Aramaic word · H318
אׇחֳרֵין
'ochorein
finally
'At last, finally'. It comes from the root meaning 'after/behind'. This is its only occurrence in biblical Aramaic, and it is related to Hebrew ʾaḥărôn 'last'.
A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?
Appears once in the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) end, outcome
1a) hid part (of cows)
1b) end (of time)
1c) remnant, descendants
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
'At last, finally'. It comes from the root meaning 'after/behind'. This is its only occurrence in biblical Aramaic, and it is related to Hebrew ʾaḥărôn 'last'.
- Against the English
Most English versions say 'at last' or 'at the last'. Jerome's Vulgate appears to have read a related form meaning 'another/colleague'.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Related forms appear in later Aramaic ('afterward, finally'). A rare word is easy to repoint differently, which explains the ancient divergence.
Where it appears
Daniel · 1
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Daniel 4:8 אָחֳרֵ֡ין at last
But at last, into my presence came Daniel (whose name is Belteshazzar after the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods). And I told him the dream:
Here: A rare word, found only here in biblical Aramaic. It marks Daniel's entrance as the end of a sequence: everyone else first, Daniel last.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.