Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter_Kirk AT sil.org]

I wonder if Bryan and Paul got it right the first time in taking 
w.&:m"xiym as the participle of &MX "rejoice" rather than as the 
adjective &FM"AX. If so, they are folowing BDB, which suggests &FM"AX 
as the irregular form of the participle of &MX, although &OM"AX would 
normally be expected. Thus BDB suggests that &FM"AX had participle 
force in 1 Kings 1:40, 4:20, 2 Kings 11:14 = 2 Chr. 23:13, and Ec. 
2:10. There is apparently no other participle form of &MX. I suppose 
the reason for the variant form (at least here and in 4:20) could 
simply be that the dot of the holem became merged with the dot of the 
sin, and so it looked as if the consonant was vowel-less, so some 
scribe moved the shewa from the waw to the sin and added the dagesh to 
the waw to tidy up. This understanding would certainly avoid the need 
for the type of grammatical gymnastics which are being suggested and 
make the verse in question really rather simple.

Peter Kirk