Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

num 16:16 is very precise as to whom the command is addressed: to korah
and his men only, not to aaron, even if he was there. but it is also very
precise as to who has to be there tomorrow:
korah, and his men, and aaron.  the spirit of the sentence is:  "you take care
your men will be there - and i will make sure
aaron will be there too".

as to the general question of plural vs singular, the general context is not
that of a command but that of a verb in general, in terms of both number and
gender.

the question of whether the verb form comes before or after the person's name
is a question of fronting, and the order in most of the cases can be explained
out in general terms of emphasis, continuity etc. 

e.g. in num 1:3, the entire sentence starts with MBN (SRYM $NH...  (a topical
fronting made for emphasis on the details of the event). this makes it
syntactically uncomfortable to squeeze everything before the verb, being a
command. but moses and aaron too needed emphasis, and fronting is ruled out.
the solution was to divide the clause into two, the second enjoying allipsis.

as to deut 6:4, 2chr 20:15,13:4,15:2, jer 2:4, the vocative "listen" clearly
demanded to be first, and its singular/plural value agrees with the number of
listeners (considering israel in deut 6:4 as a single entity). is there a
vocative like "listen to me" which does not agree with the addressee(s) number
or gender?

nir cohen