Definition
μή,
subjective negative particle,
used where the negation depends on a condition or hypothesis, expressed or understood, as distinct from οὐ, which denies absolutely. μή is used where one thinks a thing is not, as distinct from an absolute negation. As a general rule, οὐ negatives the indic, μή the other moods, incl, ptcp. [In LXX for אֵין ,אַיִן ,אַל ]
I. As a neg. adv., not;
1. with ref. to thought or opinion: John 3:18, Titus 1:11, 2 Peter 1:9.
2. In delib. questions, with subjc. (M, Pr., 185): Mark 12:14, Romans 3:8.
3. In conditional and final sentences, after εἰ, ἐάν, ἄν, ἵνα, ὅπως: Matthew 10:14, Mark 6:11; 12:19, Luke 9:5, John 6:50, Romans 11:25, al.
4. C. inf. (see M, Pr., 234f., 239, 255),
(a) after verbs of saying, etc.: Matthew 2:12; 5:34, Mark 12:18, Acts 15:38, Romans 2:21, al.;
(b) with artic. inf.: after a prep., Matthew 13:5, Mark 4:5, Acts 7:19, 1 Corinthians 10:6, al.; without a prep., Romans 14:13, 2 Corinthians 2:1, 13, 1 Thessalonians 4:6;
(with) in sentences expressing consequence, after ὥστε: Matthew 8:28, Mark 3:20, 1 Corinthians 1:7, 2 Corinthians 3:7, al.
5. C. ptcp. (see M, Pr., 231f., 239), in hypothetical references to persons of a certain character or description: Matthew 10:28; 12:30, Luke 6:49, John 3:18, Romans 4:5, 1 Corinthians 7:38, 1 John 3:10, al.; where the person or thing being definite, the denial is a matter of opinion: John 6:64, 1 Corinthians 1:28; 4:7, 18, 2 Corinthians 5:21, al.; where the ptcp. has a concessive, causal or conditional force, if, though, because not: Matthew 18:25, Luke 2:45, John 7:49, Acts 9:26, Romans 2:14; 5:13, 2 Corinthians 3:14, Galatians 6:9, Jude 5; where the ptcp. has a descriptive force (being such as), not: Acts 9:9, Romans 1:28, 1 Corinthians 10:33, Galatians 4:8, Hebrews 12:27, al.
6. μή prohibitive, in indep. sentences,
(a) with subjc. praes., 1 of person(s) pl.: Galatians 5:26; 6:9, 1 Thessalonians 5:6, 1 John 3:18;
(b) with imperat. praes., usually where one is bidden to desist from what has already begun (cf. M, Pr., 122ff.): Matthew 7:1, Mark 5:36, Luke 6:30, John 2:16; 5:45, Acts 10:15, Romans 11:18, James 2:1, Revelation 5:5, al.;
(with) forbidding that which is still future: with imperat. aor., 3 of person(s), Matthew 24:18, Mark 13:15, Luke 17:31, al.; with subjc. aor., 2 of person(s), Matthew 3:9; 10:26, Mark 5:7, Luke 6:29, John 3:7, Romans 10:6, al.;
(d) with optative, in wishes: 2 Timothy 4:16 (LXX); μὴ γένοιτο (see M, Pr., 194; Bl., §66, 1), Luke 20:16, Romans 3:3, al.; μή τις, Mark 13:5, al.
II. As a conj.,
1. after verbs of fearing, caution, etc., that, lest, perhaps (M, Pr., 192f.): with subjc. praes., Hebrews 12:15; with subjc. aor., Matthew 24:4, Mark 13:5, Luke 21:8, Acts 13:40, Galatians 5:15, al.; ὅρα μή (see M, Pr., 124, 178), elliptically, Revelation 19:10; 22:9; with indic, fut. (M, Pr., l.with), Colossians 2:8.
2. in order that not: with subjc. aor., Mark 13:36, 2 Corinthians 8:20; 12:6.
III. Interrogative, in hesitant questions (M, Pr., 170), or where a negative answer is expected: Matthew 7:9, 10, Mark 2:19, John 3:4, Romans 3:3; 10:18, 19, 1 Corinthians 1:13, al.; μή τις, Luke 22:35, al.; before οὐ (Romans 10:17, al. in Pl.), expecting an affirm, ans.; οὐ μή, Luke 18:7, John 18:11.
