Last

"at the back; western; later; last; future." This word occurs about 51 times in biblical Hebrew.

’Aharôn has a local-spatial meaning. Basically, it means "at the back": "And he put the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost" (Gen 33:2, the first biblical appearance). When applied elsewhere, the word means "western": "Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost [western] sea shall your coast be" (Deut 11:24).

Used temporally, ’aharôn has several nuances. First, it means "last" as contrasted to the first of two things: "And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign" (Exod 4:8). Second, it can represent the "last" in a series of things or people: "Ye are my brethren, ye are my bones and my flesh: wherefore then are ye the last to bring back the king" (2Sam 19:12). The word also connotes "later on" and/or "afterwards": "But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people" (Deut 13:9). Next the emphasis can be on the finality or concluding characteristic of a given thing: "Now these be the last words of David" (2Sam 23:1).

’Aharôn connotes "future," or something that is yet to come: "…So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they See the plagues of that land…" (Deut 29:22).

The combination of "first" and "last" is an idiom of completeness: "Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat" (2Chron 9:29). Likewise the phrase expresses the sufficiency of the Lord, since He is said to include within Himself the "first" as well as the "last": "Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God" (Isa 44:6; cf. Isa 48:12). These verses affirm that there is no other God, because all exists in Him.

"to tarry, remain behind, delay." Other words derived from this verb are: "other," "after (wards)," "backwards." ’Ahar appears in Exod 22:29 with the meaning "delay": "Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me."

"last, utmost, extreme," is used (a) of place, e.g., Luk 1:14-10, "lowest;" Act 1:8, Act 13:47, "uttermost part;" (b) of rank, e.g., Mar 9:35; (c) of time, relating either to persons or things, e.g., Mat 5:26, "the last (farthing)," RV (AV, "uttermost"); Mat 20:8, Mat 20:12, Mat 20:14, Mar 12:6, Mar 12:22, 1Co 4:9, of Apostles as "last" in the program of a spectacular display; 1Co 15:45, "the last Adam;" Rev 2:19; of the "last" state of persons, Mat 12:45, neuter plural, lit., "the last (things);" so Luk 11:26, 2Pe 2:20, RV, "the last state" (AV, "the latter end"); of Christ as the Eternal One, Rev 1:17 (in some mss. Rev 1:11); Rev 2:8, Rev 22:13; in eschatological phrases as follows: (a) "the last day," a comprehensive term including both the time of the resurrection of the redeemed, Joh 1:6-40, Joh 6:44, Joh 6:54, Joh 11:24, and the ulterior time of the judgment of the unregenerate, at the Great White Throne, Joh 12:48; (b) "the last days," Act 2:17, a period relative to the supernatural manifestation of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the resumption of the Divine interpositions in the affairs of the world at the end of the present age, before "the great and notable Day of the Lord," which will usher in the messianic kingdom; (c) in 2Ti 3:1, "the last days" refers to the close of the present age of world conditions; (d) in Jam 5:3, the phrase "in the last days" (RV) refers both to the period preceding the Roman overthrow of the city and the land in A.D. 70, and to the closing part of the age in consummating acts of gentile persecution including "the time of Jacob's trouble" (cp. verses Jam 1:5-8); (e) in 1Pe 1:5, "the last time" refers to the time of the Lord's second advent; (f) in 1Jo 2:18, "the last hour" (RV) and, in Jud 1:18, "the last time" signify the present age previous to the Second Advent.

Notes: (1) In Heb 1:2, RV, "at the end of these days" (AV, "in these last days"), the reference is to the close of the period of the testimony of the prophets under the Law, terminating with the presence of Christ and His redemptive sacrifice and its effects, the perfect tense "hath spoken" indicating the continued effects of the message embodied in the risen Christ; so in 1Pe 1:20, RV, "at the end of the times" (AV, "in these last times").

the neuter of the adjective husteros, is used as an adverb signifying "afterwards, later," see AFTER, No. 5. Cp. the adjective, under LATER.

Note: In Phi 4:10 the particle pote, "sometime," used after ede, "now, already," to signify "now at length," is so rendered in the RV, AV, "(now) at the last."