acharon · last, behind

What it means

acharon (אַחֲרוֹן) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “last, behind”.

Last, coming behind; later, future. Also western.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. What comes at the end or goes behind something else.
2. What lies behind, on the western side, like the western sea.
3. Later generations.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Last, the one that comes behind: the last of a series, what comes after, and the time to come. Facing the east, what is behind is the west. From the same root is אַחַר, ‘after’.

• The last of a series Genesis 33:2Deuteronomy 24:32 Samuel 23:1
• “I {am} the first, and I {am} the last”: YHWH Isaiah 44:6Isaiah 48:12
• The “first and the last” deeds of a king 2 Chronicles 9:29
• The generation to come, those who will come after Psalms 102:18Ecclesiastes 1:11
• “The western sea” Deuteronomy 11:24Deuteronomy 34:2

How we translate it

“Last” 25 times; “latter” 5 (“the latter glory of this house”, Haggai 2:9; “the latter sign”, Exodus 4:8). When it looks to time it reads “to come” (7) or “afterward” (4), and when it is a cardinal point, “western” (4). In Job 19:25 it is rendered “at the last” (“at the last he will rise on the dust”).

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• last ×25
• come ×7
• latter ×5
• afterward ×4
• western ×4
• later ones ×2
• after them ×1
• end ×1
• rear ×1
• those after ×1

Where it appears

• Genesis×2
• Exodus×1
• Numbers×1
• Deuteronomy×7
• Ruth×1
• 1 Samuel×1
• 2 Samuel×4
• 1 Kings×1
• 1 Chronicles×2
• 2 Chronicles×8
• Ezra×1
• Nehemiah×1
• Job×2
• Psalms×4
• Proverbs×1
• Ecclesiastes×3
• Isaiah×5
• Jeremiah×1
• Daniel×2
• Joel×1
• Haggai×1
• Zechariah×1

• Genesis 33:2

  He put the slave women and their children first, Leah and her children after them, and Rachel and Joseph last.

• Exodus 4:8

  “And it will be that if they do not believe you or listen to the voice of the first sign, they will believe the voice of the latter sign.

• Numbers 2:31

  All those counted of the camp of Dan are one hundred fifty-seven thousand six hundred. They shall set out last, by their banners.”

• Deuteronomy 11:24

  Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea shall be your territory.

• Deuteronomy 13:9

  But you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be against him first to put him to death, and the hand of all the people afterward.

• Deuteronomy 17:7

  The hand of the witnesses shall be against him first to put him to death, and the hand of all the people afterward. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

• Deuteronomy 24:3

  and the latter man hates her and writes for her a document of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her away from his house, or if the latter man who took her to himself as a wife dies,

• Deuteronomy 29:22

  And the generation to come, your sons who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a distant land, will say, when they see the blows of that land and its sicknesses with which YHWH has made it sick

• Deuteronomy 34:2

  and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah as far as the western sea,

• Ruth 3:10

  And he said, “Blessed be you by YHWH, my daughter. You have made your last loyal love better than the first, by not going after the young men, whether poor or rich.

• 1 Samuel 29:2

  The lords of the Philistines were passing on by hundreds and by thousands, and David and his men were passing on at the rear with Achish.

• 2 Samuel 2:26

  Abner called to Joab and said, “Shall the sword devour forever? Do you not know that it will be bitterness in the end? And how long will you not tell the people to turn back from following their brothers?”

• 2 Samuel 19:11

  King David sent to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, saying, “Speak to the elders of Judah, saying, ‘Why should you be the last to bring back the king to his house, when the word of all Israel has come to the king, to his house?

• 2 Samuel 19:12

  You are my brothers; you are my bone and my flesh. Why then should you be the last to bring back the king?’

• 2 Samuel 23:1

  These are the last words of David: “The oracle of David son of Jesse, and the oracle of the man who was raised on high, the anointed of the Elohim of Jacob, and the pleasant one in the psalms of Israel:

• 1 Kings 17:13

  Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid. Go in, do as you have said; only make me from it a small cake first, and bring it out to me, and for yourself and for your son you shall make some afterward.

• 1 Chronicles 23:27

  For by the last words of David these were the number of the sons of Levi, from twenty years old and upward.

• 1 Chronicles 29:29

  The acts of David the king, the first and the last, are written in the words of Samuel the seer, and in the words of Nathan the prophet, and in the words of Gad the seer,

• 2 Chronicles 9:29

  The rest of the deeds of Solomon, the first and the last, are they not written in the words of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Jedo the seer concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat?

• 2 Chronicles 12:15

  The deeds of Rehoboam, the first and the last, are they not written in the words of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer, according to the genealogical record? And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days.

• 2 Chronicles 16:11

  The deeds of Asa, the first and the last, are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

• 2 Chronicles 20:34

  The rest of the deeds of Jehoshaphat, the first and the last, are written in the words of Jehu son of Hanani, which were put in the book of the kings of Israel.

• 2 Chronicles 25:26

  The rest of the acts of Amaziah, the first and the last, are they not written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel?

• 2 Chronicles 26:22

  The rest of the acts of Uzziah, the first and the last, Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet, wrote.

• 2 Chronicles 28:26

  The rest of his acts and all his ways, the first and the last, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

• 2 Chronicles 35:27

  and his acts, the first and the last, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

• Ezra 8:13

  and of the sons of Adonikam, the last ones, and these are their names: Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah, and with them sixty males;

• Nehemiah 8:18

  And he read in the book of the law of Elohim day after day, from the first day until the last day. And they celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly, according to the rule.

• Job 18:20

  At his day those after are appalled, and horror seizes those before.

• Job 19:25

  And I know that my redeemer lives, and that at the last he will rise on the dust.

• Psalms 48:13

  set your heart on her rampart; go through her citadels, so that you may recount it to the generation to come.

• Psalms 78:4

  We will not hide them from their children; to the generation to come we will recount the praises of YHWH, and his strength and his wonders that he has done.

• Psalms 78:6

  so that the generation to come might know, children yet to be born, who would rise up and tell their children,

• Psalms 102:18

  This will be written for a generation to come, and a people created will praise Yah.

• Proverbs 31:25

  Strength and splendor are her clothing, and she laughs at the day to come.

• Ecclesiastes 1:11

  There is no remembrance of the former ones, and also of the later ones who will be there will be no remembrance of them among those who will be afterward.

• Ecclesiastes 4:16

  There is no end to all the people, to all before whom he was; also the later ones will not rejoice in him. For this too is vapor and striving after wind.

• Isaiah 9:1

  But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. As at the former time he treated with contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, so in the latter time he will make it glorious, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

• Isaiah 30:8

  Now go, write it on a tablet before them, and in a book inscribe it, that it may be for the day to come, forever, for all eternity.

• Isaiah 41:4

  Who has worked and done it? He who calls the generations from the beginning: I, YHWH, the first, and with the last, I am the same.

And 11 more times.