Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Fernando Arias" <fernando.arias AT lycos.com>]

Dear members,
It's interesting to me that Elohim has a singular meaning in most of Genesis 
1, but in Genesis 1:26 is used with a plural form of the verb which has the 
prefix of Nun, N($H. My questions are:
1) Why is Elohim used with a singular meaning in most of Genesis 1 but it has 
a plural meaning in Genesis 1:26? 
2) Why does the verb RM$ in Genesis 1:26 take the prefix of letter H? What is 
the meaning of that prefix in combination with the verb? 
Thanks in advance for your answers,
Fernando



From 06peterson AT cua.edu Wed May 08 05:29:17 2002
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From: "Trevor & Julie Peterson" <06peterson AT cua.edu>
To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
Subject: RE: Elohim singular/plural in Genesis 1 and the prefix H before a 
verb
Date: Wed, 8 May 2002 05:28:30 -0400
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Fernando wrote:

> 2) Why does the verb RM$ in Genesis 1:26 take the prefix of
> letter H? What is the meaning of that prefix in combination with
> the verb?
> Thanks in advance for your answers,

"haremes haromes" is an attributive adjectival construction. Since the head
noun "haremes" is definite, the adjective--in this case a
participle--appears in the determined state. This is a function of the
adjectival quality of the participle (verbal adjective) "romes," rather than
verbal, and parallels the construction used to say something like "the good
word/the word that is good" (haddavar hattov).

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics