Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/485

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and the passages discussed above, § 116 t.[1] In 1 K 51 the text is corrupt.

 [k (e) By the passive, e.g. Gn 426 אָז הוּחַל לִקְרֹא then (was it begun=) began men to call upon, &c. (but read זֶה הֵחֵל he began).

 [l 4. A peculiar idiom, and one always confined to poetic language, is the not infrequent occurrence of two subjects in a verbal sentence,[2] one of the person and the other of the thing. The latter then serves—whether it precedes or follows—to state the instrument, organ, or member by which the action in question is performed, and may be most often rendered in English by an adverb, as a nearer definition of the manner of the action. All the examples of this kind have this in common, that the subject denoting the thing takes a suffix in the same person as the personal subject.[3] They are thus distinguished from the accusatives treated in § 117 s, with which they are often confused.

 [m (a) Examples where the subject denoting the thing precedes, אֶל־יְהֹוָה אֶקְרָא קוֹלִי my voice—I cry unto the Lord, i.e. I cry aloud unto the Lord, ψ 35, 277, 1422; פִּֽי־קָרָ֫אתִי my mouthI cried, i.e. I cried aloud, ψ 6617 (cf. 17:10); Is 269 נַפְשִׁי with my soul, i.e. fervently, and parallel with it אָף־רוּחִי; but נַפְשִׁי ψ 575 is rather a periphrasis for the 1st pers. I.

(b) Where the subject denoting the thing follows, צַֽהֲלִי קוֹלֵךְ crythy voice (i.e. aloud), Is 1030; so also after an imperative, ψ 1713 (חַרְבֶּ֫ךָ) and verse 14 (יָֽדְךָ); 60:7, 108:7 (יְמִֽינְךָ); after a perfect, Hb 315 (סוּסֶ֫יךָ); after a cohortative, ψ 1082 (אַף־כְּבוֹדִי). The subject denoting the thing stands between the personal subject and the predicate in ψ 443 אַתָּה יָֽדְךָ.[4]

 [n Rem. 1. Sometimes (as in other languages) an action is ascribed to a subject which can only have been performed at his direction by another

  1. That this form of expression also (see g) comes to be equivalent to a passive is seen from the analogy of such Aramaic passages as Dn 422, which exclude any idea of human agency. Cf. Kautzsch, Gramm. des Bibl. Aram., § 76. 2 e at the end, and in post.-bibl. Hebrew, e.g. Pirqe Aboth 2, 16; 3, 5, &c.
  2. Two subjects occur in a noun-clause in ψ 8319.
  3. In Ex 63 שְׁמִי is subordinated to the following passive נוֹדַ֫עְתִּי (§ 121 b); in 1 S 2526, 33 יָדִי, יָֽדְךָ are subjects to the infinitive absolute הוֹשֵׁעַ, according to § 113 gg. In ψ 6911 read וָֽאֲעַנֶּה for וָֽאֶבְכֶּה.
  4. In several of the above examples it might naturally be supposed that the subject denoting the thing (especially when it follows the verb) is to be explained rather as a casus instrumentalis, i.e. as an accusative, analogous to the adverbial accusatives in § 118 q. But although it is true that the subject denoting the thing often defines more closely the manner in which the action is performed, and although in similar (but still different) examples, ψ 892, 10930, Jb 1916, פִּי occurs with בְּ instrumentale, the explanation given above must nevertheless be accepted.