Bible Dictionary
TWILIGHT
Twilight is the brief period between sunset and complete darkness, or in some contexts the dim light before dawn. Biblical writers use it as a time marker and also as an image of darkness and concealment.
Definition
Twilight is the short interval between sunset and complete darkness, and in some contexts the dim period associated with darkness. In Palestine it forms a distinct boundary between day and night.
Biblical Usage
The Bible uses twilight as a time marker for military action, travel, and waiting. It can also suggest darkness, concealment, or the time when the adulterer waits to act.
Historical Background
Because of Palestine’s low latitude, twilight lasts scarcely more than an hour. People commonly measured events by the hours before or after sunrise and sunset.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>twi'-lit (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" (1Sa 30:17), and "They rose up in the twilight to go" (2Ki 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 Eze 12:6 ff, but the Revised Version (British and American) has "dark."</p><p>Alfred H. Joy</p>