Biblical Hebrew Forum

["K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Harold:

On 11/20/06, Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com> wrote:
> K Randolph wrote:
> > On 11/20/06, Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com> wrote:
> >> kenneth greifer wrote:
> >> >
> >> > Can't Haggai 2:7 be the plural "desires" or "desired things" the
> >> way it is
> >> > spelled?
> >>
> >> HH: The Masoretic pointing suggests a singular to the grammarians. Since
> >> you are not "that educated," you need to accept their judgment.
> >>
> >>
> > Harold, what do you do with the plural verb for that subject?
> > Remember, the waw for the fem. plural was optional and the Masoretic
> > pointing was off often enough so we should take it only as a
> > suggestion, so would not the context indicate a plural?
> HH: I am unsure what you are talking about when you speak of a waw for
> the feminine plural of the verb ...

Noun, not verb.

> ... being optional. Obviously the verb is
> masculine in Hag 2:7.

It is a Qal perfective common plural, i.e. it can take either masc. or
fem. subjects.

> ... Perhaps you mean that it was optional for feminine
> words to take a masculine plural verb. Yes, that is true. As for the
> rest of your question, please read through the thread. I have accepted
> from the start that the verb is plural and suggests a plural. Steve is
> arguing that one can account for the plural by supposing that "desire"
> refers to God, and since God sometimes refers to Himself in terms of
> "us," Steve thinks that "desire" can take a plural verb for that reason.
> The entire argument is unacceptable to me.
>
> Yours,
> Harold Holmyard

The theological perspective should be considered only after all
linguistic questions have been answered, and in this case, the
grammatical structure and context indicate that the subject is not
God.

In this context, we have a plural verb with a fem. subject in
construct hence ending with a tau. However, the waw indicating that
this is a plural fem. noun is optional, so the noun can be either
sing. or plural. The context of the plural verb indicates plurality
for the noun.

The Masoretic pointing is wrong.

Karl W. Randolph.