Word study

Future

5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “future”. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.

At a glance

How often each original word is translated “future” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • מָחָר mâchârtomorrow, in time to cometranslated this way 6 times of its 49 uses · Strong’s H4279Adverb  ·  Translated: tomorrow 43, future 6

    Exodus 13:14 In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you are to tell him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

    Deuteronomy 6:20 In the future, when your son asks, “What is the meaning of the decrees and statutes and ordinances that the LORD our God has commanded you?”

    Full study and all 49 verses →
  • אַחֲרִית achărîthafter-part, endtranslated this way 6 times of its 61 uses · Strong’s H319Noun  ·  Translated: end 21, future 6, latter 5, come 4

    Psalm 37:38 But the transgressors will all be destroyed; the future of the wicked will be cut off.

    Proverbs 23:18 For surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

    Full study and all 60 verses →
  • יוֹם yômdaytranslated this way 2 times of its 2,013 uses · Strong’s H3117Noun  ·  Translated: day 1,009, days 524, today 141, time 72

    Genesis 30:33 So my honesty will testify for me when you come to check on my wages in the future. If I have any goats that are not speckled or spotted, or any lambs that are not dark-colored, they will be considered stolen.”

    Full study and all 1,744 verses →
  • רָחוֹק râchôqdistant, fartranslated this way 2 times of its 84 uses · Strong’s H7350Adjective  ·  Translated: far 20, afar 13, distant 11, distance 10

    2 Samuel 7:19 And as if this was a small thing in Your eyes, O Lord GOD, You have also spoken about the future of the house of Your servant. Is this Your custom with man, O Lord GOD?

    1 Chronicles 17:17 And as if this was a small thing in Your eyes, O God, You have spoken about the future of the house of Your servant and have regarded me as a man of great distinction, O LORD God.

    Full study and all 84 verses →
  • אַחַר acharaftertranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H311Preposition  ·  Translated: future 2, after them 1

    Daniel 2:29 As you lay on your bed, O king, your thoughts turned to the future, and the Revealer of Mysteries made known to you what will happen.

    Daniel 2:45 And just as you saw a stone being cut out of the mountain without human hands, and it shattered the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold, so the great God has told the king what will happen in the future. The dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy.”

    Full study and all 3 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • μέλλω méllōI am about totranslated this way 4 times of its 101 uses · Strong’s G3195Verb  ·  Translated: going 10, come 8, will 8, is about 7

    Romans 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,

    1 Corinthians 3:22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future. All of them belong to you,

    Full study and all 99 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
  2. Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.

Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.