Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Kirk Lowery <Kirk AT GrovesCenter.org>]

On 10/11/2012 03:20 AM, Pere Porta wrote:

CAN2C6qk42FXoSDQVWPvUjHcTHHeTpiaezaAdRw7HRwa9TYDHQQ AT mail.gmail.com" type="cite">

Are you sure, Jerry?

The group "ksh" placed before TIPOL means "when"...

My question is:

Who (or which or what thing...) will suddenly fall on them? 

Is it the "evil time" or not?

 

Pere Porta

 

2012/10/11 Jerry Shepherd <jshepherd53 AT gmail.com>

Sorry, I should have said relative pronoun.

My opinion: a complete clause follows $E-; a relative always substitutes for a clause. In this case it functions as the object of the preposition K:-. That's its primary syntactic role. The clause doesn't need a subject, since the fem sg inflection tells us what is being referred to. The relative pronoun is really a misnomer: it's a "dummy nominal" that allows clauses to be placed where a noun or adjective must be. That it isn't a true pronoun is supported by the fact that the relative pronoun is not inflected for number, gender or state.

I don't object to the translation of "when". "So" would work as well IMO, but the semantics is due to the nature of the lemma K-, and not in combination with the relative pronoun. It has no semantic value in itself.

As for the subject of T.IP.OWL, it is feminine, and the closest possible antecedent that matches is `"T "time". "Evil time" coming suddenly upon men is a nice parallel to the "birds caught in a snare": it's completely unexpected and unplanned for.

--
Blessings,
Kirk
--
Kirk E. Lowery, PhD
President & Senior Research Fellow
The J. Alan Groves Center for Advanced Biblical Research