Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter_Kirk AT sil.org]

L. Martin wrote: "Thus, in every case where God is the subject of a 
niphal verb, it must logically be tolerative."

Hold on, this is getting a bit theological and/or philosophical. OK, 
in one sense anything that happens is tolerated by God. But consider 
the niphal of YR' "fear", of which God is often the subject. Do we 
really have to take this to mean that God allows himself to be feared, 
by men, or simply that men, of their own free will, fear God. The 
argument would be even stronger with a negative verb e.g. &N' "hate", 
but fortuately for your thesis the niphal of &N' is not used with God 
as subject.

Peter Kirk