Proverbs 7:9

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 Proverbs 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, “ נשׁ Š, ( 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.