Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Nir cohen - Prof. Mat." <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br>]

Karl,

I fully agree. see also Gen 1:14-15. Similar to your suggestion, i 
suggest "to serve as".

If i am not wrong, BH has no analogue for the terms "to serve as", 
"for the purpose of", other than this (more explicitly ingressive/
transformative??) construction. 

nir cohen

>>> Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2011 17:41:36 -0700
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Malachi 2:4
From: kwrandolph AT gmail.com
To: greifer AT hotmail.com
CC: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

>>> Kenneth:
What you are running into is an example of where Hebrew grammar and ways of
saying things has no exact equivalent in English, rather the English way of
saying the same idea is quite different.
In each of these cases, the subject of the verb follows the infinitive verb,
and that is true not only of the verb “to be” as can be seen in your Isaiah
2:4 example. In each of these cases, the idea is “for the purpose of …”