And David smote them from the twilight even unto the
evening
of the next day
As there are two twilights, the twilight of the morning, and the
twilight of the evening; this is differently understood some take
it for the twilight of the morning, and that it was night when
David came to them, and let them alone till they were drunk and
asleep, and then early in the morning fell upon them, and smote
them until the evening; so Josephus F19 relates it; but others
take it to be the twilight of the evening, and that he fell upon
them that night, and continued the slaughter of them to the
evening of the next day, with which agrees the Targum; nay, some
take the next day, or the morrow, to be that which followed after
the two evenings; so that this slaughter was carried on to the
third day:
and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred
young men that
rode upon camels, and fled;
that sort of camels called dromedaries, according to Josephus
F20, and which were very swift, and
much used by the Arabians, near whom these people dwelt, see (
Isaiah 60:6 )
( Jeremiah
2:23 ) .
F19 Antiqu. l. 6. c. 4. sect. 6.
F20 Ibid.