Ezr 1014, 1 Ch 2613 and often (cf. Cheyne, Bampton Lectures, 1889, p. 479, according to whom the use of the ו copulative with the second word is especially common in Ch and Est, and therefore belongs to the later language; Driver, Introd.6, p. 538, No. 35); sometimes (but with the exception of ψ 4518 only in very late passages) with a pleonastic כָּל־ preceding, ψ 14513, Est 211, 928, 2 Ch 1112, &c.
[d] 2. Repetition of words in an expressly distributive sense[1] (which may to some extent be noticed in the examples under c) equivalent to one each, &c., e.g. Nu 1434 forty days יוֹם לַשָּׁנָה יוֹם לַשָּׁנָה counting for every day a year; cf. Ez 246, Ex 2834 (three words repeated); also with the addition of לְבַד apart, עֵדֶר עֵדֶר לְבַדּוֹ every drove by itself, Gn 3217; cf. Zc 1212. Most frequently with the addition of a numeral (for the simple repetition of numerals for the same purpose, cf. § 134 q), and with the words not only in groups of two (Lv 248, Nu 132, 314) or three (Nu 711, 1721), but even of six (Ex 263) or seven (Ex 2533, 2619, 21, 25); in Ex 2535 five words even three times repeated.[2]
[e] 3. Repetition to express an exceptional or at least superfine quality; e.g. 2 K 2515 which were of gold, gold, of silver, silver, i.e. made of pure gold and pure silver; Dt 227 בַּדֶּ֫רֶךְ בַּדֶּ֫רֶךְ only along by the high way; cf. Nu 38, 816 they are given, given to him, i.e. given exclusively for his service, for his very own. Also with a certain hyperbole in such examples as 2 K 316 גֵּבִים גֵּבִים nothing but trenches; Gn 1410 בֶּֽאֱרֹת בֶּֽאֱרֹת חֵמָר all asphalt-pits.—Repetition serves to intensify the expression to the highest degree in Ju 522 by reason of the violent pransings of his string ones, Ex 810 (countless heaps), and Jo 414 (countless multitudes); cf. also מְעַט מְעַט Ex 2330 by little and little, very gradually; cf. § 133 k.
[f] 4. Repetition with the copula to express of more than one kind; thus Dt 2513 (Pr 2010) אֶ֫בֶן וָאֶ֫בֶן a weight and a weight, i.e. two kinds of weight (hence the addition great and small); ψ 123 בְּלֵב וָלֵב with two kinds of heart, i.e. with a double-dealing heart; cf. the opposite בְּלֹא לֵב וָלֵב 1 Ch 1233.
[a] 1. The plural is by no means used in Hebrew solely to express a number of individuals or separate objects, but may also denote them collectively. This use of the plural expresses either (a) a combination of various external constituent parts (plurals of local extension), or (b) a more or less intensive focusing of the characteristics inherent in the idea of the stem (abstract plurals, usually rendered in English by forms in -hood, -ness, -ship). A variety of the plurals described under (b), in which the secondary idea of intensity or of an internal
- ↑ Cf. in the New Testament St. Mark 639 f. συμπόσια συμπόσια, πρασιαὶ πρασιαί (Weizsäcker, tischweise, beetweise).
- ↑ These repetitions of larger groups of words belong entirely to the Priestly Code in the Pentateuch, and are unquestionably indications of a late period of the language. Of quite a different kind are such examples as Ez 166, where the repetition of four words serves to give greater solemnity to the promise, unless here, as certainly in 1:20, it is a mere dittography; the LXX omit the repetition, in both passages.
- ↑ Cf. Dietrich, ‘Über Begriff und Form des hebr. Plurals,’ in the Abhandl. zur hebr. Grammatik, Leipzig, 1846, p. 2 ff.
