Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard3 AT earthlink.net>]

B. M. Rocine wrote:
> Thank you for your answers.
>
> 'emet is a noun!  Ah, yes, right you are!  ;-)
>
> But it is very common for a noun in the genitive case (the one at the 
> end of a construct chain) to be used adjectivally.  har qodshi = my holy 
> mountain  The noun qodshi is not best thought of as "my holiness"; it is 
> better thought of as an adjective.  See Waltke and O'Connor 9.5.3 if you 
> are not familiar with this type of idiom.  'emet is used this way in the 
> construction 'anshey 'emet as I mentioned.  I can think of'elohey 'emet 
> ("true God"), sephat 'emet ("truthful speech"), and others, I imagine.
>
> le'emet is not straightforward.  It is the only case of lamed being 
> prefixed to the noun 'emet, which we all know is very often prefixed by 
> bet.  In fact, except for Isa 42:3 bet is the *only* clitic preposition 
> used with 'emet.  Only two or three other times is the 
> independent-standing preposition 'el before 'emet. 
>
> Maybe Isa 42:3 is a "typo."  ;-)
>   

Hh: Look, this is not a typo. The construction is very straight forward, 
and there is really no controversy about it. It is not complicated at 
all but a quite common use of lamed. See Ronald J. Williams, Hebrew 
Syntax, #273, the lamed of norm or manner. He even cites this phrase in 
Isa 42:3 as an example, translating it "faithfully."

Yours,
Harold Holmyard