Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dr. Joel M. Hoffman" <joel AT exc.com>]

>Specifically looking at Joshua 24:19 and Exodus 23:21.
>
>Please could someone tell me the point in prefixing the Lamed to the nouns
>in these instances?  Reading elsewhere I see rthat it is also not really
>necessary. What is the difference please?

This construction (also found in Genesis 50:17, I Sam. 25:28, Psalms
25:18 and the DSS) seems to be part of the way the verb Nun.Sin.Aleph
works, and probably expresses a nuance of which we are no longer
aware.

Genesis 50:17 is particularly interesting, because there we see the
verb twice, once with and once without a Lamed.  The LXX translation
does not use the same Greek verb for both instances of the Hebrew
verb, buttressing the notion that the Lamed changes the meaning of the
verb.

In general, the preposition used with a verb in a given language is
idiosyncratic.  In Modern Hebrew, the hiphil verb HE'EMIN ("belive")
takes "L-" to mean "believe (that someone is telling the truth"), for
example, but "B-" to mean "believe in (have faith in)."  The kal verb
NAShAQ ("to kiss") takes "L-," but the piel verb with essentially the
same meaning takes "ET."

-Joel