Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Dear Peter:

The following is based on the difference between form and function.

On 7/5/07, Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org> wrote:
> On 05/07/2007 19:44, K Randolph wrote:
> > ...
> > In Isaiah 53:8 the noun "my people" is used grammatically as an
> > adjective, not used as a noun, hence it is not the subject of LMW. ...
>
> Karl, "my people" is not adjectival in Hebrew, but is the absolute part
> of a construct chain. This may be an argument that "my people" is not
> necessarily the subject of LMW. But it by no means proves that it is
> not.

The reason I repeated the use of "use" is to emphasize the adjectival
function of this use of the construct chain. Even in English, "because
of the rebellion of my people" 'of my people' functions adjectively to
modify 'rebellion'.

> .... There are certainly cases in the Hebrew Bible of pronouns referring
> back to the absolute parts of construct chains.
>
> A better argument is that the "he" throughout this passage is the
> servant, and this verse is unlikely to be an exception.
That's the argument according to context, and I agree with you there.

--
> Peter Kirk
> E-mail:  peter AT qaya.org
> Blog:    http://www.qaya.org/blog/
> Website: http://www.qaya.org/
Karl W. Randolph.