An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

ecipients or objects of verbal action, sometimes where definite marked with the
particle תא. ֶ
יתִּ ְלדַּ֫ ִ םינִ ָבּ
1.
2.
גּ I have raised children (ACCUSATIVE).
Isa 1:2
הוהי־תא ֶ וּבְֽ ז ָע They have forsaken YHWH (ACCUSATIVE).
Isa 1:4
ָ ֫ ָ
The function can also involve other specifications of verbal action.
3. ׃רוֹח ֹזנ א וּר They have turned-away backward (ACCUSATIVE).
Isa 1:4
b Whereas the genitive case can be identified by its bracketing with a preposition or
a noun in the construct state, the accusative case cannot regularly be distinguished
by form. Even the distinction between transitive verbs (which may be qualified by
a direct object accusative) and intransitive verbs (which usually are not) is not
particularly helpful; adverbial accusatives may be bracketed with both kinds of
verbs. The particle תא ֶ is[Page 162] often used with the definite accusative; even
this helpful particle is of limited value in identifying the accusative for three
reasons: it is used only with substantives that are definite, it can be used with the
nominative, and it is rarely used in poetry. 1
c Further difficulties are created by Hebrew’s relatively free word order, especially
in verse. Whereas English distinguishes the subject of a verb from its object by
fixed word order (contrast ‘John hit Bill’ with ‘Bill hit John’), the Hebrew
accusative is not consistently ordered with regard to the verb. For example,
הוהי ב ֵעתְי ָ ה ָמ רְ ִמוּ םימִ דּ־שׁי ָ אִ
(Ps 5:7) may mean either ‘a bloodthirsty and
treacherous man abhors YHWH’ or ‘YHWH abhors a bloodthirsty and treacherous
man.’ Exegetes cannot decide on the sense using any strictly grammatical signs
1 On the use in poetry see, for example, D. N. Freedman, Pottery, Poetry, and
Prophecy (Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1980) 2, 310; for data on the
occurrences see Francis I. Andersen and A. Dean Forbes, “ ‘Prose Particle’ Counts of
the Hebrew Bible,” The Word of the Lord Shall Go Forth: Essays in Honor of David
Noel Freedman, ed. Carol L. Meyers and M. O’Connor (Winona Lake, Indiana:
Eisenbrauns, 1983) 165–83, On the use of ˒t in non-accusative functions see 10.3.2.
On the supposed accusative use of independent pronouns in Hebrew (as in Ugaritic,
cf. UT§6.4), see Mitchell Dahood, “The Independent Personal Pronoun in the Oblique
Case in Hebrew,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 32 (1970) 86–90; “Northwest Semitic
Notes on Dt. 32, 20, ” Biblica 54 (1973) 405–6; “Jeremiah 5, 31 and UT 127:32, ”
Biblica 57 (1976) 106–8.