וַתֹּ֧אמֶר הַבְּכִירָ֛ה אֶל־הַצְּעִירָ֖ה אָבִ֣ינוּ זָקֵ֑ן וְאִ֨ישׁ אֵ֤ין בָּאָ֙רֶץ֙ לָב֣וֹא עָלֵ֔ינוּ כְּדֶ֖רֶךְ כׇּל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃
And the older one said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is nobody else on earth to consort with us in the way of all the world.…”
(The above rendering comes from the RJPS translation, an adaptation of the NJPS translation. Before accounting for this rendering, I will analyze the plain sense of the Hebrew term containing אִישׁ, by employing a situation-oriented construal as outlined in this document, pp. 11–16.)
Here, as usual, אִישׁ is employed to schematically depict a situation. It marks the participant in question (in this case, a hypothetical person) as essential for grasping that situation. This is a classic function of the situating noun.
The word order of this verbless clause, which places the situating noun before the negator, signals a stronger implication than simply “no one”; rather, it means “not even a single person; no one at all.” (In technical terms, אִישׁ is marked for constituent focus via fronting before the negating word. With אַיִן, such fronting occurs only twice: here and in 1 Sam 21:2. Contrast the normal word order in Exod 2:12 and twelve other passages. See further §§8.2.1–2 in my 2020 dissertation.)
By the speaker’s mention of their father in her opening clause, and by the proposal that follows, she makes clear that she considers him to be a potential candidate. In that context, the usual “no exceptions” meaning of the fronted construction amounts to “nobody else (aside from him).”
Gender is germane, yet it goes without saying. Gender is not specified by the referring expression אִישׁ, given the non-specific (category) nature of the reference.
As for rendering into English, the NJPS rendering ‘and there is not a man on earth’ does not properly express the force of the clause. It also overemphasizes gender, which can go without saying in the translation, just as in the original. The revised rendering corrects both of the above nuances. (For the addition of “else” in NJPS renderings involving אִישׁ, see, e.g., Gen 31:50; 45:1; Exod 34:3.)