Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Trevor Peterson <06PETERSON AT cua.edu>]

>===== Original Message From "Lisbeth S. Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu> =====
>How should one parse this verse?
>"Am I the fast you fast for me"?
>What sense does that make?
>What is the "ani" doing there?

Probably intensifying the pronominal suffix. Neither one is what we would 
immediately expect, but it does happen that an intransitive verb can become 
transitive and take a pronominal suffix instead of l- plus the appropriate 
pronoun. GKC addresses this in 117x. So I'd take it that "hatsom tsamtuni 
ani" 
is int. pref. + inf. abs. + pft. vb. + obj. suff. + indep. pron., the inf. 
abs. strengthening the facticity of the questioned action--did you really 
fast?--and the indep. pron. drawing focus to the object--was it really for me 
that you fasted?

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics