Reference: Night
American
The ancient Hebrews began their artificial day at evening, and ended it the next evening, so that the night proceeded the day. This usage may probably be traced to the terms employed in describing the creation, Ge 1:5,8,13, etc., "The evening and the morning were the first day." The Hebrews allowed twelve to the day; but these hours were not equal, except at the equinox. At other times, when the hours of the night were long, those of the day were short, as in winter; and when the hours of night were short, as at midsummer, the hours of the day were long in proportion. See HOURS.
The nights are sometimes extremely cold in Syria, when the days are very hot; and travelers in the deserts and among the mountains near Palestine refer to their own sufferings from these opposite extremes, in illustration of Jacob's words in Ge 31:40, "In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes."
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Fausets
(See DAY.) Figuratively:
(1) the time of distress (Isa 21:12).
(2) Death, the time when life's day is over (Joh 9:4).
(3) Children of night, i.e. dark deeds, filthiness, which shuns daylight (1Th 5:5).
(4) The present life, compared with the believer's bright life to come (Ro 13:12).
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Hastings
Morish
Used symbolically for:
1. Death, a time "when no man can work." Joh 9:4.
2. The moral darkness of the world, in which men sleep and are drunken. 1Th 5:7.
3. The period of Christ's rejection, which is far spent, and the 'day' at hand. Ro 13:12. There will be no night of moral or spiritual darkness in the heavenly Jerusalem. Re 21:25; 22:5.
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Smith
Night.
[DAY]
See Day
Watsons
NIGHT. The ancient Hebrews began their artificial day in the evening, and ended it the next evening; so that the night preceded the day, whence it is said, "evening and morning one day," Ge 1:5. They allowed twelve hours to the night, and twelve to the day. Night is put for a time of affliction and adversity: "Thou hast proved mine heart, thou hast visited me in the night, thou hast tried me," Ps 17:3; that is, by adversity and tribulation. And "the morning cometh, and also the night," Isa 21:12. Night is also put for the time of death: "The night cometh, wherein no man can work," Joh 9:4. Children of the day, and children of the night, in a moral and figurative sense, denote good men and wicked men, Christians and Gentiles. The disciples of the Son of God are children of light: they belong to the light, they walk in the light of truth; while the children of the night walk in the darkness of ignorance and infidelity, and perform only works of darkness. "Ye are all the children of the light, and the children of the day; we are not of the night, nor of darkness," 1Th 5:5.