Midvash

אוֹʼôw

אוֺ: or

Pronunciation: o · Hebrew/Aramaic (Old Testament) · H176

Meanings

1. sometimes implying a preference, nearly = or rather (Genesis 24:49; Genesis 31:43; Exodus 4:11)

2. introducing a sentence, especially a particular case under a general principle, or = or if (Exodus 21:31; Exodus 21:36; Leviticus 4:23)

3. if perchance (1 Samuel 20:10; Leviticus 26:41)

4. except, once, with the jussive (Isaiah 27:5)

אַו: desire (Proverbs 31:4)

Same root

Where it appears

Appears 320 times in the Bible.

  • Genesis 24:49 So tell me—will you or won’t you show unfailing love and faithfulness to my master? Please tell me yes or no, and then I’ll know what to do next.”
  • Genesis 24:50 Then Laban and Bethuel replied, “The Lord has obviously brought you here, so there is nothing we can say.
  • Genesis 24:55 “But we want Rebekah to stay with us at least ten days,” her brother and mother said. “Then she can go.”
  • Genesis 31:43 Then Laban replied to Jacob, “These women are my daughters, these children are my grandchildren, and these flocks are my flocks—in fact, everything you see is mine. But what can I do now about my daughters and their children?
  • Genesis 44:8 Didn’t we return the money we found in our sacks? We brought it back all the way from the land of Canaan. Why would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house?
  • Genesis 44:19 “My lord, previously you asked us, your servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’
See every passage

Source: Brown, Driver and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain; markup by unfoldingWord, CC BY (github.com/unfoldingWord/Brown-Driver-Briggs-Enhanced).