לוּא
lûwʼ · H3863 · Hebrew · 22 occurrences
Meanings
-
if only, if
Expressing a strong condition or wish
Examples1 Samuel 14:30 “How much more, if only the people had freely eaten today of the spoils of their enemies which they found! For now the defeat among the Philistines has not been great.”
2 Samuel 18:12 But the man said to Joab, “Even if I were to receive a thousand pieces of silver in my hand, I would not put out my hand against the king’s son; for in our hearing the king commanded you, Abishai, and Ittai, saying, ‘Protect the young man Absalom for me!’
2 Samuel 19:7 “Now therefore arise, go out and speak kindly to your servants, for I swear by the LORD, if you do not go out, no man will stay the night with you, and this will be worse for you than all the misfortune that has happened to you from your youth until now!”
How it’s used
Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.
When two words share a role, as in “Paul and Barnabas said”, the verse appears under each, so a section’s counts can add up to more than the number of occurrences.
MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
In the other Testament 2 words
- εἰ ei · G1487 · if, since, because
- εἰ (ei, G1487) is the standard Greek conditional particle corresponding to לוּא (lûwʼ, H3863) in expressing hypothetical or counterfactual conditions, though לוּא (lûwʼ, H3863) often carries a more emphatic or optative nuance in Hebrew contexts.
- ὄφελον óphelon · G3785 · would that
- Hebrew conditional/optative particle לוּא expresses counterfactual wishes or hypothetical conditions, translated by Greek optative particle ὄφελον which specifically marks unfulfilled wishes ('would that', 'oh that').
Word family 3 words
Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.
Also from the root לוּא
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon H3863. lu לֻא 2Sa 18:12 Kt (Qr לוּ) if: see לוּ. לאב (√ of following, compare Arabic…
לֻא 2Sa 18:12 Kt (Qr לוּ) if: see לוּ.
לאב (√ of following, compare Arabic (medial ) be thirsty, a stony tract of land (see WetzstReisebericht 99)).
לוּ17 and לוּא ( 1Sa 14:30; Isa 48:18; Isa 63:19), also לֻא (Qr לוּ), 2Sa 18:12; 2Sa 19:7 (Arabic , Aramaic , לְוַי, Mishna לְוַי, Assyrian lû, with optative force, Dl§§ 78 end, 93, 145; compare Köii. 333),
conjunction if, O that: —
1 if (stating a case which has not been, or is not likely to be, realized):
a. followed by perfect (so mostly), Deu 32:29 זאת ישׂכילו חכמו לו if they had been wise (which they are not), they would understand this; Mic 2:11 (apodosis וְהָיָה); Jdg 8:19; Jdg 13:23 י ׳חפץ לו לקח לא להמיתנו if J. had desired to slay us, he would not have taken, &c.; 1Sa 14:30; 2Sa 19:7.
b. followed by imperfect Eze 14:15 if I were to send, &c. (but read probably אוֺ, compare Eze 14:17; Eze 14:19).
c. followed by participle, 2Sa 18:12 שֹׁקֵל אָנֹכִי וְלֻא and though I should be weighing 1000 pieces of silver upon my hand, I would not, &c.; Psalm 81:14-17 לי שֹׁמֵעַ עמי לו if my people were hearkening to me, . . . quickly would I bow down, &c.
d. followed by יֵשׁ Job 16:4. — With the apodosis omitted, Gen 50:15 יִשְׂטְמֵנוּ לוּ if Joseph were to hate us (how should we fare then ?).
2 If only ...! i.e. O that! would that! (compare εἰ γάρ, εἴθε) usually followed by perf., as Num 14:2 (twice in verse) מַתְנוּ לוּ if only we had died in the land of Egypt! Num 20:3; Jos 7:7 וַנֵּשֶׁב הוֺאַלְנוּ וְלוּ Isa 48:18; Isa 63:19; followed by יֵשׁ Num 22:29; followed by imperfect Gen 17:18 יחיה לו O that Ishmael might live before thee! Job 6:2; followed by jussive Gen 30:34 יהי לו כדברך; followed by imperative Gen 23:13 שׁמעני לוּ אתה אם if thou — O that thou wouldst hear me! (+ probably Gen 23:5 שׁמעני לוּ ׃ לאמר for שׁ ׃ לוֺ ׳לאמרֹ, and similarly Gen 23:15). — Read also probably לֻא for Masoretic לֹא Jdg 21:22 (with עַתָּה כִּי), 1Sa 13:13; 1Sa 20:14 (twice in verse); Job 9:33 (followed by יֵשׁ); and perhaps Job 14:4 (Ew Kö).
Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain
Sources
eRhema lexical overview, based on the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (© United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Macula Hebrew and Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0); released under CC BY-SA 4.0
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