Bal is a poetic adverb of negation that serves as an elevated alternative to the common Hebrew lo ('not'). It appears almost exclusively in poetry — overwhelmingly in the Psalms and Isaiah, with scattered occurrences in Hosea, Proverbs, and one passage in Chronicles. Its characteristic usage marks solemn, often defiant declarations of trust: 'I shall not be moved' (Ps 16:8; 30:6; 46:5), and sweeping negations of the wicked — 'there is no God' in the fool's heart (Ps 10:4). Isaiah uses it in extended sequences of negation to paint eschatological tableaux of security (Isa 33:20-24). The word carries no semantic content beyond negation; its distinction is purely stylistic and register-based. Spanish no, French ne...pas, and German nicht all render it identically to lo, confirming that the difference is poetic register, not meaning.