-day force (Job 8:9;2 Sam 15:20;1 Sam 20:27). The form is variously written תְּמוֹל / תְּמֹל and is generally taken as an adverbial accusative of time; no significant disagreement over the sense obtains in the lexicographical literature.