Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>]

"...and an angel of Hashem stood on the road TO IMPEDE HIM (Ba'derech 
le'satan lo)...."

Verb

If there were not the words Ba'derech before, and lo after, and if 
the lamed was "la" instead of "le", then maybe a noun

Shoshanna




Looking at the context, it is clearly a verb, infinitive. This is not
a common verb (nor noun, for that matter) so that it could be found
only once in this particular form in Tanakh is not surprising.
However, it follows well attested to patterns.

Karl W. Randolph.

On 7/9/06, Joel Stucki <joel AT stucki.ws> wrote:
> On 7/9/06, MarjorieAlley AT cs.com <MarjorieAlley AT cs.com> wrote:
> > Two Jewish acquaintances claim that S+N in Numbers 22:22 is a verb, and the
> > lamed is the sign of the infinitive.
> >
> > I have always taken S+N in this verse to be a noun, and I read the lamed as
> > the preposition.
> >
> > Comments would be welcome.
> >
> > Many thanks,
> > Marjorie Alley
> >
> As currently voweled it clearly references the noun Satan or
> adversary. It could be revoweled to "Liston" to be an infinitive but
> this exact form is not attested elsewhere in the Tanakh. The closest
> to such usage would be Zech 3:1 which has and infinitive construct and
> which interestingly also involves an Angel of the Lord.
> Both readings seem to give the same sense: "to [be] an adversary" and
> "to act as an aversary"
> Joel Stucki
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