IV. οὐ μή as emphatic negation (cf. M, Pr., 188, 190ff.; Bl. §64, 5), not at all, by no means: with indic, fut., Matthew 16:22, John 6:35, Hebrews 10:17, al.; with subjc. aor., Matthew 24:2, Mark 13:2, Luke 6:37, John 13:8, 1 Corinthians 8:13, al.
Hebrew words it translates
Usage patterns
Occurrences
- 2 John 1:7μὴ · refusingFor many deceivers have gone out into the world, refusing to confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.
- Watch yourselves, so that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be fully rewarded.
- 2 John 1:9μὴ · withoutAnyone who runs ahead without remaining in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever remains in His teaching has both the Father and the Son.
- 2 John 1:10μὴ · {do} not; μὴ · [or]If anyone comes to you but does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home or even greet him.
- So if I come, I will call attention to his malicious slander against us. And unsatisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers and forbids those who want to do so, even putting them out of the church.
- 3 John 1:11μὴ · {do} notBeloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.
- Jude 1:5μὴAlthough you are fully aware of this, I want to remind you that after Jesus had delivered His people out of the land of Egypt, He destroyed those who did not believe.
- Jude 1:6μὴAnd the angels who did not stay within their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling—these He has kept in eternal chains under darkness, bound for judgment on that great day.
- These are the ones who cause divisions, who are worldly and devoid of the Spirit.
- Revelation 1:17Μὴ · {Do} notWhen I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. But He placed His right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last,
- Revelation 2:5μή; μὴTherefore, keep in mind how far you have fallen. Repent and perform the deeds you did at first. But if you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
- He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who overcomes will not be harmed by the second death.
- Therefore repent! Otherwise I will come to you shortly and wage war against them with the sword of My mouth.
- He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone inscribed with a new name, known only to the one who receives it.
- Behold, I will cast her onto a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds.
- Revelation 3:3μὴ; μὴRemember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know the hour when I will come upon you.
- Like them, he who overcomes will be dressed in white. And I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father and His angels.
- The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will never again leave it. Upon him I will write the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from My God), and My new name.
- I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, white garments so that you may be clothed and your shameful nakedness not exposed, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
- Revelation 5:5Μὴ · {Do} notThen one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
- And I heard what sounded like a voice from among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine.”
- Revelation 7:1μὴ · noAfter this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back its four winds so that no wind would blow on land or sea or on any tree.
- Revelation 7:3Μὴ · [Do] not“Do not harm the land or sea or trees until we have placed a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”
- ‘Never again will they hunger, and never will they thirst; nor will the sun beat down upon them, nor any scorching heat.’
- Then the fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun and moon and stars were struck. A third of the stars were darkened, a third of the day was without light, and a third of the night as well.
- Revelation 9:4μὴ · not; μὴThey were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
- The locusts were not given power to kill them, but only to torment them for five months, and their torment was like the stinging of a scorpion.
- In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will escape them.
- Now the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the works of their hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.
- Revelation 10:4μὴ · {do} notWhen the seven thunders had spoken, I was about to put it in writing. But I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.”
- Revelation 11:2μὴ · {Do} notBut exclude the courtyard outside the temple. Do not measure it, because it has been given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for 42 months.
- Revelation 11:6μὴ · noThese witnesses have power to shut the sky so that no rain will fall during the days of their prophecy, and power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish.
- The second beast was permitted to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship it to be killed.
- Revelation 13:17μή · no; μὴ…so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark—the name of the beast or the number of its name.
- And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. And no one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.
- Who will not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed.”
- “Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who remains awake and clothed, so that he will not go naked and let his shame be exposed.”
- Revelation 18:4μὴ; μὴThen I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins or contract any of her plagues.
- As much as she has glorified herself and lived in luxury, give her the same measure of torment and grief. In her heart she says, ‘I sit as queen; I am not a widow and will never see grief.’
- And they will say: “The fruit of your soul’s desire has departed from you; all your luxury and splendor have vanished, never to be seen again.”
- Then a mighty angel picked up a stone the size of a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying: “With such violence the great city of Babylon will be cast down, never to be seen again.
- Revelation 18:22μὴ; μὴ; μὴAnd the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will never ring out in you again. Nor will any craftsmen of any trade be found in you again, nor the sound of a millstone be heard in you again.