Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Chris Watts <dekruidnootjes AT eircom.net>]

Dear Ken, thankyou for your kind answer.  I am a self studier for  
many years and am really at a sort of intermediate level without  
knowledge of coding or the ancient texts, so please forgive me for  
any ignorance I may show.  I do not understand how this verb has the  
root that you wrote here:  """is most likely a Hištafʿel of √  
חוי.""" or this quote: "Verb חיה: Hištafʿel form  
הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה  I looked up these roots but can not find  
them in the references that I have except of course that I know that   
חיה   means 'to live' which of course I am sure is not what is  
intended here.  Could you elaborate on where these roots come from  
please?  kind regards.  Chris

On 14 Jun 2013, at 20:06, Ken Penner wrote:

Do the following help?

Joüon §59g: "In the light of Ugr. tštḥwy “she prostrates  
herself,” what used to be considered hitpa̧ʿlẹl, represented  
almost entirely by the frequent הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה to worship,  
to prostrate oneself, is most likely a Hištafʿel of √ חוי."

Joüon §79t:
"Verb חיה: Hištafʿel form הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה to bow down,  
to prostrate oneself, to worship.
The original root is חוי, i.e. ל״י (cf. § a). The conjugation  
is hištafʿel (§ 59g; not Hitpaʿlel). The form expresses the  
causative reflexive action to bow down, to prostrate oneself().
In the perfect the primitive form is hištaḥway. The future  
*yištaḥway has become יִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה (3rd pl.  
יִשְׁתַּחֲווּ). The apocopated form is *yišta'ḥw, in  
which the consonantal w becomes the vowel u:  
וַיִּשְׁתַּ֫חוּ.
Observation. In 2Kg 5.18 הִשְׁתַּחֲוָיָתִי the inf.  
has been vocalised in Biblical Aramaic fashion (wrongly, actually,  
for with the suffixes the inf. takes the ending ūt(). After a scribe  
had wrongly spelled וי, this sequence was later vocalised  
mechanically in the Aramaic fashion. One should read (in the 3rd  
pers.) הִשְׁתַּחֲווֹתוֹ."


Dear Members,

I wonder if somebody would be kind enough to direct me in  
understanding why the verb שחה in the Hitpael is often found with a  
seghol Heh ending in the 1st person plural.

For example:  Gen 22:5 we worship....   נִשְתָחַוֶה when
the expected is NiSHTaCHU  with the normal 1st person plural ending.
I have Gesenius but it is hard to know under precisely what category  
of grammar I should be looking for because my searches for an answer  
have come up empty.  If he does mention it then I would welcome a  
reference.  Thankyou for your time.
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