An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

[Page 196] 11.2.5 ְבּ
a This preposition, the second most common in Hebrew, occurs both in the simple
form ְבּ and in the extended form וֹמבּ; ְ the latter does not take suffixes. The diversity
of the senses of בּ is remarkable.
b Spatial senses are basic. The preposition b marks location in or at a point (# 1), on a
surface (# 2), within an area (# 3), and amid a domain (# 4). It marks, with verbs of
movement, both goals (‘in, into’; # 5) and areas moved through (# 6).
2.
1. לחַ ַנ֫ ְבּ ה ָשּׁ א ִ בהַ אֶיּ ֱ וַ
קרֹשׂ ֑ ֵ
רהָ ָבּ ח ַבז ֶ֫
בֹק ֲעַי ח ַבּזִיּ ְ ַ
3. . . . ר ָשׂ ָב תָּ לְ ַכאָ וְ
ךָיר֑ ֫ ֶ ָע ְשׁ־ל ָכבּ ְ
4.
5.
םימִּ ַע ָב ךָ ְ
ם֑ יָּבּ ַ םהי ֶ רֵ חֲ א ַ םיאִ ָבּ ַ
6. ךְ ֵלֹהה ַ הזֶ ָלּה ַ שׁיאִ ה־י ָ מִ
וּנתא ֵ֫
רָ ְק ִל הדֶ ָשּׂ ַבּ
He loved a woman in Nahal Soreq.
Judg 16:4
ו Jacob made a sacrifice on the mountain.
Gen 31:54
You shall eat the meat…within all your gates. 24
Deut 12:15
דוֹא I will chant you among the nations.
Ps 57:10
ה those who went after them into the sea
Exod 14:28
Who is that man coming through the field to meet us? 25
Gen 24:65
c Used temporally, b may mark an actual time in, at, or when (## 7–9). It may also
mark an action simultaneous to that of the main verb; the simultaneous action is
shown by an infinitive (36.2.2b) in a circumstantial clause. 26
7. עַ ר֑ ֵה
ָ בהֹא ֵ ת ֵע־ל ָכבּ ְ A friend is one who loves at all times.
8.
׃ם ָמ ְשׁ ח ַמִּ י רחֵ א ַ רוֹד ְ
Prov 17:17
בּ In (the time of) a future generation may their name be
effaced.
Ps 109:13
24 The sense involves the “ideas” of moving to a place and acting in it; see GKC
§119g / p. 379 and cf. German Ich bin zu Hause,’I am at home,’ or dialectal American
English ‘She’s not to home.’ See further 11.4.3. On byt for bbyt see 10.2.2 n. 14, and
Pardee, UF 8: 238, 294.
25 See Pardee, UF 9: 210.
26 For the rendering of temporal expressions using beth in the LXX, see the review of
Ilmari Soisalon-Soininen, “Die Wiedergabe einigen hebräischer, mit der
Präpositionen be ausgedruckter Zeitangaben in der Septuaginta,” Annual of the
Swedish Theological Institute 11 (1977/78) 138–46.