the after-part of something: its end, its final outcome, or the future it leads to
This word names whatever comes last. Built from the root for behind or after, it points to the tail end of a thing rather than its beginning, and the Hebrew writers stretch that one idea across time, consequence, and destiny.
Its force depends on what it is attached to. The after-part of a year is the close of the year; the after-part of a road or a way of life is where that road finally lands you; the after-part of a person is what becomes of them in the end, including the children who carry on after they are gone. So a single word can mean the end of a stretch of time, the result a course of action earns, or the future that still lies ahead.
Because the end of a matter reveals what it was really worth, the word carries a strong moral charge in the wisdom books and the prophets. The wise look to where a path ends before they walk it, and again and again the point is that two roads can look alike at the start and part ways only at the finish. When the writers want hope, they use the same word: a good future, a destiny still to come.
It also forms a fixed phrase, the latter days or the days to come, which the prophets use for the distant, decisive future toward which history is moving.