# 免得 Introduces 192 Negative Purposes

> 免得 introduces the outcome an action is meant to prevent in 192 clauses of the Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified) — lest, so that not.

**Pattern:** clause + 免得 + the thing avoided
**HSK level:** 6 — the highest HSK level of the point's own function words, as data/dict.json grades them; a word the HSK lists do not grade sends the point to 'beyond'
**Rule used to find it:** 免得 with another word after it in the same clause — the outcome being avoided.
**Confidence:** counted — 30 of 192 matches checked, 100% correct, by Claude Opus 5, reading each sampled clause in context; not a native speaker

免得 is the negative purpose clause in one word: 免得你们死, lest you die; 免得遭这样的伤损, to avoid this harm. It sits at the head of the clause it negates, and nothing else in that clause needs a negation — the word carries it.

The Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified) uses 免得 194 times. 2 of those occurrences are the same words doing something else.

It is an unusually clean pattern to learn from this text, because the material keeps producing reasons not to do things. Leviticus and Deuteronomy account for a large share of it.

It is commonest in Deuteronomy, with 18 of them, and 69% of all of them fall in the Old Testament — which is mostly a statement about length, since the Old Testament is the longer part of the book.

## Examples

- **Luke 4:11** — 他们要用手托着你， 免得你的脚碰在石头上。」
  - tā men yào yòng shǒu tuō zhe nǐ ，  miǎn de nǐ de jiǎo pèng zài shí tou shàng 。」
  - and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone.’”
  - construction: 免得你
- **Psalms 91:12** — 他们要用手托着你， 免得你的脚碰在石头上。
  - tā men yào yòng shǒu tuō zhe nǐ ，  miǎn de nǐ de jiǎo pèng zài shí tou shàng 。
  - They will bear you up in their hands, so that you won’t dash your foot against a stone.
  - construction: 免得你
- **Genesis 11:4** — 他们说：「来吧！我们要建造一座城和一座塔，塔顶通天，为要传扬我们的名，免得我们分散在全地上。」
  - tā men shuō ：「 lái ba ！ wǒ men yào jiàn zào yí zuò chéng hé yí zuò tǎ ， tǎ dǐng tōng tiān ， wèi yào chuán yáng wǒ men de míng ， miǎn de wǒ men fēn sàn zài quán dì shang 。」
  - They said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth.”
  - construction: 免得我们
- **1 Corinthians 11:34** — 若有人饥饿，可以在家里先吃，免得你们聚会，自己取罪。其余的事，我来的时候再安排。
  - ruò yǒu rén jī è ， kě yǐ zài jiā lǐ xiān chī ， miǎn de nǐ men jù huì ， zì jǐ qǔ zuì 。 qí yú de shì ， wǒ lái de shí hou zài ān pái 。
  - But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest your coming together be for judgment. The rest I will set in order whenever I come.
  - construction: 免得你们
- **Malachi 4:6** — 他必使父亲的心转向儿女，儿女的心转向父亲，免得我来咒诅遍地。」
  - tā bì shǐ fù qīn de xīn zhuǎn xiàng ér nǚ ， ér nǚ de xīn zhuǎn xiàng fù qīn ， miǎn de wǒ lái zhòu zǔ biàn dì 。」
  - He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
  - construction: 免得我
- **Leviticus 18:28** — 免得你们玷污那地的时候，地就把你们吐出，像吐出在你们以先的国民一样。
  - miǎn de nǐ men diàn wū nà dì de shí hou ， dì jiù bǎ nǐ men tǔ chū ， xiàng tǔ chū zài nǐ men yǐ xiān de guó mín yí yàng 。
  - that the land not vomit you out also, when you defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.
  - construction: 免得你们

## The words this point is built on

| Word | Reading | HSK | Occurrences |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 免得 | miǎn de | 6 | 194 |

The HSK column is the level data/dict.json gives the word, and it is what puts this point at level 6.

## What those occurrences are doing

|  | Occurrences | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| the construction | 192 | 99% |
| the same words doing something else | 2 | 1% |

## Where it occurs most

| Book | Clauses |
| --- | --- |
| Deuteronomy | 18 |
| Leviticus | 16 |
| Numbers | 14 |
| 1 Corinthians | 12 |
| Genesis | 11 |

Counted from what the rule matched, before the audit — a ranking, not a published total.

## Questions

**How is it different from 为了?**

为了 introduces a purpose to be achieved and does not occur in this translation at all. 免得 introduces one to be avoided, and occurs constantly.

**How often does it occur in the Chinese Bible?**

192 clauses in the Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified), out of 194 occurrences of the words that mark it.

**Which book of the Bible uses it most?**

Deuteronomy, with 18 — followed by Leviticus (16), Numbers (14), 1 Corinthians (12).

**How do you know the count is right?**

The rule is: 免得 with another word after it in the same clause — the outcome being avoided. 30 of its 192 matches were drawn at random and checked one by one; 100% were right. Recall is not measured, so the figure is what this rule finds, not everything the translation contains.

Page: https://chinese-bible.com/en/grammar/miande-lest

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