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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Ecclesiastes 3:11

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  • From: Martin Shields <enkidu AT bigpond.net.au>
  • To: Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Ecclesiastes 3:11
  • Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2007 23:39:26 +1100

Hi Yitzhak,

But ?$r doesn't work in Biblical syntax in this way. ?$r generally stands between the subordinate clause and the main sentence, as a connection between the two. If the subordinate clause needs to refer to the antecedent it uses the 3s pronoun. HALOT provides (in the entry on ?$r) Is 5:28 and Ps 95:5 as examples of this.

This is often true, but is it always true? HALOT goes on to list examples of clauses with an antecedent referent but without any resumptive pronoun (e.g. Gen 2:8; Deut 1:39; Jud 21:5). It says, "so any word relating to a preceding noun may be omitted and the sense of the omitted element is inferred from the the context." Waltke and O'Connor list dependent relative clauses without resumption as the first use of אשר (i.e. clauses lacking a pronoun which specifies the role of the relative pronoun in the subordinate clause). They cite Gen 3:3; 15:7; Deut 13:7 as examples. ISTM that there are other examples of a referential use of אשר without any pronominal element such as Isa 31:6; 47:12; Job 12:6.

As far as "without", the general word is bl(dy, possibly prefixed with m-. A nice similar example is Gen 41:44. Thus, to say "without which" in normative Biblical Hebrew, one should write "?$r bl(dyw" instead. Indeed, if one replaces "mbly ?$r" with these words, the sentence sounds a lot more "normal."

Except that אשר בלעדי never occurs in BH (nor does בלעדי אשר), so declaring it more normal sounding seems a little subjective to me. בלעדי itself occurs only 17 times that I could find, whereas מבלי occurs some 25 times with בלי alone occuring an additional 34 times (although not always with the sense "without"), so I'm not clear as to why you consider בלעדי to be more "normative" than בלי.

Furthermore, I made a very crude check on this to find that the NASB only renders בלעדי by "without" four times, compared to בלי which it so renders about 24 times. As I say, this is pretty crude, but it does make me question whether בלעדי can really lay claim to being the "general word" for 'without'.

The use of "mbly ?$r" therefore rings of the sound of some foreign influence, as if a speaker of a foreign language, very possibly some IE language, tried to say "without which" but did not use the appropriate Hebrew syntax, and used instead his own native language syntax.

Where I differ here is that I think that בבלי functions as a preposition, and prepositions frequently appear before אשר in a clause. I'm also under the impression that Ugaritic does not always require a resumptive pronoun in the relative clause, and that's certainly less foreign than Greek. Nonetheless, Qohelet's Hebrew is widely recognised as somewhat distinct from standard BH, although why it differs is open to some debate.

All this is not to say that there are not some distinctive features to be seen in Qoh 3:11. ISTM that אשר is frequently found immediately after its referent, whereas if עלם is the referent here then it is separated from it. OTOH, את העלם has been placed in an unusual position at the front of the clause which suggests that the word order serves a specific purpose which probably explains the apparent discrepancy.

Regards,

Martin Shields,
Sydney, Australia.



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