Few words in the Bible have more mountains of paper written about them than this little word – the word “even”. It has been hopelessly cluttered up with opinions, pet doctrines, and traditions of men. But it’s really very simple to understand – but like most truth, you have to rely on the Bible alone to explain it. See, practically the entire world today believes that the evening sacrifice was held at 3pm and the morning sacrifice was at 9am. They believe this because this is the opinion held by Orthodox Jews and some of the ancient historians. However, that doesn’t necessarily make it true.

Now mind you, I have nothing against the Jews specifically, but they are men just like you and I are – and they have just as good a chance of being wrong as you or I do. We can trust, really TRUST, only one thing – the Bible. Anything someone said about it, or about history surrounding it, was written by men and not inspired by God and therefore cannot be trusted. This goes for everyone from myself to men like Eusebius, Josephus, Plutarch, Homer, and Aben Ezra. Their word can be trusted only where it agrees with the Bible. And their words can only be used to battle each other – but never to battle the Bible.

So despite the fact that the prevailing Jewish traditions (which are, again, traditions of men, and therefore not necessarily correct) state that the word “evening” means a vague section of time between noon and 6pm, YOU need to prove it FOR YOURSELF from the Bible. If that’s what God intended, it’ll be in the Bible. If it’s not, you’ll find something else there. And then you’ll have to decide whether to believe what you see there or not.

If you search the scriptures from end to end you will not find one that states that the morning sacrifice was at 9am or the evening was at 3pm. It just isn’t there. Certain Jewish sources I’ll mention later have it, but it is flatly not in the Bible. Now, I for one am cautious about believing anything not written or even implied by the Bible. I might ultimately believe it, but only after a massive amount of study to see if it is in line with what the Bible said. And even 2000 years ago, Paul cautioned us not to take the Jewish fables as if they were scripture… in fact, not to listen to the fables, or trust them, at all!

Titus 1:14 NOT GIVING HEED TO JEWISH FABLES, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.

So if the Jews are right about something (as can be proved from the Bible) great! If not, we need to know!

WHEN IS THE EVEN AND MORNING?

“at even” comes from the word ereb. According to the concordance, it means “evening, night, sunset”. This word ereb comes from a root word arab which means “evening” or “darkened”. Ereb is translated as “Arabia” in two places in the King James, (1 Kings 10:15 and Jeremiah 25:24 where it is translated as “mingled people”, clearly referring to the Arabs in the same verse) while “arab” (a nearly identical Hebrew word) is always translated “Arabia”. The logic for that would seem to be that the Arabs are a darkskinned people – partly by race, and partly by constant exposure to the harsh desert elements.

So from the basis of what we know about the word itself, we can only conclude that it means “darkness”. And no connection whatsoever to midafternoon – just plain darkness, or as it’s most often translated in the KJV, even, evening, dusk, twilight, night, etc.

The word translated “morning” comes from the Hebrew boqer, meaning (according to the concordance) “morning, break of day, of end of night, of coming of daylight, of coming of sunrise, of beginning of day, etc” Again none of these indicate 9am, but rather dawn, which idealistically falls at 6am.

Genesis 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening [ereb] and the morning [boqer] were the first day.

That by itself should be enough to settle this issue, but for some reason people just read right over it and pretend it isn’t there. But it IS! In the beginning, there was darkness (first half of Genesis 1:2). God calls this the evening, because ereb MEANS darkness!

This was the beginning of the first day, before light existed as far as Earth was concerned. God thought, waited, or worked for 12 hours (last half of verse 2).Then He created light (verse 3). This was the morning – the beginning of the light.

What verse 5 literally says is that “the ereb and the boqer were the first day” … the darkness – and then the light – were the first day. The beginning portion of this darkness was the ereb – evening – and the beginning portion of the light part was boqer – morning.

Put simply, one ereb plus one boqer equals one day. Remember that! This is plain Bible here, not a complicated, obscure scripture! There are no other erebs or boqers mentioned – just one of each! And this cycle of one dark portion and one light portion COMPLETED the first day, and this is repeated for each day of creation week.

