Ps. 32:9 בַּל קְרוֹב (when) there is not coming nigh (they do not come) — בְּלִי = לֹא or אֵין. With finite vb. Is. 14:6, Hos. 8:7; 9:16 (Cod. Petrop. בל), Job 41:18 (once in prose, Gen. 31:20). With adj. 2 S. 1:21, בְּלִי מָשִׁיחַ un-anointed, Hos. 7:8 ptcp., Ps. 19:4. With noun = without, Job 8:11 בְּלִי־מַיִם without water, 24:10; 30:8; 31:39, Ps. 59:5; 63:2, Is. 28:8.
With a preceding prep. Deu. 4:42 בִּבְלִי דַעַת without knowledge (unawares), cf. Is. 5:14, Job 38:41; 41:25. — מִבְּלִי from lack of, Deu. 9:28 מִבְּלִי יְכֹלֶת from not being able. Is 5:13, Hos. 4:6, Lam. 1:4. With another neg., cf. § 129 above. — In the same sense as מֵאֵין so that there is not, Jer. 2:15; 9:9, Zeph. 3:6. In other cases = without Job 4:20; 6:6; 24:8. — The form בִּלְתִּי once with adj., 1 S. 20:26 not clean. With noun, Is. 14:6 without cessation; suff. 1 S. 2:2, Hos. 13:4 except me, thee.
Rem. 6. The neg. without being repeated often exerts its force over a succeeding clause, 1 S. 2:3, Nu. 23:19, Is. 23:4; 28:27, 38:18, Mic. 7:1, Ps. 9:19; 44:19, Pr. 30:3.
THE CONDITIONAL SENTENCE
§ 129. The conditional sent. is compound, consisting of two clauses, the former stating the supposition, and the second the result dependent upon it (the answer to the supposition). Conditional sentences may be nominal or verbal, or partly nominal and partly verbal. The apodosis, in particular, may assume many forms.
In conditional sentences the verbal form will be used which would have been used if the sentence had been direct. The verbal forms vary according as the mind presents to itself the condition as fulfilled and actual (perf.), or to be fulfilled, and merely possible (impf.). In ordinary speech the impf. is most common both in the protasis and apodosis, but the mind may present to itself the condition as realised, in which case the perf. is used. This happens particularly in animated speech, and in the higher style. And, naturally,
