בִּי
bi (H0994)
please
AI Word Study
# Biblical Hebrew Word Analysis: בִּי (bi) The Hebrew word *bi* functions as an emphatic particle meaning "please" and appears twelve times throughout the biblical text. As a short, frequently used word, it serves a pragmatic communicative function—softening requests and appeals by adding politeness or urgency to direct speech. The particle operates at the grammatical level of discourse management rather than carrying semantic weight on its own; instead, it modifies the tone of surrounding utterances. Given its modest frequency of occurrence (12 instances), *bi* represents a minor but recognizable element of biblical conversational style. Its presence in dialogue suggests that ancient Hebrew speakers, like modern language users, employed politeness markers when making requests of others. The word's consistent definition across all occurrences indicates it maintained a stable grammatical and social function throughout the biblical period, with no significant variation in meaning or usage pattern recorded in the lexical data provided. The limited scope of the available data—a single-word definition without specific contextual citations—prevents deeper analysis of whether *bi* appears more frequently in certain literary genres, speaker types, or social contexts. However, the word's inclusion in the biblical lexicon documents that ancient Hebrew possessed explicit markers for requesting courtesy, a feature common to human languages across cultures and time periods.
AI synthesis uses only provided lexicon data -- never training knowledge.
and said, “Oh, my lord, we indeed came down the first time to buy food.
Then Judah came near to him, and said, “Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears, and don’t let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even as Pharaoh.
Moses said to Yahweh, “O Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before now, nor since you have spoken to your servant; for I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.”
Moses said, “Oh, Lord, please send someone else.”
Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, please don’t count this sin against us, in which we have done foolishly, and in which we have sinned.
Oh, Lord, what shall I say, after Israel has turned their backs before their enemies?
Gideon said to him, “Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, ‘Didn’t Yahweh bring us up from Egypt?’ But now Yahweh has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian.”
He said to him, “O Lord, how shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
Then Manoah entreated Yahweh, and said, “Oh, Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come again to us, and teach us what we should do to the child who shall be born.”
She said, “Oh, my lord, as your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood by you here, praying to Yahweh.
The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house. I delivered a child with her in the house.
Then the woman whose the living child was spoke to the king, for her heart yearned over her son, and she said, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no way kill him!” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours. Divide him.”