פֵּן
pên · H6435 · Hebrew · 133 occurrences
Meanings
-
lest, otherwise
Indicating prevention of a negative outcome
Examples1 Chronicles 10:4 Then Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, otherwise these uncircumcised Philistines will come and abuse me.” But his armor bearer would not, for he was very afraid. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it.
1 Samuel 13:19 Now no blacksmith could be found in all the land of Israel, because the Philistines said, “Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears.”
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
- μή mḗ · G3361 · not
- Both פֵּן (pên, H6435) and μή (mḗ, G3361) function as negative particles expressing purpose or apprehension, meaning "lest" or "that...not," introducing a clause that indicates something to be avoided or prevented. μή (mḗ, G3361) is the usual Septuagint rendering of this Hebrew conjunction of negative purpose; it has broader uses in Greek (general negation, interrogatives), but its "lest" sense directly overlaps with the core function of פֵּן (pên, H6435).
- μήποτε mḗpote · G3379 · never, not ever, at no time
- Hebrew פֵּן (pen) and Greek μήποτε (mēpote) both function as conjunctions expressing negative purpose or apprehension ('lest', 'that...not'), with μήποτε serving as the standard LXX rendering of פֵּן in contexts warning against unwanted outcomes.
Word family 6 words
Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon H6435. pen מֶּןֿ133 (always with Makkeph **except Gen 38:23; Gen 44:34; Deu 7:25; Deu…
מֶּןֿ133 (always with Makkeph **except Gen 38:23; Gen 44:34; Deu 7:25; Deu 32:27 [not Gi], Isa 27:3; Pro 25:8: MandelkernConc. under the word.)
conjunction (averting, or deprecating), lest (origin dubious: Thes Köii. 334 from מָּנָה, properly substantive construct in accusative for the aversion of; but פָנָה is intransitive: NöM. 474 compares the enclitic particle מּוֺן in ᵑ7, then ἄν, 'etwa,' thinking that a particle with the meaning 'es möchte etwa,' spoken in a tone of alarm, might readily acquire a deprecatory force); — lest:
1 with imperfect Gen 3:3 ye shall not eat thereof . . . מֶּןתְּֿמֻתוּן lest ye die, Gen 11:4 let us build a city מֶּןנָֿפוּץ lest we be scattered, Gen 19:15, Gen 19:17, Gen 19:19; Gen 38:23; Gen 45: Exo 1:10; Exo 23:29; Exo 23:33 etc., 2Ki 10:23 (followed by יֵשׁ), Isa 6:10; Isa 27:3; Isa 28:22; Isa 48:5, Isa 48:7; Psa 2:12; Psa 7:3 etc.; often after הִשָׁמֶרלְֿךָ take heed to thyself Gen 24:6; Gen 31:24, and especially in Deuteronomy, as Deu 4:9, Deu 4:23; Deu 6:12; Deu 8:11 and elsewhere; after a verb of fearing Gen 32:12, and once, even, of swearing Jdg 15:12; deprecating pathetically, Gen 44:34 how shall I go up, etc.? lest I look upon the evil that will befal my father. Once, unusually, preceding the principal clause, Pro 5:6 מֶּןתְּֿפַלֵּס חַיִּים אֹרַח lest she should make level the path of life, her ways are unstable, etc. (Ew Be Now; see also Toy). Note especially
a. the idiom מֶּןֿ (אָמַרְתִּי) אָמַר כִּי for he (I) said, Lest..., implying always that some precaution has been taken to avert the dreaded contingency, Gen 26:9 for I said, Lest I die on account of her (to obviate which, Isaac had called Rebecca his sister), Gen 31:31; Gen 38:11; Gen 42:4; Exo 13:17; Num 16:34; 1Sa 13:19; 1Sa 27:11 (לֵאמֹר), Psa 38:17; with אמר כי implied Gen 26:7; compare, with an aposiop., Gen 3:22 and now, lest he put forth his hand, etc. (implying that measures are taken to prevent this, see Gen 3:23): compare Tob 8:9.
b. מֶּןֿ at the beginning of a sentence, with a dissuasive force, (Beware) lest: + Isa 36:18 חזקיהו אֶתְכֶם מֶּןיַֿסִּית (beware) lest Hezekiah deceive you, Deu 29:17 (twice in verse) (followed by יֵשׁ), Jer 51:46; Job 32:13; Job 36:18.
2 with Perfect, the result feared being conceived as having possibly already taken place; 2Sa 20:6 pursue after him, וְהִצִּיל ֗֗֗ לוֺ מֶּןמָֿצָא lest he have found him fenced cities, etc. (but the tense of והציל makes יִמְצָא probably, Drsm Bu Köiii. 486), 2Ki 2:16 י רוּחַ ׳מֶּןנְֿשָׂאוֺ וגו ׳וַיַּשְׁלִכֵהוּ.
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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