Hebrew word · H570

אֶ֫מֶשׁ

'emesh

last night

A rare word: 'yesterday evening, last night', or just 'yesterday'. It refers to the evening or night before the moment of speaking.

Appears 5 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) yesterday, last night

2) recently (fig.)

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 2 Kings 9:26

Range of meaning

A rare word: 'yesterday evening, last night', or just 'yesterday'. It refers to the evening or night before the moment of speaking.

Against the English

All versions say 'yesterday'. Read inside Jehu's speech, though, it looks odd, because Naboth died some fourteen years before (the rest of Ahab's reign, Ahaziah's two years, and part of Joram's twelve).

Used elsewhere in the period

Gen 19:34 ('last night' at Lot's cave). Gen 31:29, 42 (God spoke to Laban 'last night'). Job 30:3.

From the study of Job 30:3

Range of meaning

An adverb or noun meaning 'yesterday, last night', always looking back to the night just past (Genesis 19:34; 31:29, 42; 2 Kings 9:26).

Against the English

'By night' (BSB, ESV, NASB, NIV), 'in the gloom of' (WEB, following ASV), 'in former time / formerly' (KJV, YLT).

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint keeps 'yesterday' (echthés). Commentators have proposed several emendations because the phrase 'yesterday of ruin' is awkward. Clines and Pope discuss the options and none has won general agreement.

Where it appears

Genesis · 3

  1. Genesis 19:34 אֶ֖מֶשׁ last night

    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.”

    Here: A rare word for the night just past. It ties her report exactly to the events of v. 33.

  2. Genesis 31:29 אֶ֣מֶשׁ׀ last night

    I have power to do you great harm, but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’

    Here: A rare word for 'last night'. It points back to the dream in v. 24, which came the night before Laban caught up with Jacob. Jacob uses the same word in v. 42: God 'rebuked you last night'.

  3. Genesis 31:42 אָֽמֶשׁ׃ last night

    If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely by now you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and last night He rendered judgment.”

    Here: Points to Laban's dream (v. 24), which Laban himself mentioned 'last night' (v. 29). Jacob turns Laban's admission against him.

2 Kings · 1

  1. 2 Kings 9:26 אֶ֙מֶשׁ֙ yesterday

    ‘As surely as I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons yesterday, declares the LORD, so will I repay you on this plot of ground, declares the LORD.’ Now then, according to the word of the LORD, pick him up and throw him on the plot of ground.”

    Here: 'Last evening / yesterday.' The time is measured from when the oracle was first spoken, the day after the murder, when Ahab went to take the vineyard (1 Kings 21:16–18). It does not mean the day before Jehu speaks.

Job · 1

  1. Job 30:3 אֶ֝֗מֶשׁ yesterday of

    Gaunt from poverty and hunger, they gnawed the dry land, and the desolate wasteland by night.

    Here: Elsewhere it means 'last night' or 'yesterday' (Genesis 19:34; 31:29, 42; 2 Kings 9:26). Here it is obscure. Readings include 'by night', 'the gloom (night) of ruin', and 'land that was waste already yesterday', meaning long ago. All of them make the wasteland a place of darkness and long-standing ruin.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.