Biblical Hebrew Forum

["wattswestmaas" <wattswestmaas AT eircom.net>]

At the risk of irritating the board members I pose another question please.

What appears as a 'good old fashioned simple command' by Moses has me
somewhat bewildered.  It surrounds the way in which the verb SHaLaCH is
"chosen" to convey a simple statement.  Infinite construct in the Piel
stem??  I have to recall that only an Infinite Absolute can be used as an
imperative, but either way can anyone show me why this straightforward
verbal sense of "SEND" or "Let my people go" should be so (spoken) in the
Inf Const piel manner.  Some english translators translate as "send" others
as "let my people go" how do we arrive 'grammatically' at the latter ( I see
that the verb take the direct object of God's people), if piel often
intensifies the qal I do not see how we can intensify "send';  on the other
hand infinite construct is a verbal noun (or taking the place of a noun) and
therefore both "send" and "let my people go" are difficult to justify.

I am not trying to see hidden meanings or change anything I am just trying
to understand and appreciate the writer's odd choice of 'Grammar'.


Thankyou and regards to all.

Chris.