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# פֶּן

Biblical Hebrew · Strong's H6435

**lest** — used 133 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

lest [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1508/6435/#m1)

### Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906

פֶּן־: conj. lest [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1508/6435/#m2)

**The whole BDB entry:** (always with Makkeph except Gn 38:23; 44:34 Dt 7:25; 32:27 \[not Gi\], Is 27:3 Pr 25:8: Mandelkern Conc. s. v.) conj. (averting, or deprecating), lest (origin dub.: Thes Kö ii. 334 from פָּנָה, proposes subst. cstr. in accus. for the aversion of; but פָנָה is intrans.: NöM. 474 cps. the enclitic particle פּוֹן in 𝔗, then, ἄν, ‘etwa,’ thinking that a part. with the meaning ‘es möchte etwa,’ spoken in a tone of alarm, might readily acquire a deprecatory force);—lest: with impf. Gn 3:3 ye shall not eat thereof … פֶּן־תְּמֻתוּן lest ye die, 11:4 let us build a city פֶּן־נָפוּץ lest we be scattered, 19:15, 17, 19; 38:23; 45:11 Ex 1:10; 23:29, 33 etc., 2 K 10:23 (sq. יֵשׁ), Is 6:10; 27:3; 28:22; 48:5, 7 ψ 2:12; 7:3 etc.; often after הִששָּׁמֶר־לְךָ take heed to thyself Gn 24:6; 31:24, and especially in Dt, as 4:9, 23; 6:12; 8:11 al.; after a vb. of fearing Gn 32:12, and once, even, of swearing Ju 15:12; deprecating pathetically, Gn 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, Pr 5:6 אֹרַח חַיִּים פֶּן־תְּפַלֵּס lest she should make level the path of life, her ways are unstable, etc. (Ew Be Now; v. also Toy). Note especially the idiom פֶּן־ (אָמַרְתִּי) כִּי אָמַר for he (I) said, Lest …, implying always that some precaution has been taken to avert the dreaded contingency, †Gn 26:9 for I said, Lest I die on account of her (to obviate which, Isaac had called Rebecca his sister), 31:31; 38:11; 42:4 Ex 13:17; Nu 16:34; 1 S 13:19; 27:11 (לֵאמֹר), ψ 38:17; with כי אמר implied Gn 26:7; cf. with an aposiop., 3:22 and now, lest he put forth his hand, etc. (implying that measures are taken to prevent this, see v 23): cf. Tob 8:9. פֶּזִ־ at the beginning of a sentence, with a dissuasive force, (Beware) lest: †Is 36:18 פֶּן־יַסִּית אֶתְכֶם חזקיהו (beware) lest H. deceive you (‖ 2 K 18:32, כִּי), Ex 34:15; Dt 29:17(×2) (sq. יֵשׁ), Je 51:46; Jb 32:13; 36:18. with Pf., the result feared being conceived as having possibly already taken place; †2 S 20:6 pursue after him, פֶּן־מָצָא לוֹ … וְהִצִּיל lest he have found him fenced cities, etc. (but the tense of והציל makes יִמְצָא prob., DrSm Bu Kö iii. 486), 2 K 2:16 פֶּן־נְשָׂאוֹ רוּחַ י׳ וַיַּשְׁלִכֵהוּ וגו׳.

Why these entries: BDB: headword, part of speech not compared, 46 of its verses cited, 1 words shared with the glosses (2 candidates); OSHB: headword, part of speech not compared, 1 words shared with the BDB entry, 1 with the glosses (3 candidates)

## Glosses

MACULA's English glosses of the word in the text, with how often each is used: lest (133).

## In the verses

[Job 32:13](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/JOB.32.13/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/JOB.32.13/#tree)

פֶּן־תֹּ֣֭אמְרוּ מָצָ֣אנוּ חָכְמָ֑ה אֵ֖ל יִדְּפֶ֣נּוּ לֹא־אִֽישׁ׃

*Word for word:* lest you.should.say we.have.found wisdom God let him.drive.him.about not a.human

*JPS 1917:* Beware lest ye say: 'We have found wisdom; God may vanquish him, not man!'

[Proverbs 5:6](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.5.6/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.5.6/#tree)

אֹ֣רַח חַ֭יִּים פֶּן־תְּפַלֵּ֑ס נָע֥וּ מַ֝עְגְּלֹתֶ֗יהָ לֹ֣א תֵדָֽע׃פ

*Word for word:* \[the\].path of.life lest she.should.observe they.wander tracks her not she.knows

*JPS 1917:* Lest she should walk the even path of life, her ways wander, but she knoweth it not.

## On Mova

- [This word in the Tanakh dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/tanakh/w/6435.html) on Mova free.
- [Trees and pragmatics of its meanings](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1508/6435/): 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).