the Berasit Hebrew Dictionary

לא

Also pronounced 'lo', and not to be confused with el, לא 'la' is the primary Hebrew word which means “opposite”. It generally is translated as “not” or sometimes “without”.

The first three instances of 'la' occur in very well-known verses withing Genesis chapter two. The first instance appears in a verse which is somewhat convoluted, so it is advisable to examine instances two and three first, then return to the first instance.

Genesis 2:17 is a familiar verse, one which many readers may be able to recite, at least in the typical translation.

Genesis 2:17 - but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil not you shall eat from for in the day that you eat of it surely you shall die.

Followed by Genesis 2:18 - And said Yahweh God not [it is] good that should be man alone I will make a helper suitable for him.

The context of these verses makes the meaning of 'la' very clear. The word “not” is one of the most semantically critical, but this fact also makes it very easy to determine if our interpretation of it is correct. If we were to get it wrong, the entire sentence would take on the exact opposite meaning. In English, this can be verified by simply removing the “not”.

• Genesis 2:17 - but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall eat from for in the day that you eat of it surely you shall die.
• Genesis 2:18 - And said Yahweh God [it is] good that should be man alone, I will make a helper suitable for him.

Both verses lose their meanings entirely by the removal or “not”. In verse 17 God appears to desire for man to eat the fruit so that he will die. In verse 18 God explicitly contradicts himself by stating that it is good for man to be alone but he is planning to make him a helper. This is either a paradoxical situation, or one where God is purposefully being mean to the new man.

Jumping back to the first instance of 'la', we come to a somewhat problematic verse. In the typical translations Genesis 2:5 appears to be particularly mangled and straying far from the Hebrew. In the interest of transparency, we will show our steps, from Hebrew to an English rendition. (Keep in mind this is a beta version and is subject to change as work progresses)

Genesis 2:5 - כל שיחימ שדה טרמ אהיה ארצ כל עשב שדה טרמ יצמח כי לא אמטיר ביהוה אלהימ על ארצ אדמ אינ עבד את האדמה

Genesis 2:5 - kol shihim shedeh terem ahyah Aretz kol esheb shedeh terem itsemah ki la amtir Jehovah elohim yal Aretz adam ein abed et hadama

A typical transliteration (but retaining word order) would be something like: And any plant of the field before was in the earth and any herb of the field before had grown for not had caused it to rain Yahweh God on the earth and man not to cultivate the ground.

or alternatively, a more direct interpretation based on our translation and dictionary work thus far, renders:

Genesis 2:5 - All the Speaking Ones were in the hills before plants sprung up over all the hills of Earth because Jehovah had not rained. The Elohim were on Earth with nobody human to serve.

The overall meaning of the verse differs substantially between versions, however, in both of these versions it is clear that לא ('la') does indeed appear to mean “not”.

A similar analysis could be performed on each of the over four thousand instances of 'la', with similar results. Removing the “not” invalidates the semantic meaning of the context, generally rendering it nonsensical.

Why does this single word have two strong_numbers? (3808, 3809)

There are other Hebrew words that occasionally have been translated as “not”, and these are somewhat more suspect. They shall be examined in turn on their own merits.

LexID 3808/3809