Judges 19 and the Definition of Evening

Judges 19 recounts an event that I've never liked reading, and I'm sure many others can say the same. Nevertheless, Judges 19:8-9 helps to define the meaning of evening for us.

Here's the passage, as it's translated in the New King James Version:

"Then he arose early in the morning on the fifth day to depart, but the young woman’s father said, 'Please refresh your heart.' So they delayed until afternoon; and both of them ate. And when the man stood to depart — he and his concubine and his servant — his father-in-law, the young woman’s father, said to him, 'Look, the day is now drawing toward evening; please spend the night. See, the day is coming to an end; lodge here, that your heart may be merry. Tomorrow go your way early, so that you may get home.'"

I've highlighted the three phrases I want to focus on in this post. These phrases, as rendered in the NKJV, fall into the category of interpretation rather than literal translation.

Now, I don't pretend to be a Hebrew scholar, and, like most of you, I must rely on lexicons, translation aids, and literal translations of the Bible to understand the Bible's original languages. Nevertheless, this is an instructive exercise.

As noted previously in other posts and also in The Lord's Passover, "afternoon" is the Hebrew phrase natot hayom נטות היום (Strong's #H5681 and H3117), which means "the stretching out of the day."

As for "the day is now drawing toward evening," the Hebrew phrase here is rafa hayom l'erev רפה היום לערב (Strong's # H7503, H3117, and H6150). It literally means, "the day falls to evening," or, "the day has fallen to evening."

Finally, "the day is coming to an end" is, in Hebrew, khanot hayom חנות היום (Strong's # H2583 and H3117), which means "the day declines," "the day bows down," or even "the day encamps."

Taking these phrases together, the people in this account delayed until the stretching out of the day (or the shadows began to stretch out), as the day fell to evening, as the sun declined in the sky.

These expressions in Judges 19 are almost word for word the same as Jer. 6:4, where we read, "Prepare war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe to us, for the day goes away, for the shadows of the evening are lengthening."

In other words, once midday has passed, the sun begins to decline in the sky. It continually gets lower, as the heat of the day passes and evening comes. The evening shadows continually lengthen until sunset, when the day officially ends. Hence, "the day goes away, for the shadows of the evening are lengthening."

It must be noted that evening is still during the day, well before sunset, or there would be no lengthening shadows.

It's not too much different from modern usage. Many people sit down to watch the evening news on TV at 5:00 PM or 6:00 PM, and during most of the year this is well before sunset.

Judges 19 and Jeremiah 6, especially put together, show us that evening can be long before sunset, as do many other Bible verses. As explained in greater detail in The Lord's Passover, this is the first evening. The second evening happens after sunset, and marks the beginning of a new day. When the Bible uses the phrase "between the two evenings," these are those two evenings.