Biblical Hebrew Forum

["B. M. Rocine" <brocine AT twcny.rr.com>]

Hi Chris, you wrote:
----- Original Message -----

 Your patience is appreciated for such
> unchallenging questions.
>

What else would we do on a freezing cold Sat. morning in Syracuse, NY?  ;-)

Seriously, answering questions for students of the language is one of the
missions of this list.  After all, we are all students of this language!

You might consider getting a reference grammar or two.  More is better.  Not
to stop you from asking questions of b-hebrew...it's just that there is a
great deal to say about some questions such as yours.  Different grammarians
have surprisingly different things to say.  Some widely recognized grammars
include:
A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar by van der Merwe, Naude and Kroeze.

Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax by Waltke and O'Connor.

A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew by Jouon, trans with additions by Muraoka.

Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar, edited and enlarged by Kautzsch and translated by
Cowley.

> OK - Can someone explain the phenomenen why in Hebrew the following
> construction is employed?
>
> 'PaKoD' before the actual verb proper - in many instances (Gen 50:24 and
> 25, Ex 3:16 given for referece) and such as in 1 Sam 20:6 the verb
> 'NiSHoL' before 'NiSHAL')
>

Yup, it's a double verb; the extra one you have noted, often with a holem
(/o/ sound) after the second root letter, is called an infinitve absolute.
As an infinitive it is indeed a verb, but it is rather "nounish."  What I
mean is that it refers to a verbal action or state as a thing like the
English gerund in "I love swimming" or "Swimming is great exercise."  You
could woodenly translate your first citation in Gen 50:24 "_a visiting_ God
will visit you."  As I'm sure you realize, it means that God will
_definitely_ visit someone.

The infinitive absolute has several functions in BH syntax, but you ask
specifically about the infinitive absolute paired with a regularly
conjugated verb.  The significance of the infinitive absolute used as an
internal object as in your examples must be determined precisely from the
context.  Some of the common possiblities for significance include:

1.  removing the doubt inherent to a modal proposition.  e.g. _tamut_ can
mean "you may die," but _mot tamut_ means "you will definitely die."

2.  it can be used in a rhetorical question to express utter impossibility
as in _hamalok timlok_ "will you at all reign?"

3.  it can be used to intensify the sense of the verbal activity of the main
verb as in _'akol to'kal_ "you may eat freely."

Perhaps other b-hebrew members will add more information.  There certainly
is a lot more in the reference grammars.

Hoping to help a little, Bryan


B. M. Rocine
Living Word Church
6101 Court St. Rd.
Syracuse, NY 13206

ph: 315.437.6744
fx: 315.437.6766