Greek:
The negative particles are οὐ and μή.
- οὐ is the negative of fact and statement, and contradicts or denies;
- μή is the negative of the will and thought, and rejects or deprecates. Smyth §2688
- Used together, ου μη are the strongest possible way to negate something in the Greek language; cf GGBB 468.
- For ουδεις, see Smyth §2736.
A double negative strengthens the negation. video
Hebrew:
In Hebrew, the negatives are לֹא and אַל (video). Ewald writes (p186):
The two negative particles לֹא and אַל, which are the simplest, and at the same time the most widely prevalent throughout the language, may have originally sprung from the same root; but, looking at the use actually made of the forms, as these have now been developed in the history of the Hebrew language, they are always distinguished in such a way that
(a) אַל [the subjective negative], like the Greek μή, merely expresses a negation in accordance with the mind and feeling of the speaker: hence, it is employed only with the imperfect, and this, too, mostly the voluntative, as,
אַל יָמֹת let him not die!
אַל אֵבוֹשָׁה may I not be ashamed! (Psalm 25:2);
(b) לֹא, on the other hand, is the direct [objective] negative, non, οὐκ, as,
לֹא הָלַךְ he is not gone;
hence, in contradistinction with אַל, it may, before the imperfect (rarely the voluntative, Genesis 24:8), set forth a command as an objective (i.e. pressing) necessity; thus,
לֹא תִרְצַח thou shalt not kill! but
אַל תִּרְצַח do not kill! (Regarding this, see further, §328c)
It is but seldom that אַל occurs in mere predicative sentences; even then, however, it always expresses a more hearty sympathy on the part of the speaker, like οὐ μή, as, Psalms 41:3, 50:3 34:6, Jeremiah 14:17, 2 Chronicles 14:11; and in this way they interchange in poetry, perhaps merely through the change from one member to another, Jeremiah 7:6.
אַיִן or אֵין are sometimes called adverbs of existence; see §152i.
See also negating infinitive construct (video) and infinitive absolute (video).