An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

A comparable eonstruetion involves the rare relative pronoun ֶשׁ and yields the
combination ל ֶשׁ, the genitive particle of post-biblical Hebrew. 42 A form of the
ָ ִ ִ
particle is used twice in the Bible.
15. הֹמלֹ ְשׁ ִלּ ֶשׁ וֹתטּמ ה ֵנּה behold, Solomon’s couch (lit., his couch which
belongs to Solomon)
Cant 3:7
16.
9.8 Enclitic Mem
׃יתִּ רְ ט֫ ָ נ ָ אֹ ל י ִלּ ֶשׁ ימִ רְ ַכּ I did not guard my vineyard (lit., my vineyard which
belongs to me).
Cant 1:6
a A variety of external evidence has led scholars to recognize in the biblical text a
particle m, often associated with the genitive. 43 Whatever shape the particle took
(perhaps[Page 159] -m after a vowel; or -mi or -ma in all cases), it seems to have
been used at the end of a word, and so it is assumed to have been enclitic on (i.e.,
to have leaned on) that word. 44 Only the consonantal memis preserved; since its
meaning was lost in the course of the text’s long transmission, the mem became
confounded with other common morphemes formed with mem such as the
masculine plural suffix -îm, the pronominal suffix -ām, the inseparable preposition
min, etc. As a result it must be detected behind the Masoretic Text by irregularities
and anomalies associated with final or initial mem.
b Enclitic mem is used in sufficiently varied ways in cognate languages to make it
certain that the earliest forms of Semitic must have known more than one form of
this construction. In Hebrew it sometimes has an emphatic force, while at other
times it serves as a morpheme for indetermination. It is seen in connection with
almost every part of speech, including verbs, nouns, pronominal suffixes, adverbs,
etc. Most common are its uses in the middle of the construct chain. 45 The enclitic
mem is common in poetry.
42 The Aramaic relative pronoun d e / dî serves as genitive particle. On the later
Hebrew usage, see M. H. Segal, A Grammar of Mishnaic Hebrew (Oxford:
Clarendon, 1927) 43–44, 199–200.
43 There is evidence from ENWS (Ugaritic, El-Amarna), as well as other areas of
Semitic. Enclitic mem differs from Akkadian mimation in both form and function.
Mimation is almost never found on nouns in construct (the exception furnished by
such cases as damqam inim ‘good of eyes, clear-sighted’).
44 Compare the Latin ending que ‘and,’ as in arma virumque ‘arms and the man.’
45 The classic study is Horace D. Hummel, “Enclitic Mem in Early Northwest
Semitic,” Journal of Biblical Literature 76 (1957) 85–107; see also D. N. Freedman,