Difference between revisions of "Evening"

<p> E'VENING, n. See Eve, Even. The latter part and close of the day, and the beginning of darkness or night properly the decline or fall of the day, or of the sun. </p> <p> The evening and the morning were the first day. [[Genesis]] 1 </p> <p> The precise time when evening begins, or when it ends, is not ascertained by usage. The word often includes a part at least of the afternoon, and indeed the whole afternoon as in the phrase, "The morning and evening service of the sabbath." In strictness, evening commences at the setting of the sun, and continues during twilight, and night commences with total darkness. But in customary language, the evening extends to bed-time, whatever that time may be. Hence we say, to spend an evening with a friend an evening visit. </p> 1. The decline or latter part of life. We say, the evening of life, or of one's days. 2. The decline of any thing as the evening of glory. <p> E'VENING, a. Being at the close of day as the evening sacrifice. </p>

<p> Ecclesiastes 11:6 (b) The evening time in the life is the time when the shadows fall, the day's work is ended, sorrows and weakness have come, and hope has faded. We should be as busy serving GOD in the later years as we are in the early years of life. Sometimes the dark times precede the bright times. We read that the evening and the morning were the first day. The darkness preceded the light. (gee also Exodus 16:12; Numbers 9:21). We read in Ezekiel 24:18 "in the evening, my wife died, and in the morning I did as I was commanded." We should not permit sorrow and difficulty to hinder our service. It may be taken also as a picture of the fact that our time on earth is the evening time, followed by the morning in glory, a morning without clouds. </p>

<p> (עֶרֶב, e'reb, e dusk; ἑσπέρα, ὀψία ), the period following sunset, with which the [[Jewish]] day (νυχθήμερον ) began (Genesis 1:5; Mark 13:35). (See [[Day]]). Some writers have argued that the first creative day (Genesis 1:5) is reckoned from the morning, when light first appeared (Genesis 1:3), as if "evening" then designated not a portion of time, but a termination of the first creative period or age; but this does violence to the whole order of the narrative, in which a period of night invariably precedes one of daylight, precisely in accordance with the conventional [[Hebrew]] usage of a νυχθήμερον or "evening-and-morning," and as the terms are expressly defined in the former clause of [[Genesis]] 1:5. If "evening" in the phrase in question be distinguishable from the "night" as a terminus, it is certainly a terminus a quo, as dating the latter from the aboriginal "darkness," Genesis 1:2, and not a terminus ad quem of the ensuing day. (See [[Night]]). </p> <p> The Hebrews appear to have reckoned two evenings in each day; as in the phrase בֵּין עִרְבִּיַם, between the two evenings (Exodus 16:12; Exodus 30:8), by which they designated that part of the day in which the paschal lamb was to be killed (Exodus 12:6; Leviticus 23:5; Numbers 9:3; Numbers 9:5; in the Hebrews and margin); and, at the same time, the evening sacrifice was offered, the lamps lighted, and the incense burned (Exodus 29:39; Exodus 29:41; Numbers 28:4). But the ancients themselves disagreed concerning this usage; for the [[Samaritans]] and [[Caraites]] (comp. Reland, [[De]] Samarit. § 22, in his Diss. Miscell volume 2; Trigland, De Karaeis, chap. iv) understood the time to be that between sunset and twilight, and so Aben Esra at Exodus 12:6, who writes that it was about the third hour (9 o'clock P.M.); the Pharisees, on the other hand, as early as the time of [[Josephus]] (War, 6:9, 3), and the Rabbins (Pesach, 5:3), thought that "the first evening" was that period of the afternoon when the sun is verging towards setting (Gr. δείλη πρωϊ v α ), "the second evening" the precise moment of sunset itself (δείλη ὀψία ), according to which opinion the paschal lamb would bed slaughtered from the ninth to the eleventh hour (3 to 5 o'clock P.M.). The former of these opinions seems preferable on account of the expression in Deuteronomy 16:6, "when the sun goeth down," בְּבוַֹא הִשֶּׁמֶשׁ; and also on account of the similar phraseology among the Arabs (Borhaneddin, Enchiridion Studiosi, 8:36, ed. Caspin, Lips. 1838; Kamus, page 1917; on the contrary, see Pococke, [[Ad]] Carmen Tograi, page 71; [[Talmud]] Hieros. Berach. chapter 1; Babyl. Sabb. 2:346, fol.; Bochart, Hieroz. 1:634, Lips.). (See [[Passover]]). </p>