Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard3 AT earthlink.net>]

Dear David,

Here is Ehrensvärd's sixth example, taken from 
Gen 16:7:

(6) The angel of the Lord found Hagar near the 
spring [(YN HM] ("Spring of water") in
the desert, the spring by the road to Shur (Gen 16,7)
This was probably a known spring, and in addition, 
it is a case of
cataphoric 15 reference: “the spring in the 
desert, [i.e.] the spring by
the road to Shur”.

The problem with this argument is that the 
biblical author would start by saying "by the 
spring of water in the wilderness." Is he saying 
that there was only one spring in the entire 
wilderness? I highly doubt it but that's what the 
words would imply. If he clarifies "by the spring 
of water in the wilderness" with "by the spring 
beside the road to Shur," he seems to be 
excessively wordy. It seems he could have just 
said "by the spring in the wilderness beside the 
road to Shur." A certain indefiniteness can 
explain his otherwise repetitive wording: "by a 
spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring 
beside the road to Shur."

It seems to me that it is the capacity of the 
Hebrew article to express a generic idea for cases 
where in English we'd use the indefinite that 
allows for a certain indefiniteness (a generic 
quality) to these examples treated by Ehrensvärd.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard