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the first day” (Gen. 1:5). The phrase “between the evenings” means the period between
sunset and darkness, “twilight” (Exod. 12:6;
KJV
, “in the evening”).
Second, in a late poetical use, the word can mean “night”: “When I lie down, I say,
When shall I arise, and the
be gone? And I am full of tossings to and fro unto the
dawning of the day” (Job 7:4).
EVER, EVERLASTING
(
, 5769), “eternity; remotest time; perpetuity.” This word has cognates in
Ugaritic, Moabite, Phoenician, Aramaic, Arabic, and Akkadian. It appears about 440
times in biblical Hebrew and in all periods.
First, in a few passages the word means “eternity” in the sense of not being limited to
the present. Thus, in Eccl. 3:11 we read that God had bound man to time and given him
the capacity to live “above time” (i.e., to remember yesterday, plan for tomorrow, and
consider abstract principles); yet He has not given him divine knowledge: “He hath made
every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man
can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.”
Second, the word signifies “remotest time” or “remote time.” In 1 Chron. 16:36, God
is described as blessed “from everlasting to everlasting” (
KJV
, “for ever and ever”), or
from the most distant past time to the most distant future time. In passages where God is
viewed as the One Who existed before the creation was brought into existence,
(or
) may mean: (1) “at the very beginning”: “Remember the former things [the
beginning things at the very beginning] of old: for I am God, and there is none else …”
(Isa. 46:9); or (2) “from eternity, from the pre-creation, till now”: “Remember, O Lord,
thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old [from
eternity]” (Ps. 25:6). In other passages, the word means “from (in) olden times”: “…
Mighty men which were of old, men of renown” (Gen. 6:4). In Isa. 42:14, the word is
used hyperbolically meaning “for a long time”: “I have long time holden my peace; I
have been still, and refrained myself.…” This word may include all the time between the
ancient beginning and the present: “The prophets that have been before me and before
thee of old prophesied …” (Jer. 28:8). The word can mean “long ago” (from long ago):
“For [long ago] I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands …” (Jer. 2:20). In Josh. 24:2,
the word means “formerly; in ancient times.” The word is used in Jer. 5:15, where it
means “ancient”: “Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the
Lord: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation.…” When used with the negative,
(or
) can mean “never”: “We are thine: thou never barest rule [literally, “not ruled
from the most distant past”] over them …” (Isa. 63:19). Similar meanings emerge when
the word is used without a preposition and in a genitive relationship to some other noun.
With the preposition
, the word can mean “into the indefinite future”: “An
Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to their
tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord for ever” (Deut.
23:3). The same construction can signify “as long as one lives”: “I will not go up until the
child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord, and there
abide
7
2 3
(1 Sam. 1:22). This construction then sets forth an extension into the
indefinite future, beginning from the time of the speaker. In the largest number of its