Bible dictionaries

Twilight

What Bible dictionaries say about “Twilight”, one article after the other.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

Twilight - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

TWI'LIGHT, n.

1. The faint light which is reflected upon the earth after sunset and before sunrise; crepuscular light. In latitudes remote from the equator, the twilight is of much longer duration than at and near the equator.

2. Dubious or uncertain view; as the twilight or probability.

TWI'LIGHT, a. Obscure; imperfectly illuminated; shaded.

O'er the twilight groves and dusky caves.

1. Seen or done by twilight.

Matthew George Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary; Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)

The article in Easton + Webster 1828

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE 1915)

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."

Alfred H. Joy

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia — James Orr, general editor and contributors; CrossWire SWORD module ISBE 2.2

The article in ISBE 1915