Word Summary
ophelon: would that (used to express an unattainable wish)
Original Word: ὄφελονTransliteration: ophelon
Phonetic Spelling: (of'-el-on)
Part of Speech: Verb
Short Definition: would that (used to express an unattainable wish)
Meaning: would that (used to express an unattainable wish)
Strong's Concordance
would that, I wish
First person singular of a past tense of opheilo; I ought (wish), i.e. (interjection) oh that! -- would (to God).
see GREEK opheilo
Thayer's Greek Lexicon
STRONGS NT 3785: ὄφελονὄφελον (for
ὠφελον, without the augment, 2 aorist of
ὀφείλω; in earlier Greek with an infinitive, as
ὠφελον θανεῖν,
I ought to have died, expressive of a wish, equivalent to
would that I were dead; in later Greek it assumes the nature of an interjection, to be rendered)
would that, where one wishes that a thing had happened which has not happened, or that a thing be done which probably will not be done (cf.
Winers Grammar, 301f (283);
Buttmann, § 150, 5): with an optative present
Revelation 3:15 Rec.; with an indicative imperfect, Rev. ibid.
G L T Tr WH;
2 Corinthians 11:1 (
Epictetus diss. 2, 18, 15;
Ignatius ad Smyrn. c. 12 [ET]); with an indicative aorist,
1 Corinthians 4:8 (
Psalm 118:5 (); ὄφελον ἀπεθάνομεν, Exodus 16:3; Numbers 14:2; Numbers 20:3); with the future, Galatians 5:12 (Lucian, soloec. (or Pseudosoph.) 1, where this construction is classed as a solecism). Cf. Passow, ii., p. 603{a}; (Liddell and Scott, under the word ὀφείλω, II. 3).