'Earlier' in the Bible

To this day they do according to the earlier customs: they do not fear the Lord, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances or the law, or the commandments which the Lord commanded the sons of Jacob, whom He named Israel;

However, they did not listen, but they did according to their earlier custom.

The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he followed the example of his father David’s earlier days and did not seek the Baals,

There is no remembrance of earlier things;And also of the later things which will occur,There will be for them no remembranceAmong those who will come later still.

But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

This is the word which the Lord spoke earlier concerning Moab.

For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.