Hebrew word · H4283
מׇחֳרָת
mimochorat
morrow
'The following day', 'the morrow'. It comes from the same root as māḥār, 'tomorrow'.
Appears 32 times in 32 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
the morrow, the day after
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
From the study of 1 Samuel 31:8
- Range of meaning
'The following day', 'the morrow'. It comes from the same root as māḥār, 'tomorrow'.
- Against the English
'The next day' or 'the morrow' is accurate. What English cannot show is the sound link to māḥār in 28:19.
- Used elsewhere in the period
A common way to mark time in narrative (e.g. Gen 19:34; Exod 9:6; 1 Sam 11:11; 20:27).
From the study of Leviticus 23:11
- Range of meaning
Mochorat means 'the next day, the morrow'. Shabbat is usually the seventh-day Sabbath. But Leviticus 23 also uses it for the Day of Atonement, which falls on a fixed date ('your sabbath', 23:32). In 23:15 the plural 'seven complete sabbaths' probably means seven full weeks. Related words: shabbaton, 'solemn rest', is used for festival days (23:24, 39).
- Against the English
English 'the Sabbath' with a capital S makes readers think of Saturday at once. The Hebrew 'the sabbath' does not settle which rest day is meant. That was one of the best-known calendar disputes of the Second Temple period.
- How it drifted
Capitalised 'Sabbath' in modern English quietly settles a question the Hebrew leaves open.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The LXX has τῇ ἐπαύριον τῆς πρώτης, 'on the morrow of the first [day]', meaning the first day of Unleavened Bread. Targum Onqelos has 'after the festival day'. Josephus (Antiquities 3.250–251) and Philo (Special Laws 2.162) put the sheaf offering on the 16th of Nisan, the second day of the festival. The rabbis (b. Menahot 65a–66a) argued against the Boethusians/Sadducees, who read it as the Sunday during the festival week. The Qumran Temple Scroll (11QT 18–19) follows its own calendar, with a Sunday after the festival week. Later the Karaites (a Jewish group that rejected rabbinic tradition) and the Samaritans also read it as a Sunday.
Where it appears
Genesis · 1
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Genesis 19:34 מִֽמָּחֳרָ֔ת from [the] next day
The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Look, I slept with my father last night. Let us get him drunk with wine again tonight so you can go in and sleep with him and we can preserve our father’s line.”
Exodus · 4
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Exodus 9:6 מִֽמָּחֳרָ֔ת from [the] next day
And the next day the LORD did just that. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one animal belonging to the Israelites died.
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Exodus 18:13 מִֽמָּחֳרָ֔ת from [the] next day
The next day Moses took his seat to judge the people, and they stood around him from morning until evening.
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Exodus 32:6 מִֽמָּחֳרָ֔ת from [the] next day
So the next day they arose, offered burnt offerings, and presented peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.
Here: This picks up Aaron's announcement in v.5, 'Tomorrow (maḥar) shall be a feast to the LORD.' The festival happens exactly as he proclaimed it.
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Exodus 32:30 מִֽמָּחֳרָ֔ת from [the] next day
The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. Now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”
Leviticus · 5
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Leviticus 7:16 וּמִֽמָּחֳרָ֔ת and from [the] next day
If, however, the sacrifice he offers is a vow or a freewill offering, it shall be eaten on the day he presents his sacrifice, but the remainder may be eaten on the next day.
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Leviticus 19:6 וּמִֽמָּחֳרָ֑ת and from [the] next day
It shall be eaten on the day you sacrifice it, or on the next day; but what remains on the third day must be burned up.
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Leviticus 23:11 מִֽמָּחֳרַת֙ from [the] next day of
And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD so that it may be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath.
Here: 'The day after.' The prefix 'from' is the usual Hebrew way of dating something from a fixed point. This same phrase starts the fifty-day count to the Feast of Weeks (v. 15).
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Leviticus 23:15 מִמָּחֳרַ֣ת from [the] next day of
From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, you are to count off seven full weeks.
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Leviticus 23:16 מִֽמָּחֳרַ֤ת from [the] next day of
You shall count off fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD.
Numbers · 4
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Numbers 11:32 הַֽמָּחֳרָ֗ת the next day
All that day and night, and all the next day, the people stayed up gathering the quail. No one gathered less than ten homers, and they spread them out all around the camp.
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Numbers 16:41 מִֽמָּחֳרָ֔ת from [the] next day
The next day the whole congregation of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the LORD’s people!”
Here: 'On the very next day.' The detail is pointed: within a day of the earth swallowing the rebels and fire consuming the 250, the people repeat the rebellion.
