Word study
Later
5 Hebrew and 5 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “later”. 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 “later” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- אַחַר acharbehindtranslated this way 22 times of its 556 uses · Strong’s H310Preposition · Translated: after 123, behind 56, and after 22, after that 19Full study and all 533 verses →
Genesis 10:18 the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Later the Canaanite clans were scattered,
Joshua 24:29 Some time later, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110.
- הָיָה hâyâhfall out, come to pass, become, betranslated this way 9 times of its 2,848 uses · Strong’s H1961Verb · Translated: will be 206, become 178, came 169, was 151Full study and all 2,573 verses →
Genesis 22:20 Some time later, Abraham was told, “Milcah has also borne sons to your brother Nahor:
- יוֹם yômdaytranslated this way 3 times of its 2,013 uses · Strong’s H3117Noun · Translated: day 1,009, days 524, today 141, time 72Full study and all 1,744 verses →
Genesis 34:25 Three days later, while they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons (Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi) took their swords, went into the unsuspecting city, and slaughtered every male.
- קֵץ qêtsendtranslated this way 3 times of its 61 uses · Strong’s H7093Noun · Translated: end 37, after 7, farthest 2, later 2Full study and all 56 verses →
2 Chronicles 18:2 And some years later he went down to visit Ahab in Samaria, where Ahab sacrificed many sheep and cattle for him and the people with him and urged him to march up to Ramoth-gilead.
Nehemiah 13:6 While all this was happening, I was not in Jerusalem, because I had returned to Artaxerxes king of Babylon in the thirty-second year of his reign. Some time later I obtained leave from the king
- אַחֲרוֹן achărôncoming aftertranslated this way 3 times of its 49 uses · Strong’s H314Adjective · Translated: last 11, end 9, come 5, Western 4Full study and all 47 verses →
Ezra 8:13 from the later descendants of Adonikam, these were their names: Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah, and with them 60 men;
Ecclesiastes 4:16 There is no limit to all the people who were before them. Yet the successor will not be celebrated by those who come even later. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
Greek words (New Testament)
- μετά metáwith, aftertranslated this way 10 times of its 413 uses · Strong’s G3326Preposition · Translated: with 265, after 72, along 11, later 9Full study and all 387 verses →
Luke 18:4 For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect men,
Luke 22:58 A short time later, someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not.”
- ὕστερον hýsteronlastly, afterwardtranslated this way 5 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s G5305Adverb · Translated: Later 5, last 2, after 1, Finally 1Full study and all 9 verses →
Matthew 21:29 ‘I will not,’ he replied. But later he changed his mind and went.
Mark 16:14 Later, as they were eating, Jesus appeared to the Eleven and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.
- μέλλω méllōI am about totranslated this way 3 times of its 101 uses · Strong’s G3195Verb · Translated: going 10, come 8, will 8, is about 7Full study and all 99 verses →
John 6:71 He was speaking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. For although Judas was one of the Twelve, he was later to betray Jesus.
Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, without knowing where he was going.
- καί kaíand, even, also, namelytranslated this way 2 times of its 6,414 uses · Strong’s G2532Conjunction · Translated: and 5,245, then 262, also 157, even 101Full study and all 4,279 verses →
Matthew 9:10 Later, as Jesus was dining at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with Him and His disciples.
- διά diáthrough, on account oftranslated this way 2 times of its 607 uses · Strong’s G1223Preposition · Translated: through 201, by 83, because of 56, for 37Full study and all 553 verses →
Mark 2:1 A few days later Jesus went back to Capernaum. And when the people heard that He was home,
How to study a word well
- 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.
- 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.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- 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.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- 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.