Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Jonathan Mohler <jonathan.mohler AT gmail.com>]

Love the "hold your סוסים!" It made me smile:-)

I see this as a very primitive causative, and I think the translators saw this too when they translated it "let my people go".  They caught that it was more than "send".  Moreover, it seems easy enough to make the halak/shalach connection.  I see this phenomenon as 1) one guttural slipping into another, and how common, even universal is that; 2) It's also quite easy to see how the shin can easily assimilate the hey. I frankly don't get where the resistance comes from.

I think my arrow is halaking just where it was shalached.

Finally, if I am off the mark as to the link between the two roots, the point is still valid: Shalach is causative semantically and proves the point I was making that Chris has no reason to balk at a hiphil used imperatively.

Jonathan Mohler

Baptist Bible Graduate School

Springfield, Mo

On Jul 11, 2013, at 12:32 AM, George Athas wrote:

Whoa! Hold your סוסים!

> In Exodus 8:1 The imperative "let my people go" שַׁלַּ֥ח  shallach is a causative of "go" halach. 

> Interesting that this primitive prefix SHA- causative shows up in Bantu languages as a causative suffix.  Another discussion;-)

Um, that's pretty way off the mark. The shin is not an affix, but part of the root. Also, הלך ends with a kaph (כ), not a heth (ח). The two are very different letters and should not be confused. There is nothing here to suggest that שׁלח has anything to do with הלך. Yes, there is a Shaphel stem with causative shin prefix in some Semitic dialects, but that is certainly not what we have in the root שׁלח.

GEORGE ATHAS

Dean of Research,

Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au)

Sydney, Australia