But not all of us are familiar with what happened at the beginning of that week (i.e., the preceding Sabbath); and that is shown in verses 12 and 13.
We have two different events taking place here. One is going to take place at twilight of one day, and then the next morning there is going to be a second event. The second event was the one that we have already covered here—that of the manna.
God waited until ba erev (sunset) before He sent the quail. Otherwise to do so, it would have tempted His people to sin—through the capturing, the cleaning, the roasting, and then the eating of the quail. He had just said, "That they would eat—not catch, not capture, not roast—but that they would be eating at twilight." Twilight there is ben ha arbayim. God sent the quail at ba erev (sunset). Then they captured the quail, and ate the quail, at ben ha arbayim. That is very clear.
Ben ha arbayim follows sunset. Twilight follows sunset. And every day actually begins with approximately a one-hour period of light. Ba erev is only a 3 or 5 minute period—during which the sun appears to hit the horizon, and then sinks below the horizon, and disappears. But it is still light for about another hour, or hour and a half—depending upon what time of the year it is. It is in that period of time of waning light (twilight, dusk, ben ha arbayim) that the people were to kill, gather, clean, and then roast the quail.
By comparing that with Exodus 16:12-13, it makes it very clear that ben ha arbayim ("twilight," "dusk," "between the two evenings") occurs AFTER ba erev—not before. It occurs after ba erev.
Ben ha arbayim consists of that period of light that is gradually diminishing into darkness. It begins with a period of light (in which there is still a great deal of light). It lasts about one hour in the spring. It lasts about an hour-and-a-half by the time we get to June 21st, and then gradually diminishes again as we go back to December 21st, and then it is slightly less than an hour.
Boqer is in many ways similar to ben ha arbayim, only it is on the other end of the night period. Boqer begins at the first crack of dawn, when light begins to appear in the eastern sky. We will not go to Exodus 16. But (again, by Hebrew usage at the time that this thing was occurring) that chapter makes it very clear that boqer continued through the morning until it was warm enough to be considered hot. That would be at least mid-morning and maybe late morning (by their own usage). That makes it very clear.
