Senses
1. therefore, for this reason, on this account — The adverbial phrase ki 'al ken meaning 'therefore, for this reason, on this account' — a causal/inferential conjunction linking a reason to its consequence; Arabic هٰذَا (hadha) 'this' and ذٰلِكَ (dhalika) 'that' used deictically to point back to the stated cause; Korean 까닭에 (kkadak-e) 'for the reason' and 그렇게 (geureoke) 'so/thus'; Spanish así/esto 'thus/this'; Hindi कारण (kaaran) 'reason' and इसलिए (isliye) 'therefore'; Swahili hivyo 'thus' and kwa hiyo 'therefore.' Both clusters represent the identical causal adverb with no semantic distinction — the 7-occurrence cluster and the 2-occurrence cluster differ only in minor translational variation across target languages, not in underlying Hebrew meaning. All 9 occurrences function as discourse connectors establishing cause-result relationships. 9×
AR["ذٰلِكَ","لِذٰلِكَ","هذا","هَذَا","هٰذَا"]·ben["এই","এই-কারণে","এই-জন্য","এইজন্য","এইরূপ","কেন","তাই","সেই"]·DE["-","seid-ihr","sind-sie","so"]·EN["so","thus"]·FR["ainsi"]·heb["כן"]·HI["इसलिए","इसी","इसी-लिए","ऐसा","करन","कारण","कि"]·ID["demikian","itu","sebab-itu"]·IT["cosi","così"]·jav["makaten","mekaten","punika"]·KO["그같이","그래서","그러므로","그렇게","까닭에"]·PT["assim","isso","isto"]·RU["именно","сём-основании","так","то","этом"]·ES["así","esto","tanto"]·SW["ambapo","hivi","hivyo","kwa","kwa-hiyo"]·TR["bu","böyle","öyle"]·urd["اسی-لئے","اسی-لیے","اِس","اِسی-لیے"]
BDB / Lexicon Reference
† כִּי עַל כֵּן forasmuch as, a peculiar phrase found Gn 18:5; 19:8; 33:10; 38:26 Nu 10:31; 14:43 Ju 6:22 2 S 18:20 Qr (rightly), Je 29:28; 38:4—lit. for therefore, emphasizing the ground pleonastically (Ew§ 353 a). The orig. force of the phrase is traceable in some of the passages in which it occurs, as Gn 18:5 let me fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort your heart; כִּי־עַל־כֵּן עֲבַרְתֶּם עַל…