DAVID, CITY OF (da'vld).
1. The name given by David to the castle of Zion, which lie captured from the lebusites, and in which he dwelt (1 Chron. xi:7). It was on the southwest side of Jerusalem.
2. Bethlehem was called the city of David (Luke hit, t 0, being the birthplace of the king. (Sec BETIILEHENI; JERUSALEM.) DAWN (dan). Sec DAY.
DAY Oa (Hcb. yome ; Gr. in.apa, hay.mer'.
ah).
(1) Civil or Calendar Day. The earliest measure of time on record is the day: 'The evening and the morning were the first day' (Gen. i:5). Here the word 'day' would seem to denote the civil or calendar day of twenty-four hours, including 'the evening,' or natural night, and 'the morning,' or natural day. It is remarkable that in this account the evening,' or natural night, pre cedes the morning,' or day. Hence the Hebrew compound eh'-reb bo'-ker, 'evening-morning,' which is used by Daniel (vii:14) to denote a civil day. In fact, the Jewish civil day began, as it still does, not with the morning, but the evening—thus the Sabbath commences with the sunset of Friday, and ends with the sunset of Saturday.
(In the account of the days of creation we are, however, to understand periods of time. (See CREATION; COSMOGONY.) (2) Inconveniences of Reckoning. The in conveniences resulting from a variable commence ment of the civil day, earlier or later, according to the different seasons of the year, as well as the equally varying duration of the natural day and night, must have been very considerable, and are sensibly felt by Europeans when traveling in the East, where the ancient custom in this matter is still observed. These inconveniences must be less obvious to the people themselves, who know no better system; yet they were apparent to sev eral ancient nations—the Egyptians (Plitt. Hist. ,Vol. ii:77), the Ausonians and others—and in duced them to reckon their civil day from mid night to midnight, as from a fixed invariable point, and this usage has been adapted by most of the modern nations of Europe. We thus real
ize the advantage of having our divisions of the day, the hours, of equal duration, day and night, at all times of the year; whereas among the Orientals the hours and all other divisions of the natural day and night are of constantly vary ing duration, and the divisions of the day vary from those of the night, excepting at the equi noxeS.
(3) Natural Day. The natural day was at first divided into three parts, morning, noon and evening, which are mentioned by David as hours HE tittles of prayer (Ps. Iv :17).
The natural night was also originally divided into three parts, or watches (Ps. lxiii :6; xc The first, or beginning of the watches, is men tioned in Lain. ii :in; the middle watch, in Judg. vii :to, and the morning watch, in Exod. xiv Afterwards the strictness of military discipline among the Greeks and Romans introduced an additional night watch. The second and third watches of the night are mentioned in Luke xii: 3R, and the fourth in Matt. xiv :25. The four arc mentioned together by our Lord in NI ark 35, and described by the terms, 'the late watch :' 'the midnight;' 'the cock-crowing,' and 'the morn ing.' (4) Division of Watches. The precise begin ning and ending of each of the four watches is thus determined : i. ()Nay. 'the bite,' began at sunset and ended with the third hour of the night. including the evening dawn. or twilight. It was also called 'even-tide' (Mark xi it t), or simply 'evening (Jnhn xx :19).
ll'esontikteeon. 'she midnight,' lasted from the third hour till midnight.
3. Alcksoro-phonias. 'the cock-crou•ing,' lasted from midnight till the third hour after, or to the ninth hour of the night. It included the two cock-crowings, with the second of which it ended.
4. Pro-i, 'early,' lasted from the ninth to the twelfth hour of the night, or sunrise, including the morning dawn, or twilight. It was also called 'morning,' or 'morning-tide,' flora being under stood (John xviii :28).