the verb (intransitive) construed with בְּ has a greater independence, and consequently more emphasis than the verb construed with a direct accusative; the latter conveys a sort of necessary specification of the action, while the noun introduced by בְּ is used rather as a merely adverbial complement. An instructive example of this is נָתַן קוֹל vocem emittere, to utter a voice, also to thunder, while in נָתַן בְּקוֹלוֹ ψ 467 (68:34, Jer 128), נָתַן has an independent sense = he thundered with his voice (i.e. mightily).
[r] (c) לְ[1] to, a very general expression of direction towards anything, is used to represent the most varied relations of an action or state with regard to a person or thing. On the use of לְ as a periphrasis for the genetivus poseessoris or auctoris (the idea of belonging to), see § 129; on לְ with the passive, to introduce the author or the cause, see § 121 f; on לְ in a purely local sense (e.g. לִימִֽינְךָ at thy right hand, prop. towards thy right hand), or temporal (e.g. לָעֶ֫רֶב at evening, &c.) or distributive, see the Lexicon
The following uses of לְ properly belong to the government of the verb:
[s] (1) As a nota dativi[2] to introduce the remoter object; also
(2) To introduce the dativus commodi. This dativus commodi (or incommodi, e.g. Ez 3711) is used—especially in colloquial language and in later style—in the form of a pronoun with לְ, as an apparently pleonastic dativus ethicus, with many verbs, in order to give emphasis to the significance of the occurrence in question for a particular subject. In this construction the person of the pronoun must always agree with that of the verbal form.[3] By far the most frequent use of this לְ is with the pronoun of the 2nd person after imperatives, e.g. לֶךְ־לְךָ go, got thee away, Gn 121, 222, Dt 213 (also in the feminine, Ct 210, 13); נְטֵה לְךָ turn thee aside, 2 S 221; סְעוּ לָכֶם take your journey, Dt 17; עִבְדוּ לָכֶם pass ye over; בְּדַח־לְךָ flee (to save thyself), Gn 2743; עֲלִי־לָךְ get thee up, Is 409; פְּנוּ לָכֶם turn you, Dt 140; שׁוּבוּ לָכֶם return ye, Dt 527; ק֫וּמִי לָךְ rise up, Ct 210; שְׁבוּ לָכֶם abide ye, Gn 225; חֲדַל לְךָ forbear thee, 2 Ch 3521 (in the plural, Is 222); הָ֫בוּ לָכֶם take you, Dt 113, Jos 184, Ju 207, 2 S 1620, and so almost regularly הִשָּׁ֫מֶד לְךָ (see above, § 51 n) cave tibi! and הִשָּֽׁמְלוּ לָכֶם take heed to yourselves; דְמֵה רְךָ be thou like, Ct 217 (cf. verse 9), 8:14, is remarkable; after a perfect consecutive, 1 K 173, 1 S 225; after an imperfect consecutive, e.g. Is 369 וַתִּבְטַח לְךָ and puttest thy trust.—In the 3rd person, e.g. וַתֵּ֫שֶׁב לָהּ and sat her down, Gn 2116, cf. 22:5, Ex 1827, ψ 1206, 1234, Jb 619; even after a participle, Ho 89.—In the 1st person plural, Ez 3711.
[t] (3) To introduce the result after verbs of making, forming, changing, appointing to something, esteeming as something; in short, in all those cases in which, according to § 117 ii, a second accusative may also be used.
[u] (4) In loose connexion with some verbal idea in the sense of in reference to, with regard to... (§ 143 e); so after a verbum dicendi, Gn 2013; 1 K 1023, cf.
- ↑ Cf. Giesebrecht, Die hebr. Präpos. Lamed, Halle, 1876.
- ↑ Just as in the Romance languages the Latin preposition ad (Italian a, before vowels ad>, French à, Spanish á) and in English to are used as a periphrasis for the dative.—On the introduction of the nearer object by לְ, cf. § 117 n.
- ↑ Such expressions as the analogous English he plucked me ope his doublet, but me no buts, and the like, are accordingly inadmissible in Hebrew.
