Spiros Zodhiates on עוֹלָם

‘Ôwlâm or ‘ôlâm . . . It is what is hidden, concealed (i.e., to the vanishing point); time immemorial, time past, antiquity (from most ancient times, Gen. 6:4; 1 Sam 27:8; Isa. 63:16; Jer 2:20; 5:15; Ps 25:6); eternity, the distant future (terminus ad quem); duration, perpetual, without end, always, everlasting time; lifetime. In the pl. form it means ages or endless times . . . There are at least twenty instances where ‘ôwlâm clearly refers to the past, though rarely a limitless past. Deut. 32:7 and Job 22:15 point to the time of one’s elders. Prov. 22:28; 23:10; Jer. 6:16; 18:15; 28:8 seem to go back even further. Sometimes the time just prior to the exile is referred to (Isa. 58:12; 61:4; Mic. 7:14; Mal. 3:4; Ezra 4:15, 19). At other times it goes back further, to the events of the exodus from Egypt (1 Sam 27:8; Isa. 51:9; 63:9, 11). Gen. 6:4 indicates the time shortly before the flood. The basic meaning of ‘ôwlâm is “most distant times,” whether the remote past or the future depending upon the accompanying prepositions. Therefore, ‘ôwlâm is a broad range between the remotest time and perpetuity (from the viewpoint of the speaker) . . . ‘Ôwlâm, the same Heb. word can describe a short period of only three days (though it must have seemed like an eternity to Jonah as “forever,” Jon. 2:6) or it can be used in conjunction with God—the God of eternity, the everlasting God, God forever. Temporal categories are inadequate to describe the nature of God’s existence. The Creator has been “from everlasting to everlasting” (Ps. 90:2). Even then, it still expresses the idea of a continued, measurable existence, rather than a state of being independent of time considerations. (Spiros Zodhiates, Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible [Chattanooga, Tenn.: AMG Publishers, 1984, 1990], 1757)