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In Gen. 9:16, עלום is translated as "everlasting" in reference to the covenant of the rainbow:

וְהָיְתָה הַקֶּשֶׁת בֶּעָנָן וּרְאִיתִיהָ לִזְכֹּר בְּרִית עוֹלָם בֵּין אֱלֹהִים וּבֵין כָּל נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה בְּכָל בָּשָׂר אֲשֶׁר עַל הָאָרֶץ


In Dan. 12:2, עלום is translated as "eternal" ("everlasting") in reference to the life received by those who awaken from their sleep (i.e., in the resurrection):

וְרַבִּים מִיְּשֵׁנֵי אַדְמַת עָפָר יָקִיצוּ אֵלֶּה לְחַיֵּי עוֹלָם וְאֵלֶּה לַחֲרָפוֹת לְדִרְאוֹן עוֹלָם


However, in Psa. 143:3, should it be understood as "eternity" or simply a long duration?

כִּי רָדַף אוֹיֵב נַפְשִׁי דִּכָּא לָאָרֶץ חַיָּתִי הוֹשִׁבַנִי בְמַחֲשַׁכִּים כְּמֵתֵי עוֹלָם


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There is no way to definitely determine according to a rule. You have to rely on context. –  H3br3wHamm3r81 Nov 27 '13 at 18:56
Just to offer some advice, a great Christian commentary on the Old Testament is by Keil and Delitzsch (that is, if you are a Christian). You should read what they have to say on this verse: studylight.org/com/kdo/view.cgi?bk=18&ch=143 –  H3br3wHamm3r81 Nov 27 '13 at 19:11
Interesting question! I'd encourage you to post it on the Judaism stackexchange site in addition to here - they know the Old Testament well. –  Niobius Nov 28 '13 at 14:38
I agree with H3br3wHamm3r81 about the context. In fact, negative expressions convey the concept of something being eternal way better than such adjectives like "eternal" or "everlasting": "...the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary" (Isa 40:28), "...before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me" (Isa 43:10), "But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end" (Psalms 102:27) –  brilliant Nov 28 '13 at 20:06

1 Answer 1

As a matter of semantics, the Hebrew word עלם ('olam) means something more like the English words 'age' or 'era', in the sense of a distant time period.

עלם is occasionally translated as 'everlasting' or 'eternal', with a meaning of 'age-enduring'. For example, some passages describe hills or mountains as עלם (Genesis 49.26; Deuteronomy 33.15; Habakkuk 3.6), because from the view of the writers, mountains endure countless ages; from human perspective, they are 'eternal'.

So as @H3br3wHamm3r81 said above, how עלם should be translated is entirely dependent on context. Relatively speaking, few words have an absolute one-to-one translation in any given language.

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