Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/493

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
§147. Incomplete Sentences.

 [a 1. Sentences are called incomplete, in which either the subject or the predicate or beth must in some way be supplied from the context.[1] Besides the instances enumerated in § 116 s (omission of the personal pronoun when subject of a participial clause) and the periphrases for negative attributes § 152 u, this description includes certain (noun-) clauses introduced by הִנֵּה (see b below), and also a number of exclamations of the most varied kinds (see c below).

Rem. Incomplete sentences are very common in Chronicles, but are mostly due to the bad condition of the text; cf. Driver, Introd.6, p. 537, no. 27. Thus in 2 Ch 1122b restore חָשַׁב, with the LXX, before לְהַמְלִיכוֹ; in 35:21 add בָּ֫אתִי, with the LXX, after הַיּוֹם and read פְּרָת for בֵּית; in 2 Ch 196 and 28:21 the pronoun הוּא is wanted as subject, and in 30:9 the predicate יִֽהְיוּ; cf. also the unusual expressions in 1 Ch 933 (Ezr 33), 1 Ch 1513 (ye were not present?), 2 Ch 153, 1610, 12 (bis), 18:3.

 [b 2. The demonstrative particle הֵן, הִנֵּה en, ecce may be used either absolutely (as a kind of interjection, cf. § 105 b) before complete noun-or verbal-clauses, e.g. Gn 2815 וְהִנֵּה אָֽנֹכִי עִמָּךְ and, behold! I am with thee; 37:7, 48:21, Ex 313, 3410, or may take the pronoun, which would be the natural subject of a noun-clause, in the form of a suffix, see § 100 o. Whether these suffixes are to be regarded as in the accusative has been shown to be doubtful in § 100 p. However, in the case of הִנֵּה the analogy of the corresponding Arabic demonstrative particle ’inna (followed by an accusative of the noun) is significant.[2] If הִנֵּה with a suffix and a following adjective or participle (see the examples in § 116 p and q) forms a noun-clause, the subject proper, to which הִנֵּה with the suffix refers, must, strictly speaking, be supplied again before the predicate.[3] Sometimes, however, the pronoun referring to the subject is wanting, and the simple הִנֵּה takes the place of the

  1. This does not apply to such cases as Gn 338, where an infinitive with לְ appears alone in answer to a question, the substance of the question being presupposed as a main clause; cf. also Gn 267, where הִיא must again be supplied after אִשְׁתִּי.
  2. On the same analogy any substantive following הִנֵּה would have to be regarded as originally a virtual accusative. Since, however, Hebrew does not possess case-terminations (as the Arabic does, and uses the accusative necessarily after ’inna), it is very doubtful whether, and how far, substantives following הִנֵּה were felt to be accusatives.
  3. That these are real noun-clauses and that the participle (e.g. מֵת in הִנְּךָ מֵת Gn 208) cannot be taken as a second accusative (as it were ecce te moriturum), is also shown by the analogy of Arabic, where after ’inna with an accusative the predicate is expressly in the nominative.