An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

64.
הּוֹל ַ אֱ
יתוּע ֵ בִּ
׃ינוּ ִ ֫כרל ַעֽ יַ
10.2.2 Adverbial Accusative
Zech 7:5
The horrors of God are ranged against me.
Job 6:4
a In addition to the objective accusatives, verbs may govern various adverbial
accusatives; these detail features of the verbal action (and the like), including
time, place, condition, manner, and specification. Broadly speaking, these
accusatives are adjuncts rather than complements to the verb (10.2).
b The accusative of place specifies a location. Ordinarily location without
movement is specified by a prepositional phrase with b or l, but an accusative may
be used. The verbs yšb ‘to dwell’ (## 1–2), gwr ‘to reside’ (## 3–4), and škb ‘to
live’ (# 5) are found with accusatives of place, as are verbs without specifically
locational reference (## 6–7).
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1.
ב ֵשֹׁי אוּהוְ להֶ ֹא֫ ה־ח ָ תַ ֶפּ
2. ׃תִי ָ֫ ֫
3.
4.
while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent 14
Gen 18:1
בּ ת ֶב ֶשׁ ָל that it may dwell in a shrine 15
שׁא ֵ וּנ ָל ֫ רוּגָי ימִ ה ָל ֵכוֹא
Isa 44:13
Who of us can dwell in the consuming fire?
Isa 33:14
׃ער ָ ךָרְ ֻגְי אֹ ל Evil cannot dwell with you.
14
Cf. lptḥ ˒hlw in Num 11:10. It is frequently suggested that the preposition b is
omitted before the words ptḥ ‘entrance’ and byt ‘house’ by haplology, i.e., the
tendency to avoid two similar sounds (here, bilabial stops) or syllables next to one
another; see, e.g., Joüon §126h / p. 380. (Haplology, a phonological process, should
not be confused with haplography, a scribal process, though they may have the same
effect in a written text. Haploiogy is best exemplified in English by the avoidance of
‘-lily’ words, e.g., there is no adverb from ‘friendly’ of the form ‘friendlily.’) S. R.
Driver explains the phenomenon syntactically: “by custom the use of the accus[ative]
to express rest in a place is restricted to cases in which a noun in the genitive
follows”; see Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topogrophy of the Books of Samuel
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1913) 37 n. 2; cf., however, ## 2–3.
15
Cf. bbyt ˒byh in Num 30:4; the b is omitted before byt lḥm in Ruth 1:22; cf. n. 14
above.