So this should be more than enough proof of when the evening is… it BEGINS the day, it does NOT end it! Regardless, this is a subject where a lot of people have spent a great deal of thought working clever ways around these obvious scriptures. So now let’s look at some scriptural examples of events where evening (ereb) and morning (boqer) can only happen at or very near sundown and dawn, respectively.

Numbers 9:15 And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testimony: and AT EVEN there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, UNTIL THE MORNING. So it was alway: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.

Clearly God wouldn’t have started sometime around the hottest part of midafternoon, when it was still bright, three hours before sundown, with a pillar of fire so that the people could see!

Exodus 13:21 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, TO GIVE THEM LIGHT; to go by day and night:

The fire came BY NIGHT – and it started “AT EVEN” (ereb), TO GIVE THEM LIGHT! And so it started at SUNDOWN, because that was when they needed the light to start! And in the morning, they no longer needed the light, they needed a cloud to shade them from the sun! So at morning (boqer) the cloud took over the job to provide them with shade!

Waiting until 9am to start bringing cloud cover over would be silly; particularly when God goes on to say that the cloud covered it “by day” and the fire “by night”. It requires doing great violence to scripture to say that that is anything but a cloud from dawn to dusk and a fire from sundown to sunrise!

2 Kings 3:22-23 And they rose up early in the morning, and the sun shone upon the water, and the Moabites saw the water on the other side as red as blood: And they said, This is blood: the kings are surely slain…

God had instructed Israel to dig ditches, and then caused water to flow into them miraculously and as it says here, early in the morning, “boqer” they looked at the water in the ditches and mistook it for blood. If you’ve ever been near water surfaces at dawn you know how soon after dawn you must see it for it to look red. The sun appears red because it has to pass through more of the atmosphere which scatters the shorter blue wavelengths, especially if there is dust or pollution in the air. The sun quickly rises above the majority of the dust and appears a normal yellow-white. For them to have seen the reflection of the sun appear red “early” in the morning, they must have been looking at it just after sunrise, probably no more than 45 minutes after dawn. Certainly long before 9am, which is the traditional “definition” for the Hebrew “boqer”/morning.

But there is more! For if I back up just two verses, we see a CONCRETE proof of when the morning sacrifice was kept!

2 Kings 3:20 And it came to pass in the morning, when the meat offering was offered, that, behold, there came water by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water.

Notice! The water came in the morning, at the SAME TIME that the meat offering – the morning sacrifice – was offered! This is when it BEGAN to flow into the ditches! Then the Moabites woke up, mustered their troops, put on their armor (verse 21) and THEN…

Verse 22 And they rose up EARLY in the morning, and the sun shone upon the water, and the Moabites saw the water on the other side as red as blood:

So the meat offering happened when the water STARTED to flow, then it filled up the ditches while the Moabites were waking up and getting their ENORMOUS army in a pile, and by the time that was done it was STILL early enough that the sun was so low in the sky you could see the water “red as blood”! And the morning sacrifice happened before ALL of that, and so MUST have happened at the crack of dawn! And nowhere NEAR 9am!

THE EVENING

Joshua 8:29 And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until eventide: and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcase down from the tree, and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city, and raise thereon a great heap of stones, that remaineth unto this day.

“Eventide” here is from ereb. And so until ereb happened, the king of Ai was hanging on a tree. Then AT (or immediately after) ereb, which this verse SPECIFICALLY says is when the sun had JUST set, he was cut down! It says he was hanged UNTIL ereb and as SOON as the sun was down (at ereb!) he was cut down! This cannot be read to mean anything BUT that ereb equals sundown – which fits perfectly with the definition of “dusk, twilight, darkness”!

Zechariah 14:7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.

In this prophetic verse it says that in the future it will be light AT EVENING TIME! It says this because now, it is NOT light in the evening, because evening MEANS darkness!

Psalms 104:23 Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.

In every agriculturally based society in the world, men work until sundown – perhaps just a touch after. And the Bible says that men work until ereb. Evening means “darkness”.

Jeremiah 6:4 Prepare ye war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.

