Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 7:9
In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:
9. black and dark night ] Lit. in the pupil (of the eye) of the night, and the darkness. The Heb. word for pupil is the same as that rendered apple (of thine eye), Pro 7:2. It is used again poetically, as here, in Pro 20:20, in the blackest darkness, R.V. lit. in the pupil (of the eye) of darkness.
The short twilight of those latitudes is quickly followed by the blackness of night: which things are here perchance an allegory.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 9. In the twilight, in the evening] Some time after sun-setting; before it was quite dark.
In the black and dark night] When there were neither lamps nor moon-shine.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In the evening; when the day labour being ended, he was at leisure for any thing; and when such strumpets used to walk abroad for prey.
In the black and dark night; when it begun to be black and dark.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. The time, twilight, ending indarkness.
black . . . nightliterally,”pupil,” or, “eye,” that is, middle of night.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night. Which is the usual time adulterers take to commit their works of darkness in, by which they think to conceal them; they being such as they themselves do not care should be seen and known, Job 24:15; their works will not bear the sun and daylight, therefore they take the twilight and when the sun is set; and choose the night, and not light nights neither, but the blackest and darkest nights, as fittest for their purpose; most likely to meet with harlots, and less liable to be seen by their neighbours; but always to be seen by the omniscient God, with whom the darkness and the light are both alike. Perhaps these several words may express the time from the young man’s first setting out to his drawing nigh to the harlot’s house, and his being attacked and ensnared by her; when he first set out from his own or his father’s house, it was “twilight”, the sun was declining; by that time he had got good part of his way the sun set, and then it was “evening”; and when he came near the harlot’s house it was “black [and] dark night”: and this may represent the gradual and progressive growth of Popery; there was first a “twilight”, a decline of the purity of Gospel light and knowledge, and then the sun of the Gospel set, which brought on an “evening”, and issued in the gross “darkness” of Popery, represented by the Thyatirian church state, as before observed; since that, the “morning star” of the Reformation has appeared, but this is become obscure, we are in a twilight again; it is neither day nor night with us as yet, but a dark black night is hastening on; and it is easy to observe how many, like this foolish young man, are marching on in a stately manner to the harlot’s house, or are verging to Popery, whether they design it or not.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(9) In the twilight . . .He has no excuse of sudden temptation to offer; from twilight till dark night he had trifled with danger, and now at last his calamity comes (Pro. 6:15).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. In the twilight dark night A difficult verse, on account of the seeming contrariety of terms. On the one hand, twilight, evening; on the other, the black and dark night, literally, the pupil of the eye of night midnight. (See Pro 20:20, and note there.) The critics pass it over lightly, explaining terms, but doing little to reconcile them. Perhaps the terms may indicate progression. The scene begins in the evening, but continues into the darkness of midnight. Zockler says, “ , ( nesheph,) rendered ‘ twilight,’ strictly means the later period of evening darkness, from nine till twelve.” (See Job 7:4; Job 24:15.) The sense of the word is, however, indefinite. Another suggestion: we may understand the teacher thus: “This we may imagine to have occurred either in the twilight of the evening, or in the thick darkness of the night.” “In the twilight, in the evening, when the night began to be black and dark.” Geneva Bible.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Pro 7:9. In the twilight, &c. Or, In the twilight, in the close of the day; when night and darkness were yet in embryo, or just beginning.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 7:9 In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:
Ver. 9. In the black and dark night. ] Thinking to obscure himself; but Solomon saw him, how much more God, cui obscura patent, muta respondent, silentium confitetur, before whom night will convert itself into noon, and silence prove a speaking evidence. Foolish men think to hide themselves from God, by hiding God from themselves. See Psa 139:11-12 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
twilight = darkness. A Homonym. See note on 1Sa 30:17.
evening = evening of the day.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the twilight: Gen 39:11, Job 24:13-15, Rom 13:12-14, Eph 5:11
evening: Heb. evening of the day, Exo 12:6, *marg.
Reciprocal: Job 24:15 – eye
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
7:9 In the twilight, in the evening, in the {c} black and dark night:
(c) He shows that there was almost no one so impudent that they were not afraid to be seen, their consciences accusing them and causing them to seek the night to cover their filthiness.