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# לוּלֵא

Biblical Hebrew · Strong's H3884

**if not** — used 14 times in the Hebrew Bible. Below: its meanings with their sources, MACULA's glosses, and 2 verses word for word and in JPS 1917.

## Meaning

### OpenScriptures lexical index

if not [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1500/3884/#m1)

### Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906

לוּלֵא: if not, unless [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1500/3884/#m2)

**The whole BDB entry:** Gn 43:10; Ju 14:18; 2 S 2:27; ψ 27:13, elsewhere לוּלֵי10 if not, unless (from לוּ if, and לֵא, by dissim. (Köii 236, 489) for לֹא not; cf. Arabic لَوْلَا ), the neg. of לוּ, and used similarly:— sq. pf., Ju 14:18 לולא חרשׁתם … לא מצאתם unless ye had ploughed with my heifer, ye would not have found out my riddle, 1 S 25:34 (second כי resumptive: כִּי 1 d), ψ 106:23; with apod. introd. by כִּי עַתָּה Gn 31:42; 43:10; by אָז 2 S 2:27 (כי resumptive); by כִּמְעַט Is 1:9; with an aposiop. ψ 27:13 if I had not believed …! sq. impf. Dt 32:27 אמרתי … לולי אגור I should have said, &c. … except I dreaded, &i\>c. sq. ptcp., 2 K 3:14. without a verb, ψ 94:17 (apod. כמעט), 119:92 (apod. אָז). In the later language, ψ 124:1, 2 לוּלֵי י׳ שֶׁ- (apod. אֲזַי) except that … (cf. Aramaic ܕ ? … ܐܶܠܘܽ ܠܴܐ ψ 106:23, אִילּוּלֵי … דִּי ψ 27:13 𝔗).—Read also לוּלֵי for אוּלַי in Nu 22:33 (apod. כִּי עַתָּה). See further on לוּ and לוּלֵא Dr§§ 139–145 Köiii. 487 f. 565.

Why these entries: BDB: headword, part of speech not compared, 14 of its verses cited, 1 words shared with the glosses, lists its Strong's number (2 candidates); OSHB: headword, part of speech not compared, 1 words shared with the BDB entry, 1 with the glosses (1 candidates)

## Glosses

MACULA's English glosses of the word in the text, with how often each is used: if not (14).

## In the verses

[Genesis 43:10](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.43.10/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.43.10/#tree)

כִּ֖י לוּלֵ֣א הִתְמַהְמָ֑הְנוּ כִּֽי־עַתָּ֥ה שַׁ֖בְנוּ זֶ֥ה פַעֲמָֽיִם׃

*Word for word:* (dm) if.not we.had.delayed (dm) now we.have.returned this two.times

*JPS 1917:* For except we had lingered, surely we had now returned a second time.'

[Psalms 27:13](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.27.13/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.27.13/#tree)

לׅׄוּלֵׅׄ֗אׅׄהֶ֭אֱמַנְתִּי לִרְא֥וֹת בְּֽטוּב־יְהוָ֗ה בְּאֶ֣רֶץ חַיִּֽים׃

*Word for word:* if.not I.had.believed to look on the.goodness of.Yahweh in.\[the\] land of.living.\[people\]

*JPS 1917:* If I had not believed to look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! —

## On Mova

- [This word in the Tanakh dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/tanakh/w/3884.html) on Mova free.
- [Trees and pragmatics of its meanings](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1500/3884/): every English meaning parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.

Sources. The words, their counts, glosses and the word-for-word renderings: MACULA Hebrew (the Westminster Leningrad Codex; Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0). Meanings: the OpenScriptures lexical index (CC BY 4.0), Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906 and Jastrow 1903 (public domain, via Sefaria); Targum Onkelos from Sefaria (public domain). Translation: JPS 1917 (public domain, from eBible.org).