Deuteronomy 33:6 (KJV)
Let Reuben live, and not die; and let *not* his men be few.
Ex 33.6 Y:XiY R:)W.B"N W:)aL_YfMoT
WiYHiY M:TfYW MiS:P.fR
We have a poetic stich here. The 2nd line being a parallel to the 1st. Note the similarity between YfMoT [YMT] of line 1 and M:TfYW [MTYW] of line 2. The "let him not die" is played off against "his loins."
The first line reads Let Reuben live and not die
This is a jussive with the negative. The second line of the stich does not have the negative. MiS:PfR (= "number"> SfPaR "to count") with the negative it means "without number, innumerable", but without the negative means "few." <snip>
The Targum Onkelos reads "May Reuben live an everlasting life and not die a second death."
Jouon-Muraoka, _A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew_, ยง160q (p. 609) states "The negative of a verb can extend its force to a second juxtaposed verb . . ." Examples from passages follow which does not include Dt. 33.6 although no claim is made to being exhaustive.
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