An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

28:28). It also occurs in passages in which the human speaker is plural, making a
singular suffix seem incongruous. (Ps 44:24).
f The sense ‘Lord of all’ fits all texts. There is Ugaritic data to support the existence
of a -y (= ā̆y?) afformative, with an emphatic or intensifying sense. The earliest
biblical translators did not render the term with a pronoun; the Septuagint, for
example, has kyrios ‘lord,’ not kyrios mou ‘my lord.’ ינֹד ָ א ֲ appears to be a divine
epithet when used in conjunction with YHWH or as a parallel to it.
18.
תָּ ְל ַע֫ ָפּ ךָתְּ ְב ִשׁ ְל ןוֹכ ָמ
ינֹד ָ א ֲ שׁדָ ְקּ ִמ הוהי ֑
׃ךָידָי ֶ֫ וּנ ְנוֹכּ
YHWH, you made a place for your dwelling, a
sanctuary, O Lord, your hands established.
Exod 15:17
We conclude therefore that although ינֹד ָ א ֲ may mean ‘my Lord’ in some
passages where God is being addressed (e.g., Gen 15:2), it more probably means
‘O Lord of all’ everywhere.
[Page 125] 8 Nominative Function and Verbless
Clauses
8.1 Case/Function
8.2 Remnants of the Case System
8.3 Nominative Function
8.4 Word Order in Verbless Clauses
4.1 Clauses of Identification
4.2 Clauses of Classification
8.1 Case/Function
a The systems of inflection or accidence in a language serve to indicate the ways in
which words in phrases, clauses, and sentences are related to each other. Nominal
inflection in many languages includes the categories of number and gender, and
we have seen some of the ways these categories work in the lexicon and syntax of
Biblical Hebrew. Another system of nominal inflection, case, is found in related
languages and was used in earlier forms of Hebrew; although Biblical Hebrew