Lest
בִּלְתִּיStrong’s H1115bilti (bil-ti)
Appears in 107 verses of the Old Testament
In short
Bilti is the Hebrew word usually translated “not”, “except” and “because not”. It appears in 107 verses of the Old Testament.
“Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.”
Meaning
- Not, except
- Not
- Except (after preceding negation)
- Except (after an implied or expressed negation)
- So as not, in order not
- An account of not, because...not
- Until not
How it's translated
- to not 78
- except 12
- not 10
- and to not 8
- because not 1
- except you 1
- from not 1
- except me 1
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- Jeremiah 23
- Ezekiel 14
- Joshua 9
- Genesis 8
- Numbers 6
- Deuteronomy 6
21 books in all.
Related words
Explore in Scripture
- Daniel 11:18In contextAfter this shall he turn his face unto the isles, and shall take many: but a prince for his own behalf shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease; without his own reproach he shall cause it to turn upon him.
- Genesis 3:11And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
- Genesis 4:15And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
- Genesis 19:21And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou hast spoken.
- Genesis 21:26And Abimelech said, I wot not who hath done this thing: neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to day.
- Genesis 38:9And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.
All 107 verses, by book
Hebrew dictionary
בִּלְתִּי bilti · lest
subst 1) not, except adv 2) not 3) except (after preceding negation) conj 4) except (after an implied or expressed negation) with prep 5) so as not, in order not 6) an account of not, because...not 7) until not
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “lest” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
LEST, conjunction
That not; for fear that.
- “Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die” Genesis 3:3“Sin no more, lest a worse thing come to thee” John 5:14
Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.
Verses are from the King James Version. Word meanings come from the original Hebrew, not from any one translation.