Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/411

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&c.) and לֵךְ (לְכָה, לְכִי, &c.) are exceedingly common with the sense of interjections, before verbs which express a movement or other action, e.g. קוּם הִתְהַלֵּךְ arise, walk, Gn 1317, 1915, 2743; in the plural, Gn 1914; Ex 1924 לֶךְ־רֵד go, get thee down; 1 S 39; with a following cohortative, 1 S 910 לְכָה נֵלֵכָ֑ה come, let us go; Gn 3144 and frequently.—Also with שׁוּב (a periphrasis for again) in the perfect, Zc 815; in the imperfect, Mi 719, ψ 713, 597, 7120; in the jussive, Jb 1016; in the cohortative, Gn 3031; in the imperative, Jos 52, 1 S 35 lie down again; הוֹאִיל (sometimes to express the idea of willingly or gladly) in the perfect, Dt 15, Ho 511; in the imperative, Jb 628; הִרְבָּה=much, 1 S 23 אַל־תַּרְבּוּ תְדַבְּרוּ גְּבֹהָה do not multiply and talk, i.e. talk not so much arrogancy; in the imperative, ψ 514; הֵחֵל, Dt 224 הָחֵל דְשׁ begin, possess; יָכֹל, La 414 בְּלֹא יֽוּכְלוּ יִגְּעוּ, without men’s being able to touch, &c.; מִהַר=quickly, in the perfect, ψ 10613; in the imperative, Gn 1922, Ju 948, Est 610.—Other examples are: Ho 99 הֶֽעֱמִיק=deeply, radically; Zp 37 הִשְׁכִּים=early (even in the participle, Ho 64, 133); Is 294 שָׁפֵל=low, cf. Jer 1318; Jos 316 תָּמַם=wholly; ψ 1129 פִּוַּר=plentifully.

 [h Rem. This co-ordination without the copula belongs (as being more vigorous and bolder) rather to poetic or otherwise elevated style (cf. e.g. Is 521, Ho 16, 99 with Gn 251, &c.). Asyndeton, however, is not wanting even in prose; besides the above examples (especially the imperatives of קוּם and הָלַךְ Gn 3031, Dt 15, 224, Jos 316, 1 S 35) cf. also Neh 320, 1 Ch 132. For special reasons the verb representing the principal idea may even come first; thus Is 5311 יִרְאֶה יִשְׂבָּע he shall see, he shall be satisfied (sc. with the sight), for the satisfaction does not come until after the enjoyment of the sight; Jer 45 קִרְאוּ מַּלְאוּ cry, fill, i.e. cry with a full (loud) voice.

§121. Construction of Passive Verbs.
Blake, ‘The internal passive in Semitic,’ JAOS xxii.

 [a 1. Verbs which in the active take one accusative (either of the proper object, or of the internal object, or of some other nearer definition; cf. § 117 a, p, u) may in the passive, according to our mode of expression, be construed personally, the object of the active sentence now becoming the subject, e.g. Gn 3519 וַתָּ֫מָת רְחֵל וַתִּקָּבֵר and Rachel died, and was buried, &c. The passive, however, is also used impersonally (in the 3rd sing. masc.), either absolutely, as Dt 213f., Is 1610, Ez 1634 (with a dative added, 2 S 1716, Is 535, La 55), or, more frequently, with the object of the active construction still subordinated in the accusative,[1] e.g. Gn 2742 וַיֻּגַּד לְרִבְקָה אֶת־דִּבְרֵי עֵשָׂו and there were told (i.e. one told) to Rebekah the words of Esau; 2 S 2111, 1 K 1813.

  1. When this is not recognizable either by the nota accusativi, or by its disagreement with the passive form in gender, number, and person, it naturally cannot be determined whether the construction is really impersonal. The construction itself can only be explained by supposing that while using the passive form the speaker at the same time thinks of some author or authors of the action in question, just as on the theory of the Arab grammarians a concealed agent is included in every passive. This accounts for the possibility (cf. § 144 g) of using the active without a specified subject as a periphrasis for the passive.