Vayyiqra - Torah Portion Hebrew Study

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[@radek1210]

Hello, could you please explain the meaning of the adverb בל used with an infinitive? Psalm 32:9 - "otherwise they will not come closer to you" - is it correct? Can we understand it as: "don't wait till our Creator has to force you to confess your sins and to beg for forgiveness? Thanks a lot!

[@Hungry4Hebrew]

The word בַּל is a negative particle usually categorized as an adverb that appears about 69 times (mostly in Psalms, Proverbs and Isaiah) in the Hebrew Bible and means "not", "lest", "without" or "otherwise". From what I can tell, this word appears with a infinitive only in this verse (Ps. 32:9). It usually appears with a finite (conjugated) verb. I might opt for a literal translation of "not to come near".