Biblical Hebrew Forum

[<pporta AT oham.net>]

> Genesis 2:23 - "...she shall be called woman".  YiQaReA (niphal), I had
> expected the feminine here.  It seems that there is a subliminal message 
> in
> this declaration by Adam, in that whereas he began the statement with 
> "ZOT"
> (this, feminine) he now refers to the woman with the masculine, signifying
> perhaps the reference to the fact that she(he?) was from HIS flesh and 
> with
> that he shows that he recognizes what has just taken place.  Am I making a
> fool of myself here?

Nothing at all, Chris.
Remark: you would be right if ZOT was the subject of YiQaReA.
But the subject or YiQaReA is not "ZOT". This "ZOT" has a lamed prefixed 
(LZOT) what does not allow it to be the subject of YiQaReA.
The sense of the text is: ...people/they/one will call this one (this 
female) woman because...
Namely, here the niphal gives to the sentence an impersonal meaning, like in 
French 'On l'appelera "femme"...' = elle sera appelée "femme".

Pere