Midvash

הֵןhên

lo! also there(-fore), (un-) less, whether, but, if

Pronunciation: hane · Hebrew/Aramaic (Old Testament) · H2006

Meanings

הֵן: lo! behold, less widely used than הִנֵּה, and in prose mostly confined to calling attention to some fact upon which action is to be taken, or a conclusion based

a. behold (Genesis 3:22; Genesis 4:14; Genesis 11:6)

b. if, as a hypothetical particle, propounding a possibility (Exodus 4:1; Leviticus 25:20; Isaiah 54:15)

הֵן: if, whether

1. if (Daniel 2:6; Daniel 3:15; Daniel 3:17)

2. whether … or, repeated (Ezra 7:26)

3. whether, in indirect question (Ezra 5:17)

אם לא: except, but

1. after a negative

a. except (Daniel 2:11; Daniel 3:28; Daniel 6:6)

b. but (Daniel 2:30)

2. however, but, without a negative (Ezra 5:12)

Same root

Where it appears

Appears 19 times in the Bible.

  • Ezra 4:13 And the king should know that if this city is rebuilt and its walls are completed, it will be much to your disadvantage, for the Jews will then refuse to pay their tribute, customs, and tolls to you.
  • Ezra 4:16 We declare to the king that if this city is rebuilt and its walls are completed, the province west of the Euphrates River will be lost to you.”
  • Ezra 5:17 “Therefore, if it pleases the king, we request that a search be made in the royal archives of Babylon to discover whether King Cyrus ever issued a decree to rebuild God’s Temple in Jerusalem. And then let the king send us his decision in this matter.”
  • Ezra 7:26 Anyone who refuses to obey the law of your God and the law of the king will be punished immediately, either by death, banishment, confiscation of goods, or imprisonment.”
  • Daniel 2:5 But the king said to the astrologers, “I am serious about this. If you don’t tell me what my dream was and what it means, you will be torn limb from limb, and your houses will be turned into heaps of rubble!
  • Daniel 2:6 But if you tell me what I dreamed and what the dream means, I will give you many wonderful gifts and honors. Just tell me the dream and what it means!”
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).