Some would use this verse to say that evening is before sundown; but that isn’t what it says. It says the shadows OF evening – not evening itself – are stretched out. That the shadows of darkness (the Hebrew ereb again), that stretch out BEFORE the darkness, have arrived. It doesn’t say that evening is in midafternoon! At 3pm, shadows are not stretched out! See for yourself – look out your window three hours before sundown around one of the equinoxes. The shadows are just starting to decline – but could hardly be called “stretched out”. And the definition for “even” didn’t change in the new testament, either!

Mark 1:32 And at EVEN, when the SUN DID SET, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils.

Evening happens WHEN THE SUN SETS! Because evening BEGINS every day, as it began the FIRST day! Because evening means DARKNESS! Looking through those scriptures, there can be only one conclusion from anyone who is honest with the Bible.

Evening means sundown – the period when the sun just dips below the horizon. Because of trees and hills this period is always going to be slightly flexible over a matter of a few minutes. There is no indication in the entire Bible that “even” means 3pm or that the Levites offered the “ereb” sacrifice at 3pm. And there is every indication that it was in fact, at sunset. The natural breaking point of the day, which God set up in Genesis 1:5. And the evening – this period at the setting of the sun – begins the new day.

Psalms 141:2 Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening (“ereb”, “darkess”, or “sundown”) sacrifice.

And finally, the scripture that most often raises this issue in the first place:

Deuteronomy 16:4-6 … neither shall there any thing of the flesh, which thou sacrificedst the first day at EVEN, remain all night until the morning. … there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at EVEN, at the going down of the sun, …

READ this scripture for what it says! Compare it to the other verses you’ve read here! Evening is AT the going down of the sun! Not BEFORE it, but AFTER it, according to Joshua 8:29!

In light of this study, there is no other conclusion than that “even” is the period at the setting of the sun, beginning the first part of the day mentioned (the 14^th of the first month) and the passover is to be offered shortly after that “even”, in the “darkness”, which is all “ereb” really means in the first place. For a few more scriptures you can read Mark 13:35, Proverbs 7:9, Deuteronomy 28:67, Job 7:4, and 2 Samuel 1:12.

BETWEEN THE EVENINGS

However, while that should settle it, there is another point that must be addressed. Although most scriptures that refer to the evening use the word ereb, there are 12 that do not. Most of them are referring to the passover. These verses use the Hebrew phrase ben ha arbayim. There are many ways of spelling it in English, but that’s one of the most common. The KJV generally translates this as twilight, or evening, and literal translations such as Young’s render it as “between the evenings”.

Ben means essentially “between”, a simple distinction clause. The word ha just means “the”. Pretty much everyone agrees on that. Arbayim would look more familiar to you if I spelled it erebim which is equally correct. It is just the word ereb with an “im” tacked onto the end of it. “Im” is a suffix which denotes a dual number. It is a special case for a plural that only consists of two items. So the literal translation is correct – ben ha arbayim literally means “between the two evenings”. So why is that confusing? It isn’t. IF you ask the Bible what it means! But if you start dusting off your commentaries, and check up on what the historians have to say about what it means, it will be!

As you saw in the first section, ereb means, in EVERY case, “darkness”. So between TWO erebs would mean between two DARKNESSES. “Apple” will still mean “apple”, even if you have two or two hundred of them!

Now orthodox Jewish tradition states that the first evening was at noon, and the second evening was at sunset. Does that make sense, from a Biblical standpoint? You have a Bible. You read some scriptures in the first part of this paper, and if you’re diligent you’ll have read all the others in your Bible by now. Have you found ONE – just ONE that says that the first evening is at noon? Or even hints at it? I know that you haven’t, for there isn’t one. God defined the evening in Genesis 1:5 as the beginning of the darkness, and NEVER CHANGED OR MODIFIED THAT DEFINITION!

