a far-off place: a distant land or region, and by extension the remoteness that separates it from here
This word names a place that lies far away, or the distance that separates it from where the speaker stands. It is built on the verb meaning "to be far," and throughout the Hebrew Bible it points to whatever sits at a long remove.
Most often it appears with "from": something or someone comes "from afar" or "from a far country." The prophets use it for the distant nation God summons to punish his people, an army marching in "from a far country." Wisdom uses it for the reach of trade and news, as when "good news from a far country" refreshes like cold water to a weary soul. It can also simply mark the far edges of the map, the "distant lands" where a scattered people settle and still remember God.
It overlaps heavily with the ordinary adjective for "far," רָחוֹק, but the two are not quite the same: that word describes a thing as distant, while this one names the distant place itself, or the distance in between.
Once the word turns figurative: the psalmist says the LORD knows the proud "from afar," using physical distance to picture how God holds himself apart from the arrogant. And it can even mark a spot that is merely the farthest one in view, like the last house at the edge of a town.