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  • From: Trevor Peterson <06PETERSON AT cua.edu>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] Exodus 3:7
  • Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 08:00:38 -0400

>===== Original Message From Daniel Walin <danserve4x AT yahoo.com> =====
>I
>apologize for not transliterating the Hebrew, but I am
>unaware of the system used by the list.

There is a recommended method, but pretty much everyone does what's right in
their own eyes :-)
>
[snipped]
>
>If all three uses of the suffixes do in fact refer
>back to the "my people," why is one suffix plural
>while the other two are singular? Is there a reason
>for this, or is it a grammatically inconsistent aspect
>of the language?

Good eye! It's important to watch for this sort of thing. Honestly, I don't
know why the number changes. 'am is collective, so I think either pronoun
form
should be OK, but there's no clear reason to use both. I would expect
singulars across the board, but I wouldn't be surprised to see plurals. The
combination does seem odd, though. Notice a bit further down in v. 9 that the
forms are plural. Here, the reference is to bne-yisrael, which is clearly
plural. tsa'aqa is used in both vv., which isn't an obvious reason to use
plural in v. 7, but I'd probably think about the possible connection a while,
especially since the anomalous pronoun is attached to this noun in particular.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics





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