Hebrew word · H5865
עֵילוֹם
le'eilom
ever
Distant time, either far past or far future. Le'olam means 'for all time to come', permanently, without a foreseen end. It describes how long a thing lasts as people see it. It is not a philosophical idea of timeless eternity.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
for ever, ever, everlasting, evermore, perpetual, old, ancient, world
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 Chronicles 33:7
- Range of meaning
Distant time, either far past or far future. Le'olam means 'for all time to come', permanently, without a foreseen end. It describes how long a thing lasts as people see it. It is not a philosophical idea of timeless eternity.
- Against the English
'Forever' (BSB, KJV, WEB) is fair. YLT's 'to the age' is very literal but misleading, because it suggests a limited era.
- How it drifted
Modern readers often hear 'forever' through later ideas of eternity outside time. The Hebrew means lasting perpetuity: the arrangement is permanent and has no planned end.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The ordinary word for perpetual ordinances ('a statute forever'), for dynastic promises (2 Sam 7:13, 16) and for the temple promise (1 Kgs 9:3; 2 Chr 7:16). The spelling with yod, 'êlôm, occurs only here. The Kings parallel (2 Kgs 21:7) has the normal le'olam.
Where it appears
2 Chronicles · 1
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2 Chronicles 33:7 לְעֵילֽוֹם׃ for ever
Manasseh even took the carved image he had made and set it up in the house of God, of which God had said to David and his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will establish My Name forever.
Here: An unusual spelling of le'olam, 'for all time to come, permanently'. It closes God's promise with permanence, the very permanence Manasseh's act defies.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.