u.lay marks an outcome, condition, or possibility presented as uncertain rather than assured.

Across the supplied verses, the adverb introduces a possibility whose result remains open: a hoped-for response, an uncertain condition, a proposed course of action, or a feared outcome. It can frame appeals for divine action, practical plans, and repeated questions about whether persons or circumstances may prove otherwise.

1. An uncertain possibility or hoped-for outcome · dominant

   Used as an adverb to introduce an outcome that speakers neither assert nor dismiss. In Genesis 18:24 it opens Abraham's question about righteous persons being in the city; in 1 Samuel 14:6 it precedes Jonathan's expectation that the LORD may act; and in Jeremiah 26:3 it introduces the possibility that the people may listen and turn from evil. The same open-ended framing appears with feared results in Genesis 27:12 and with proposed action in Numbers 23:3.

   Genesis 18:241 Samuel 14:6Jeremiah 26:3Genesis 27:12Numbers 23:3Amos 5:15

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB commonly presents the adverb with "perhaps," especially where a hoped-for, feared, or conditional result is stated. In Genesis 32:21 and Numbers 22:33, the supplied translation does not visibly preserve that wording, so its precise English correspondence is not consistently recoverable from the translation alone.