world to come

English

Etymology

Translation of Hebrew הָעוֹלָם הַבָּא (ha'olám habá, literally “the coming world”).

Noun

world to come (plural worlds to come)

1. The Jewish afterlife or mythic future, usually thought to occur after the coming of the Messiah, in which the righteous are rewarded for their good deeds and the wicked punished for their evil deeds
2. Any of various other afterlives in different theologies and mythologies.
   • 1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 8, page 241:

     If their bodies were ill-used, the animals of that species would not allow themselves to be taken, neither in this world nor in the world to come.