Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

>===== Original Message From Bearpecs AT aol.com =====
>Dahood, Freedman, Cross (and I'm sure others) make the point that the
>definite articles was a late development in Hebrew and archaic or
>archaizing texts (such as many Psalms) may omit it.  In those texts,
>there may well be reason, therefore, to include it in the translation
>even if lacking in the original.

Note also that Hebrew poetry in general tends to lack certain "prose 
particles," including the definite article, the marker of the definite direct 
object, and others. Of the above-mentioned scholars, I know Freedman has done 
some work evaluating frequencies of these particles to determine what 
qualifies as poetry or prose. That's not to say these particles never appear 
in Hebrew poetry, but they are often absent, where we might expect them from 
normal prose constructions.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics