Basic HTML Version
%
(
0
, 7093), “end.” A cognate of this word occurs in Ugaritic. Biblical Hebrew
attests
%
about 66 times and in every period.
First, the word is used to denote the “end of a person” or “death”: “And God said unto
Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me …” (Gen. 6:13). In Ps. 39:4,
%
speaks of
the “farthest extremity of human life,” in the sense of how short it is: “Lord, make me to
know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.”
Second,
%
means “end” as the state of “being annihilated”: “He setteth an end to
darkness, and searcheth out all perfection …” (Job 28:3).
Third, related to the previous meaning but quite distinct, is the connotation “farthest
extremity of,” such as the “end of a given period of time”: “And after certain years
[literally, “at the end of years”] he went down to Ahab to Samaria …” (2 Chron. 18:2; cf.
Gen. 4:3—the first biblical appearance).
A fourth nuance emphasizes a “designated goal,” not simply the extremity but a
conclusion toward which something proceeds: “For the vision is yet for an appointed
time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie …” (Hab. 2:3).
In another emphasis,
%
represents the “boundary” or “limit” of something: “I have
seen an end of all perfection” (Ps. 119:96).
In 2 Kings 19:23, the word (with the preposition ) means “farthest”: “… And I will
enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel.”
%
(
, 7097), “end; border; extremity.” The noun
%
appears 92 times and
in all periods of biblical Hebrew.
In Gen. 23:9,
%
means “end” in the sense of “extremity”: “That he may give me
the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field.…” The word
means "[nearest] edge or border” in Exod. 13:20: “And they took their journey from
Succoth, and encamped in the Etham, in the edge of the wilderness.” At other points, the
word clearly indicates the “farthest extremity”: “If any of thine be driven out unto the
outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence
will he fetch thee” (Deut. 30:4).
Second,
%
can signify a “temporal end,” such as the “end of a period of time”;
that is the use in Gen. 8:3, the first biblical occurrence of the word: “… After the end of
the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.”
One special use of
%
occurs in Gen. 47:2, where the word is used with the
preposition
(“from”): “And from among his brothers he took five men and presented
them to Pharaoh” (
RSV
; cf. Ezek. 33:2). In Gen. 19:4, the same construction means “from
every quarter (or “part”) of a city”: “… The men of the city, even the men of Sodom,
compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter.” A
similar usage occurs in Gen. 47:21, except that the phrase is repeated twice and is
rendered “from one end of the borders of Egypt to the other.” In Jer. 51:31, the phrase
means “in every quarter” or “completely.”
%
(
, 7098), “end; border; edge; extremity.” The noun
%
appears in the
Bible 28 times and also appears in Phoenician. This word refers primarily to concrete