An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

a In the two perspectives on prepositions we have described, the words are seen, on
the one hand, as essentially nouns in adverbial accusative roles and, on the other
hand, as morphologically diverse particles. On a third perspective it is the
semantics of prepositions that is emphasized. What is the meaning of the relation
between the noun that the preposition governs and the clause in which the
prepositional phrase occurs? 6 The relation proceeds in two directions; consider
this clause:
לבֶ ָבּ־ךְ ֶל ֶמ ֫ ךְמַ סָ
םוֹיּה ַ ם ֶצ ֶע֫ ְבּ םִי ַל֫ ָשׁוּרְי־לאֶ ׃הזֶּ ה ַ
The king of Babylon leans on Jerusalem on that day.
Ezek 24:2
To describe the prepositions’ meanings, two subordinate sets of relations must
be noted: (1a) ˒l + its object (a place) and (1b) b + its object (a time), as well as
(2a) smk ˒l 7 and (2b) smk b. Unfortunately, greater attention has sometimes been
paid to the first set of relations than to the second. For some prepositions the first
set of relations may be more important, but that is hardly the case for all. The
tendency to focus on the preposition only in relation to its object has been
exacerbated by recent misuse of comparative data, especially from Ugaritic.
Despite the fact that patterns of verb + preposition + object are not as fully
attested in Hebrew as we might like, prepositions are not to be dealt with as
philological “wild cards.” 8 It is “the task of a dictionary to set out their often very
complex usage patterns, above all in connection with certain verbs,” 9 but it
remains the work of a grammar to provide a framework within which a dictionary
can properly be used.
b The bulk of this chapter is concerned with such a framework for the most
important simple prepositions (11.2). After a discussion of compound and
6 A related question is the degree to which the preposition is necessary; see 11.4.1.
There are certainly cases where the variation between use and non-use of a
preposition is stylistic; the addition of a preposition may serve, for example, to
smooth out an otherwise harsh and lapidary style.
7 The idiom may be smk yādô ˒l.
8 In the phrase of Jared J. Jackson, quoted by Pardee, UF 7: 334. Notably misleading
in this respect are UT §10.1 and various works by Mitchell Dahood and some of his
students; see rather Pardee (particularly on perspective, UF 7: 334, 335, 337, 338; 8:
275–85) and Peter Craigie, Psalms 1–50 (Word Biblical Commentary; Waco, Texas:
Word, 1983); R. Meyer, “Gegensinn und Mehrdeutigkeit in der althebräischen Wort-
und Begriffsbildung,” Ugarit-Forschungen 11 (1979) 601–12; Y. Thorion, “The Use
of Prepositions in 1 Q Serek,” Revue de Qumran 10 (1981) 405–33.
9 See von Soden, Grundriss der akkadischen Grammatik,§114b/ p. 164.