Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

Joel,

The theoretical predecessor of the preposition ל was probably למו. This is 
preserved only in Job a few times (e.g. Job 27.14). However, elsewhere the 
context seems to demand that למו be a preposition with pronominal suffix. 
Again, it may be an archaic style, but of the suffix rather than the 
preposition. Phoenician wrote the 3mp suffix with the preposition as לם and 
may have pronounced a vowel after the mem. It's most likely that למו is along 
the same lines.

Karl suggests that in some contexts the suffix appears to be singular. While 
I can see where he's coming from on this, it could just as easily be 3mp, 
rather than 3ms. It's hard to tell sometimes. There's lots of textual 
uncertainty in many of the instances of this word, which doesn't help things 
very much.


GEORGE ATHAS
Director of Postgraduate Studies,
Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au)
Sydney, Australia