And God would not call high noon a “dark”, one of the “two” evenings. He would call it noon or midday, words that exist in Hebrew and which He frequently used! God would not call 3pm “dark, dusk, or twilight”, because at 3pm it is not remotely DARK or DUSKY, nor does it look like TWILIGHT! To be between two evenings – based on the meaning of the Hebrew word, not what you might want it to mean – means to be between two periods of darkness and high noon is the OPPOSITE of darkness, as is 3pm!

But let’s not take my word for it by any means. Exodus 12:6 is the first scripture that uses this phrase. A variety of translations are quoted below to see what all these unrelated translators felt this phrase meant:

Exodus 12:6 (KJV) … kill it [the passover] in the evening.

BBE ... put it to death between sundown and dark.

NASB and NKJV … kill it at twilight

Lamsa …kill it at sunset.

New English Bible and Moffatt …between sunset and dark.

New Jerusalem Bible …slaughter it at twilight.

All other versions are similar, or simply render it as “evening”, or “between two evenings”. Someone with no religious background who picked up a Bible, with access to a Strong’s concordance and dictionary, would undoubtedly come to the conclusion that “between two darks” could only mean between sunset and complete darkness – in other words, the first dark is when the sun disappears and it becomes … dark. The second dark is when the sun provides no light and it becomes… REALLY dark. This is logical and it fits the Bible and all the scriptures – as well as all the translations.

The only reason people say otherwise is because of Jewish traditions. If you don’t believe me, talk to someone who believes otherwise and sooner or later you’ll hear traditions quoted. Find out HOW they know the morning/evening sacrifices were at 9am/3pm respectively. They “know” it because it’s what Jewish traditions and and histories say – all of which are post-Babylonian, and most of which are post-Christ.

So since it is from the Jews that this idea originated, let’s see how THEY translate this verse! In the Jewish Publication Society of America (Old Translation), ben ha arbayim is translated EVERY SINGLE TIME as “dusk”! The new Tanakh translation translates it as “at twilight”!

Even THEY feel this “Ben Ha Arbayim” means dusk/dark/twilight, NOT sometime after noon and before six! But they reject that clear meaning so that they can keep their traditions! Because their traditions are more important than what THEY KNOW God said!

Mark 7:9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.

But just in case you are under the impression that all Jews agree about when the lambs were sacrificed, I will now quote from extra-biblical sources. As I said up front, they cannot be used to interpret the Bible, but they CAN be used to shoot down one another!

“In Jewish orthodoxy the time of the slaughter, between the two evenings, is specified as in the afternoon, before sunset; especially, the time approaching sunset. The Mishnah implies that any time after noon was valid for the slaying (Pesahim 5:3). SAMARITANS, KARAITES, and SADDUCEES specify the time as AFTER SUNSET AND BEFORE DARKNESS. The latter probably designates the more archaic practice.” (Interpreter’s Bible)

And are we not after “the more archaic practice” – The one God gave Moses, not the one the Jews brought back from Babylon?

“Aid to Bible Study” in the article “Passover” page 1273, says: “The Israelites measured their day from sundown to sundown. So Passover day would begin at sundown at the end of the thirteenth day of Abid (Nisan).The animal was to be slaughtered ‘between the two evenings’ (Ex.12:6).There are differences of opinion as to the exact time meant. According to some authorities, as well as the Karaite Jews and the Samaritans, this is the time between sunset and deep twilight.”

“The Pharisees and Rabbinists considered it otherwise…….On this point Professors Keiland Delitzsch say: ‘Different opinions have prevailed among the Jews from very early date as to the precise time intended. Aben Ezra agrees with the Karaites and Samaritans in taking the first evening to be the time when the sun sinks below the horizon, and the second the time of total darkness; in which case, between the two evenings, would be from 6 o’clock to 7.20……According to the rabbinical idea, the time when the sun began to descend, viz. from 3 to 5 o’clock, was the first evening, and sunset the second; so that, between the two evenings, was from 3 to 6 o’clock. Modern expositors have very properly decided in favor of the view held by Aben Ezra and the custom adopted by the Karaites and Samaritans…….”

Nelson’s Dictionary and Vine’s say “The phrase ‘between the two evenings’ means the period between sunset and darkness; twilight” (Exodus 12:6; KJV, ‘in the evening’).

