An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

Exod 3:12
[Page 111] 7 Number
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Singular
2.1 Countables and Collectives
2.2 Class Nouns
2.3 Repetition
7.3 Dual
7.4 Plural
4.1 Countables, Collectives, and Extensions
4.2 Abstracts and the Like
4.3 Honorifics and the Like
7.1 Introduction
a The patterns of number use seem to reflect so closely the real world that
discrepancies among various languages may seem bewildering. In English we
refer to the aggregate of flying creatures with a plural, ‘birds,’ but Hebrew uses
the singular ףוֹע; contrariwise, English uses a singular to refer to the human
‘face,’ but Hebrew uses a plural, םינִ ָפּ. Such discrepancies exist because no facet
of language mirrors the world directly. Number is a grammatical category, as
gender is, and is thus part of the greater system of a given language’s grammatical
and lexical structure. Further, number usage reveals even more plainly than
gender the fact that a language is part of a culture and is thus shaped by that
culture. Let us consider this second point further, for it is crucial to the process of
understanding a language.
b Cultures express collective perceptions of reality differently and therefore
represent the world in diverse ways. Hebrew, for example, represents the body
part variously labeled in English ‘hand’ or ‘arm’ by דָי, a term that denotes that
stretch of the appendage from the elbow to the tips of the fingers; further, it
subdivides that portion and refers to the lower subdivision as ף ַכּ, the portion from
the wrist to the fingertips. English has no word corresponding precisely to Hebrew
דָי; Hebrew has no word corresponding to English ‘forearm.’ Words in one
language rarely coincide precisely in scope and in content with “corresponding”
words in another. The cultural heritage of speakers causes them to perceive reality