al
אל
The word 'al' is one of the most commonly used words in the Hebrew scriptures, appearing no less than six thousand, five hundred times. Categorized as Strongnumber 413, it is unanimously understood to mean “to”, most commonly used to indicate travel to a place, or speaking to a person.
Things are not quite so straight-forward though. For no apparent reason, in around ten percent of the instances of the same word with the exact same spelling and pronunciation, 'al' appears in Strong's concordance under several other listings, and ostensibly with a variety of different meanings: see strong_errors
| Strongnumber | Instances | Ostensible Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 408 | 574 | not |
| 409 | 3 | not |
| 410 | 248 | god |
| 411 | 9 | these |
| 412 | 1 | these |
| 413 | 5504 | to |
There appears to be no difference between Strongnumbers 408 and 409. Likewise, Strongnumber 411 and 412 are ostensibly identical. (A claim is often made that 408 and 409 differ in pronunciation but this claim is erroneous, as discussed further under diacritics and Hebrew spelling inconsistencies)
Therefore, a simplified rendition of Strong's breakdown would be appropriate with no data loss:
| Strongnumber | Instances | Ostensible Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 413 | 5504 | to |
| 408/409 | 577 | not |
| 410 | 248 | god |
| 411/412 | 10 | these |
Contextually, the text appears to support the ninetieth-percentile use-case meaning “to”. Somewhat dubiously, a tenth-percentile case meaning “not” is proposed by traditional translations, followed by an even more dubious fifth-percentile case meaning “god”, and an extremely speculative case meaning “these”.
These
There are only nine instances1) of the word 'al' which are inexplicably mistranslated as ostensibly meaning “these”, and to which Strong's concordance identifies under the Strongnumber 411. This is problematic for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the spelling is clearly the same word 'al'. Secondly, the nine instances do not justify a different meaning, but seem to work adequately with the meaning of “to”.
This confusion may stem from the misapplication of a closely related word alah.
Not
Strongs identifies Strongnumber 408, ostensibly meaning “not”, when it is clearly and unambiguously the same word as 'al' meaning “to”.
If this word does not actually mean “not”, the implication here is that the 577 occasions where the word is used have erroneously had a negation inserted into the sentence, thus flipping its meaning to its opposite.
As an interesting example, Genesis 19:8 uses all three different meanings for the exact same word, all within one sentence. The traditional rendering is Behold now two daughters who not have known a man let me bring out please them to you and you may do according to what [is] good in your eyes only to men these not do anything for upon thus they have come under the shadow of my roof. All three of the bolded words are 'al'.
This verse is highly suspicious in other ways. Are we to believe that a godly man named Lot, a nephew of Abraham, would willingly bring out his two young daughters to be raped by strangers? This seems highly unlikely. Etymologically there are a number of other issues in this story which will take a fair bit of investigation and will be addressed in the appropriate chapter commentary.
audit the not under Strongnumber 408-409
The real Hebrew word for “not” is לא la, which is somewhat humourously spelled (perhaps coincidentally, perhaps by design) as the exact reverse of אל.
LexID 413