Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lee R. Martin" <lmartin AT vol.com>]

Dear Bryan,
I haven't studied every occurrence of HYH either, but your examples below are
easily explained.
Re: Gen 3:22 "the man is (or has become) like one of us".  In this case HYH
cannot be followed by L, because L'CHaD would say "the man became one of
us."  The necessity of using C, "like" precludes the use of L.  On the other
hand, HYH may be a present perfect as is common with other verbs like YaD`.

Re: Gen. 15:17 "the sun set and thick darkness came"
It seems to me that HYH is not "became" but "came," in the same way that "the
spirit of Yahweh came upon .... " and  "the word of Yahweh came..." in other
contexts.

I am sure that HYH needs more study, and you may be right.

Lee R. Martin

Bryan Rocine wrote:

> hi, Lee,
>
> i haven't done a dedicated study on hyh + L, but cf. Gen 3:22 or 15:17
> where it seems to mean *become* without lamed with 11:3 where it seems to
> refer to the continuation of a state with lamed.
>
> ----------
> > From: Lee R. Martin <lmartin AT vol.com>
> > To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> > Subject: Re: Gen 1.1-2, hyh
> > Date: Tuesday, January 05, 1999 10:26 PM
> >
>
> > > Bryan Rocine wrote:
>
> > > given the loaded use of hyh
> > > > in Gen 1, might weha'arec hayta tohu vabohu mean "and the earth
> > > > *became*..." or "and the earth had become..."?
> >
> > When HYH means "became" it is followed by the preposition L, e.g.
> Gen.2:7.
> >