Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Jerry Shepherd <jshepherd53 AT gmail.com>]

HI Nir,

 

I should have mentioned also, regarding what you say about fronting, that your observation is certainly a valid one.  However, what I had pointed out in that particular post is that it is actually extremely rare, at least in the case of the plural imperative, for the verb to come after the addressees.  I haven't checked to see if this is the case for the singular imperative.

 

Blessings,

 

Jerry

Jerry Shepherd

Taylor Seminary

Edmonton, Alberta

jshepherd53 AT gmail.com

 

On Thu, Jun 13, 2013 at 10:56 AM, Nir cohen - Prof. Mat. <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br> wrote:

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
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