Hebrew word · H336
אִי
'i-
not
A negative particle, 'not, no'. It is very rare in Biblical Hebrew, which normally uses lōʾ, ʾayin or bal. Its only clear uses are here and in the name Ichabod ('no glory', 1 Samuel 4:21). Related negatives turn up in Phoenician and later in Mishnaic Hebrew.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
not
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
A negative particle, 'not, no'. It is very rare in Biblical Hebrew, which normally uses lōʾ, ʾayin or bal. Its only clear uses are here and in the name Ichabod ('no glory', 1 Samuel 4:21). Related negatives turn up in Phoenician and later in Mishnaic Hebrew.
- Against the English
Most modern versions (BSB, WEB, YLT, NIV, ESV, NASB) give 'one who is not innocent'. The KJV took the same consonants as the common noun ʾî, 'island, coastland' (H339), and produced 'the island of the innocent'.
- How it drifted
The KJV error came from a rare word looking like a common one. The 1611 translators knew ʾî mostly as 'isle', the word used for distant coastlands in Isaiah. Later lexicons (BDB, HALOT) recognised the negative ʾî from the Ichabod parallel.
- Used elsewhere in the period
1 Samuel 4:21 (ʾî-ḵāḇôḏ). The Septuagint and Vulgate both drop the negative and read 'the innocent', which suggests ancient translators also struggled with the particle. Some modern scholars emend it to ʾîš, 'man'.
Where it appears
Job · 1
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Job 22:30 אִֽי־ not
He will deliver even one who is not innocent, rescuing him through the cleanness of your hands.”
Here: A very rare negative word. Its only other clear use is the name Ichabod, ʾî-ḵāḇôḏ, 'no glory' (1 Samuel 4:21). Joined to the next word it means 'not-innocent', in other words a guilty person. This is the startling point of the line.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.