21st Century Bible Hebrew -- negation

Now here’s another way that vav does not mean “and”. It turns out that vav with the aspect changes the connotation of a negation, and that explains the grammar in some verses.

Lo is the most frequent negative particle. It is most often used with imperfect aspect, as a negative commandment. Lo plus perfect aspect is the negative of a past action.

V’lo is about half as frequent as lo. With imperfect aspect, it denies that an action will take place in the future.

With perfect aspect, it negates an expected action. See Genesis 34:17-19.

יז וְאִם־לֹ֧א תִשְׁמְע֛וּ אֵלֵ֖ינוּ לְהִמּ֑וֹל וְלָקַ֥חְנוּ אֶת־בִּתֵּ֖נוּ וְהָלָֽכְנוּ:

יח וַיִּֽיטְב֥וּ דִבְרֵיהֶ֖ם בְּעֵינֵ֣י חֲמ֑וֹר וּבְעֵינֵ֖י שְׁכֶ֥ם בֶּן־חֲמֽוֹר:

יט וְלֹֽא־אֵחַ֤ר הַנַּ֨עַר֙ לַעֲשׂ֣וֹת הַדָּבָ֔ר כִּ֥י חָפֵ֖ץ בְּבַֽת־יַֽעֲקֹ֑ב וְה֣וּא נִכְבָּ֔ד מִכֹּ֖ל בֵּ֥ית אָבִֽיו:

This is the Dinah story. Her brothers have just told her rapist that Yaaqov’s family can only let them marry if all the men of the town become circumcised. Well, they didn’t have anesthetics in this period and adult circumcision is painful; you would think he would balk at that, but verse 19 says that Shkhem didn’t stop to think about that, he was so crazy in love.

Al is not a negated commandment. It negates the imperfect when the outcome does not rely on the authority of the speaker alone. Al tiru meaning “don’t be afraid” is usually followed by reasons not to fear in an attempt to reassure the other party.

Ein is used with progressive aspect or the copula, but in at least one case it is used instead of a narrative past as the complement to an evidentiary epistemic.  See Genesis 11:30, which I already discussed:

ל וַתְּהִ֥י שָׂרַ֖י עֲקָרָ֑ה אֵ֥ין לָ֖הּ וָלָֽד:

Sarai must have been barren; she had no children.

When you go through the possibilities of combining negation and aspect, you see that none of them work here. The other possibility would be to negate an aspectless verb. I’m not sure there are any negated aspectless verbs in Torah but they might be a recommendation not to do a certain thing, a quasi-commandment.

The evidence for the epistemic va-t’hi has to be imperfect, and since progressive and imperfect are related, we use the negation for progressive here.