Theological Workbook of the Old Testament says: “The Passover began on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month (see Ex. 12:6, 18). Sometimes, as in Ex 12:6, the Hebrew reads literally, ‘between the two evenings,’ likely ‘twilight,’ the time interval between sunset and darkness in which there is a state of illumination…”

So clearly, the scholarly work BASED ON THE BIBLE always comes to this conclusion. The scholarly work that takes into account Jewish tradition ALWAYS comes to the other conclusion. So which will you believe? Clear simple scripture, or Jewish fables – (probably the very SAME Jewish fables!) – that Paul was warning us about?

TWO OBJECTIONS

But no matter how much proof there is, there are two scriptures that people will show you that might change your mind – if you’re not paying attention!

The first one involves Elijah; he had that big shindig with the priests of Baal – you remember, mocking them, challenging them to offer a sacrifice to their god, and then picking on them when he didn’t answer them.

1 Kings 18:29 And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.

And when you read the events that happened between this time and sundown, there seems to be no way to fit them in – which they claim is proof that the “evening sacrifice” was offered at 3pm. And I am APPALLED that people still use this argument in nearly every paper on the subject! Because the phrase “evening sacrifice” IS NOT EVEN IN THE VERSE!

Yes, I know it’s in the verse I just quoted you – but if you’ll look in your own Bible, you’ll see that the word “evening” is in italics – it was ADDED by the translators – it IS NOT in the original! Other translations say, for instance:

1 Kings 18:29 (BBE) And from the middle of the day they went on with their prayers till the time of the offering; but there was no voice, or any answer, or any who gave attention to them.

The Hebrew does not use the word ereb OR ANY OTHER WORD that means “evening”! Translators COMPLETELY made it up! Now what happened was this: Baal was the sun god and his services were held so that their climax was reached at noon, when Baal was strongest. So Elijah gave them the opportunity to go first, and do all their rituals, before He began to prepare his sacrifice! (verse 25).

Then, AFTER their offering at noon, Elijah started to prepare his own sacrifice – but he STARTED mind you – He had been letting them have their fair shot before he did anything! (Verses 30-35)

And then when he was ready to make his offering – which was a special event, not a ritual evening sacrifice – he started HIS offering… and at the time of THAT offering…

Verse 36 (BBE) Then at the time of the offering, Elijah the prophet came near and said, O Lord, … let it be seen this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant,…

And until the time of Elijah’s offering, DURING ALL THIS TIME THE PRIESTS OF BAAL WERE STILL TRYING TO GET BAAL TO HEAR THEM!

Verse 29 (BBE) And from the middle of the day they went on with their prayers till the time of the offering; but there was no voice, or any answer, or any who gave attention to them.

Baal’s priests KNEW their lives were on the line, and you can bet that they didn’t give up trying until the last dog was hung – so to speak! And this scripture just says that until Elijah’s offering was offered, they kept praying, begging Baal to hear them!

And no matter HOW you look at it, you just CAN’T use this to prove ANYTHING about the evening sacrifice, because the word “evening” ISN’T EVEN USED!

Another objection is in Leviticus 23:32. This one is more reasonable, because it really looks odd at first reading…

Leviticus 23:32 It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath

This is about atonement, and it seems to say that from the evening on the ninth day, until the evening of the tenth day, you celebrate atonement. Since we know that atonement is the tenth day from verse 27, this would seem to indicate that the evening ENDS the day, and doesn’t begin it. But the first rule of Bible study is that CLEAR scripture interprets vague scripture! Genesis 1:5 is CLEAR – the evening BEGAN the day, it never once, THROUGHOUT THE BIBLE, ENDED IT!

So what does this mean? Looking at the awkward part in the original Hebrew, it literally says… “ninth month even even until even”. Does that say that the evening ends the day to you? It can say a lot of different things, depending on the little words that translators have to add. Hebrew is something of a minimalist language – it doesn’t have the nice little words – like of, in, the, to, from, into, on – laid out simply like they are in English. Conjunctions have to be left to the context and if the context doesn’t tell you, you’re often out of luck.

