Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard3 AT earthlink.net>]

Dear Steve,
> > [Karl]:
> > This is where the understanding of the -MW suffix comes into play: 1)
> > does it always refer to the plural and 2) does it always refer to the
> > third person? The answer to both is "No". Just because it is appended
> > onto the L- prefix does not change its uses. And as I stated before,
> > one of its purposes is to refer back to the subject of the sentence
> > and/or context.
> >
> >     
>
> [Steve Miller] Karl, This is a good argument if the facts back you up.
> Please give me some other Hebrew words with the -MW suffix, so I can see if
> your #1) and #2) points above hold.


HH; I don't know about Karl's second point, but on the first one let me 
cite John Oswalt's commentary on Isaiah 40-66 (NICOT) as it looks at Isa 
53:8 in footnote 16 (p. 390):

MT LeMo would usually be translated "(belonging) to them." But Ps 11:7 
and Job 22:2 show that the suffix can be taken as a singular, as the 
Syriac and Vulgate have it here. LXX has "he was led to death" (LeMoT?), 
on the basis off which many commentators (e.g. Whybray) have adopted "he 
was stricken to death." But the LXX reading is made suspect by the 
tendency of this version to give creative readings for difficult MT 
passages in this composition (as also do the Syr. and Vulg.).

HH: Oswalt translates the verse in literalistic fashion: "From 
oppression and from judgment he was taken, and his generation, who has 
considered it? For he was cut off from the land of the living, from the 
transgressions of my people the blow is his.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard