Bible Encyclopedias
Twilight

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

twı̄´lı̄t ( נשׁף , nesheph ): The twilight of Palestine is of short duration, owing to the low latitude, there being scarcely more than an hour between sunset and complete darkness. It is a distinct boundary between daytime and the darkness. The people of Palestine still give the time of an event as so many hours before or after sunrise or sunset: "David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day" ( 1 Samuel 30:17 ), and "They rose up in the twilight to go" (2 Kings 7:5 ). The word is evidenly used in the sense of darkness in "the stars of twilight" (Job 3:9 ) and "The adulterer waiteth for the twilight" (Job 24:15 ). the King James Version has "twilight" in Ezekiel 12:6 ff, but the Revised Version (British and American) has "dark."