“ninth month even even until even” CAN say that “in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even”, like the KJV says; but to do that they have to add SEVEN words that aren’t in the original! This is typical for a verse out of Hebrew, but it shows that a lot of interpretations can be read into a given set of words.

You could just as easily translate that verse “FROM the ninth day of the month (I.E., when it is FINISHED, which happens at even), from that even until the next even”. You might even go so far as to say “AFTER the ninth day of the month, at even…”. It could also be translated a dozen other ways, but these fit Genesis 1:5 best. If you believe that this means that the evening ENDS the day, then you have to throw out Genesis 1:5 altogether, for it is NOT a vague verse, and it CAN’T be read several different ways!

At the risk of repeating myself, this is a complicated, vague verse. Genesis 1:5, Joshua 8:29, and the others, are not! One vague verse cannot trump the entire Bible – unless YOU have a pet idea to prove!

MORE EXAMPLES

But I’m not done yet! There is one FINAL example that is absolutely conclusive. God gave the Israelites quail “between the evenings” in Exodus 16. Now we know that the quails did NOT arrive on a Sabbath, because people were stoned in the Bible for even picking up sticks to kindle a fire on the Sabbath (Numbers 15:32-36)! And God was VERY angry that they left their tents to pick up Manna on the Sabbath (Exodus 16:27-28).

So we can be absolutely positive that God did not send quails at any time between Friday night at sundown to Saturday night at sundown. There is no way on Earth that God intended for them to catch, butcher, pluck, clean, gather sticks (a capital sin!), build a fire (also a capital sin!), prepare them, roast them and eat them on the Sabbath day. It just didn’t happen!

Exodus 16:4-5, 23 Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, …ON THE SIXTH DAY they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. … And he said unto them, … To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.

This was said on an unspecified day. But we can prove which day it was! We know that Manna was to start falling the next day (verses 12-13), and continue to fall for SIX DAYS! And then the SEVENTH day would be the Sabbath!

If there was SIX Days of manna, and THEN a Sabbath, then the day before the Manna fell had to be a SABBATH AS WELL! So knowing that exactly one week later was a Sabbath, we can be absolutely certain that Moses was speaking to the Israelites on the Sabbath!

This gives us an absolute window, setting the arrival of the quails at some point from the Sabbath day to the Sunday morning following it! And in that time frame God said…

Exodus 16:12-13 I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even <Ben Ha Arbayim –Between the two darks> ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God. And it came to pass, that at even <Ereb – dark> the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay roundabout the host. <and they found Manna>

There is absolutely no way God caused those people to break the Sabbath by giving him those quails between 12 and 6pm on Sabbath day, between the two traditional Jewish evenings!

Besides that, ereb – which pretty much EVERYONE says means “dusk” happens BEFORE the two evenings do! For at DUSK – Ereb – the quails came up, and BETWEEN the two erebs – between the two darks THEY ATE THEM! They CANNOT eat quail before they arrive! And so EREB HAD TO PRECEDE BEN HA ARBAYIM, which Jewish tradition says is impossible! But which agrees PERFECTLY with the BIBLE definition of ereb as given in Genesis 1!

Furthermore, the quail COULD NOT have arrived on the Sabbath day, when even MANNA never fell or was prepared or gathered on the Sabbath day – and it was much easier to prepare than live quail!! Which means that the “even” when the quail arrived had to be AFTER the Sabbath was over – and yet before the Manna fell Sunday morning! Which means that both EREB and BEN HA ARBAYIM HAD TO BE AFTER DARK ON SATURDAY NIGHT!

And the quails CAME to the camp BEFORE the two evenings – or rather, at the FIRST of the two evenings, sunset – and BETWEEN the two evenings they caught, killed, prepared, roasted and ate them – in the roughly 90 minute period that comprises sunset to total darkness, which is the literal meaning of Ben Ha Arbayim in the FIRST place!

And then they ATE them before total darkness set in – in EXACTLY the same way as the Passover lamb was killed at “even” and sacrificed “between the two evenings!”