Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

> Although I have been endeavoring to learn Biblical Hebrew in my spare
> time, I have as yet had no formal instruction beyond interacting with my
> computer program (this will hopefully change when I leave for college) and
> so this question may be simplistic.  Forgive me, the program I am using
> seems to be good for vocabulary but not so great on teaching me grammar.
> 
> I recently purchased a Hebrew Bible and began to peruse it, starting at
> the beginning.  I recognized most of the words in Genesis 1:1 and I now
> understand each except for the word "et" that appears to be used twice,
> once by itself and the second time with a vav prefix, I assume indicating
> the "and."  My question is this:  what is the function of this word?  It
> doesn't seem to me to have any word-for-word correspondence with the
> English translations, so what is the idea behind it?
> 
It's a grammatical marker indicating that the next word is the direct 
object of the verb.

Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
You know you're a lousy artist when you can't
draw a straight line on an Etch-a-Sketch.