§ 144. Peculiarities in the Representation of the Subject (especially in the Verbal-clause).
On the masculine as prior gender, cf. § 122 g; on similar anomalies in the use of the personal pronoun, § 135 o, in the connexion between substantive and adjective, § 132 d, between subject and predicate, § 145 p, t, u.
Rem. The expressions for natural phenomena may be either in the 3rd sing. masculine or feminine, e. g. c
rAa it becomes light, 1 S 29:10 (but with an explicit subject, Gn 44:3);rAaYEw: and it became light; so also%vix.y: it grows dark, Jer 13:16; buthk'v.x'w> Mi 3:6;hp'[uñT' though there be darkness, Jb 11:17ryjim.T; it rains, Am 4:7 (where, however, the context requires the readingryjim.a; );y Ps 50:3hr'[]f.nI it is tempestuous.
(a) By the 3rd person singular masculine, e. g.
Rem. The Jewish commentators, following the Arab grammarians, usually explain these singulars by the addition of the participle (generally determinate) of the same stem, e. g. e
areQoh; ar'q' . This view is supported by the fact that such a complement sometimes occurs, e.g. Is 16:10%reDoh; %rod>yI the treader treads out, for one treads out; 28:4, 24 (doth one plow continually ?); Dt 17:6 (Ez 18:32), Dt 22:8, 2 S 17:9 (Ez 33:4), Jer 9:23; with an indeterminate participle (as in Arabic, e.g.qaÒla qaÒÈilun, a sayer says, i.e. some one says), e. g. Nu 6:9, Am 9:1; cf. above, § 116 t, and, on the whole question, Driver on 1 S 16:4.
Rem. The 3rd plur. also is sometimes used to express an indefinite subject, where the context does not admit of a human agent or at least not of several, e. g. Gn 34:27. In such a case the 3rd plur. comes to be equivalent to a passive, as very commonly in Aramaic (see Kautzsch's Gramm. des Bibl. Aram., § 96. 1 c); e.g. Jb 7:3 wearisome nights g
yli-WNmi have they allotted to me (equivalent to were allotted to me; to make 'invisible powers' the subject is a merely artificial device); Jb 4:19, 6:2, 18:18, 19:26, 34:20, Ez 32:25,y Ps 63:11, Pr 2:22 (in parallelism with a passive); 9:11.
(a) Examples where the subject denoting the thing precedes, m
hA'hy>-la, yliAq ar'q.a, my voice—I cry unto the Lord, i.e. I cry aloud unto the Lord,y Ps 3:5, 27:7, 142:2;ytiar'ñq'-yPi my mouth—I cried, i.e. I cried aloud,y Ps 66:17 (cf. 17:10); Is 26:9yvip.n: with my soul, i. e. fervently, and parallel with ityxiWr-@a; ; butyvip.n: y Ps 57:5 is rather a periphrasis for the 1st pers. I.
(b) Where the subject denoting the thing follows,%leAq ylih]c); cry—thy voice (i. e. aloud), Is 10:30; so also after an imperative,y Ps 17:13 (^B,ñr>x; ) and verse 14 (^d>y)' ); 60:7, 108:7 (^n>ymiy> ); after a perfect, Hb 3:15 (^ys,ñWs ); after a cohortative,y Ps 108:2 (ydIAbK.-@a; ). The subject denoting the thing stands between the personal subject and the predicate iny Ps 44:3^d>y)' hT'a; .7
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 person; cf. e. g. Gn 40:22 (41:13), 41:14, 43:34 (and he commanded to set before them, &c.); 46:29, 2 S 12:9. n
2. Supposed ellipses of a definite subject are due either to a misunderstanding of the passage, or to a corruption of the text. Thus in 1 S 24:11 after o
sx'T'ñw: eitherynIy[e has dropped out (through confusion with^yl,ñ[' ) or we should read with the LXXsxua'w)' . In 2 S 13:39 (dwID' lk;T.w: ) the text is obviously corrupt.
3. In poetic (or prophetic) language8 there sometimes occurs (supposing the text to be correct) a more or less abrupt transition from one person to another. Thus from the 2nd to the 3rd (i.e. from an address to a statement), Gn 49:4 (?), Is 31:6 (?), 42:20, 52:14, 61:7, Mal 2:15 (where, however, for p
dGOb.yI we should undoubtedly readdGOb.Ti );y Ps 22:9 [and regularly after a vocative, Is 22:16, 47:8, 48:1, 54:1, 11, Jer 22:18, 49:4, 16, Am 5:6 f., Mic 1:2 (= 1 K 22:28), Mal 3:9, 2 K 9:31; and afteryAh Is 5:8, 29:15, Jer 22:13]. From the 3rd to the 2nd pers., Dt 32:15, Is 1:29 (but read probably~t'D'm.x, for~T,d>m;x] , which has caused the insertion ofrv,a] ), 5:8, Jer 29:19, Jb 16:7, cf. also Dt 32:17. From the 1st to the 3rd pers., La 3:1 (in a relative clause), Is 22:19. In Jb 13:28 the 3rd pers.aWhw> is probably employeddeiktikw/j for the 1st.
Footnotes:
1[1] In Arabic and Ethiopic the masculine is commonly used in this case, in Syriac the feminine.—The forms
2[1] In 1 S 9:9
3[2] Elsewhere in such cases
4[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 4:22, 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
5[2] Two subjects occur in a noun-clause in
6[3] In Ex 6:3
7[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,
8[1] In prose, Lv 2:8; but