Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Joel C. Salomon" <joelcsalomon AT gmail.com>]

On 12/13/2009 11:38 PM, Pere Porta wrote:
> But in order to distinguish divine reference from human, Massoretes often
> used this plural ending to say "(the) Lord" (= God): the plural ending is an
> intensive plural of rank and no more a suffix meaning "my".
> This is called the "plural of majesty".
<snip>
> Someone addresses to Yahweh and says to him: "You are my Lord". "You are my
> Lord*s*" would not make sense.

I’m not sure the majestic plural is exactly applicable to Hebrew, but
there is a related phenomenon with other words indicating control.  In
Rabbinic Hebrew, for example, the owner of an object is sometimes called
the baalim (not just the baal).  Cf. Genesis 42:30, “דבר האיש _אדני_ הארץ”.

—Joel C. Salomon