lu · if only

What it means

lu (לוּא) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “if only”.

Oh that; also "if".

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. A word that voices a strong wish that something were otherwise: «if only…».
2. A word that supposes something possible, to say «if perhaps» or «even though».

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• If only ×13
• if ×8
• There is not ×1
• let it be ×1

Where it appears

• Genesis×4
• Numbers×4
• Deuteronomy×1
• Joshua×1
• Judges×2
• 1 Samuel×1
• 2 Samuel×2
• Job×3
• Psalms×1
• Isaiah×3
• Ezekiel×1
• Micah×1

• Genesis 17:18

  Abraham said to Elohim, “If only Ishmael might live before you!”

• Genesis 23:13

  and he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, “If only you would hear me! I give the silver for the field; take it from me, and let me bury my dead there.”

• Genesis 30:34

  Laban said, “Very well; let it be according to your word.”

• Genesis 50:15

  When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the evil that we did to him?”

• Numbers 14:2

  And all the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole community said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or in this wilderness, if only we had died!

• Numbers 20:3

  And the people quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had expired when our brothers expired before YHWH!

• Numbers 22:29

  And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a fool of me! If only there were a sword in my hand, for now I would have killed you!”

• Deuteronomy 32:29

  If only they were wise, they would understand this; they would consider their end!

• Joshua 7:7

  And Joshua said, “Alas, Adonai YHWH! Why did you bring this people all the way across the Jordan to give us into the hand of the Amorite, to make us perish? If only we had been content to stay beyond the Jordan!

• Judges 8:19

  He said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As surely as YHWH lives, if you had let them live, I would not kill you.”

• Judges 13:23

  But his wife said to him, “If YHWH had wanted to put us to death, he would not have accepted from our hand a burnt offering and a grain offering, and he would not have shown us all these things, and he would not now have let us hear things like this.”

• 1 Samuel 14:30

  How much more if only the people had eaten freely today from the spoil of their enemies that they found! For now the blow among the Philistines has not been great.”

• 2 Samuel 18:12

  The man said to Joab, “Even if I were weighing on my palms a thousand shekels of silver, I would not put out my hand against the son of the king; for in our ears the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, ‘Protect, whoever you are, the young man, Absalom.’

• 2 Samuel 19:6

  by loving those who hate you and hating those who love you. For you have made known today that commanders and servants are nothing to you; for I know today that if Absalom were alive and all of us dead today, then it would be right in your eyes.

• Job 6:2

  “If only my vexation were truly weighed, and my calamity lifted onto the scales together.

• Job 9:33

  There is not between us an arbiter who might lay his hand on us both.

• Job 16:4

  I also could speak like you, if your soul were in place of my soul; I could string together words against you, and shake my head at you.

• Psalms 81:13

  If only my people would listen to me, if Israel would walk in my ways!

• Isaiah 48:18

  If only you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like the river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;

• Isaiah 63:19

  We have become like those over whom from of old you have not ruled, upon whom your name has not been called.

• Isaiah 64:1

  If only you would tear open the heavens and come down, that the mountains would melt before you,

• Ezekiel 14:15

  If I made a ferocious animal pass through the land, and it left it childless, and it became a desolation without anyone passing through because of the animal,

• Micah 2:11

  If a man walking in wind and falsehood should lie: ‘I will drip words to you of wine and of intoxicating drink,’ he would be the one who drips words for this people.

And 1 more times.