Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

George:

On Sun, Oct 28, 2012 at 3:51 PM, George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au> wrote:

Karl,

…

With regards your comment on the frequency of the paragogic nun, it certainly occurs quite widely beyond Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah. For example, both the woman and the snake use it on the word תמתון in Gen 3.4, 5. It occurs in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, widely throughout the Book of the Twelve, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, and Ruth.

In Ruth only twice, and both times in the same verse.

If you read carefully what I wrote, apparently the purpose of the paragogic nun was forgotten when Hebrew ceased to be the native tongue of Jews, which happened during the Babylonian Exile. Evidence that I presented was that post-exile writings included it only when directly quoting pre-exile speakers. Now, when I include the prophets, it appears that it wasn’t totally forgotten until after Biblical times, as Zachariah uses it three times and Malachi once. Daniel, though he was pre-exile born and native speaker of Hebrew used it not once, and Ezekiel another native speaker during the exile used it only three times.

One thought that came to mind is that perhaps it was poetic that was used in prose for emphasis, but I just checked Proverbs, which is a poetic book, which uses it only twice, an argument against that idea.

The way it is used argues against the thesis that in pre-exile Biblical Hebrew that it had no effect on meaning. However, at this time, I’m willing to admit that I don’t know what effect that had on Biblical Hebrew understanding. It may have been an emphatic, I don’t know.

Cheers!

GEORGE ATHAS

Dean of Research,

Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au)

Sydney, Australia

Karl W. Randolph.