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Numbers 17:8 מִֽמָּחֳרָ֗ת from [the] next day
The next day Moses entered the Tent of the Testimony and saw that Aaron’s staff, representing the house of Levi, had sprouted, put forth buds, blossomed, and produced almonds.
Here: 'From the morrow', meaning the very next day. The speed matters: dead wood went through a whole growing season in one night.
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Numbers 33:3 מִֽמָּחֳרַ֣ת from [the] next day of
On the fifteenth day of the first month, on the day after the Passover, the Israelites set out from Rameses. They marched out defiantly in full view of all the Egyptians,
Joshua · 2
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Joshua 5:11 מִמָּֽחֳרַ֥ת from [the] next day of
The day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate unleavened bread and roasted grain from the produce of the land.
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Joshua 5:12 מִֽמָּחֳרָ֗ת from [the] next day
And the day after they had eaten from the produce of the land, the manna ceased. There was no more manna for the Israelites, so that year they began to eat the crops of the land of Canaan.
Judges · 3
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Judges 6:38 מִֽמָּחֳרָ֔ת from [the] next day
And that is what happened. When Gideon arose the next morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.
Here: Literally 'from the morrow': the morning after the night Gideon laid out the fleece.
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Judges 9:42 מִֽמָּחֳרָ֔ת from [the] next day
The next day the people of Shechem went out into the fields, and this was reported to Abimelech.
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Judges 21:4 מִֽמָּחֳרָ֔ת from [the] next day
The next day the people got up early, built an altar there, and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings.
1 Samuel · 7
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1 Samuel 5:3 מִֽמָּחֳרָ֔ת from [the] next day
When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.
Here: Literally "from the morrow": the day after the ark was set beside Dagon. It took only one night for the first result to appear.
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1 Samuel 5:4 מִֽמָּחֳרָת֒ from [the] next day
But when they got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD, with his head and his hands broken off and lying on the threshold. Only the torso remained.
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1 Samuel 11:11 מִֽמָּחֳרָ֗ת from [the] next day
The next day Saul organized the troops into three divisions, and during the morning watch they invaded the camp of the Ammonites and slaughtered them, until the hottest part of the day. And the survivors were so scattered that no two of them were left together.
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1 Samuel 18:10 מִֽמָּחֳרָ֗ת from [the] next day
The next day a spirit of distress sent from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied inside the house while David played the harp as usual. Now Saul was holding a spear,
Here: Literally 'from the morrow'. It ties this attack straight to the day before, when the women sang 'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands' (18:7) and Saul began eyeing David (18:9). Jealousy one day, a spear the next.
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1 Samuel 20:27 מִֽמָּחֳרַ֤ת from [the] next day of
But on the day after the New Moon, the second day, David’s place was still empty, and Saul asked his son Jonathan, “Why hasn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal either yesterday or today?”
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1 Samuel 30:17 לְמָֽחֳרָתָ֑ם of next day their
And David struck them down from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not a man escaped, except four hundred young men who fled, riding off on camels.
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1 Samuel 31:8 מִֽמָּחֳרָ֔ת from [the] next day
The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
Here: 'On the day after' the battle. The word comes from the same root as māḥār, 'tomorrow', which Samuel's ghost used in 28:19 ('tomorrow you and your sons will be with me'). The reader sees the prediction come true.
2 Samuel · 1
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2 Samuel 11:12 וּמִֽמָּחֳרָֽת׃ and from [the] next day
“Stay here one more day,” David said to Uriah, “and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next.
2 Kings · 1
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2 Kings 8:15 מִֽמָּחֳרָ֗ת from [the] next day
But the next day Hazael took a thick cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it over the king’s face. So Ben-hadad died, and Hazael reigned in his place.
1 Chronicles · 2
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1 Chronicles 10:8 מִֽמָּחֳרָ֔ת from [the] next day
The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
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1 Chronicles 29:21 לְֽמָחֳרַת֮ to [the] next day of
The next day they offered sacrifices and presented burnt offerings to the LORD: a thousand bulls, a thousand rams, and a thousand lambs, along with their drink offerings, and other sacrifices in abundance for all Israel.
Here: "On the morrow of." The sacrifices fall on the day after the assembly where David prayed and the people blessed God (vv. 10–20).
Jeremiah · 1
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Jeremiah 20:3 מִֽמָּחֳרָ֔ת from [the] next day
The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD does not call you Pashhur, but Magor-missabib.
Jonah · 1
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Jonah 4:7 לַֽמָּחֳרָ֑ת to the next day
When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.