Back, Back Parts

BACK, BACK PARTS

(1) 'achar, ("back side" as in the King James Version):

"He led the flock to the back of the wilderness" (Exodus 3:1), i.e. "to the pasture-lands on the other side of the desert from the Midianite encampments."

(2) 'achor, ("hinder part," "the West"):

Used of God in an anthropomorphic sense ("Thou shalt see my back," Exodus 33:23) to signify "the after-glow of the Divine radiance," the faint reflection of God's essential glory. See also Isaiah 38:17 and compare 1 Kings 14:9 and Nehemiah 9:26.

(3) opisthen, ("back side"):

"A book written within and on the back" (Revelation 5:1), "but the back of a book is not the same as the reverse side of a roll. John was struck, not only with the fact that the roll was sealed, but also with the amount of writing it contained" (HDB, I, 231). Compare Ezekiel 2:10.

M. O. Evans