An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

d There are four major parts of the interrogative-indefinite vocabulary of Hebrew: (1)
the animate pronoun, (2) the inanimate pronoun, 2 (3) the locative particles, and (4) the
temporal particles.
[Page 317] e The animate pronoun is ימ; 3 like המ, ימ is invariable for gender and
number. (Thus the usual masculine/feminine and singular/plural nominal variation in
Hebrew is replaced in the interrogative-indefinite category by animate/inanimate
variation.) ימ is found in all three case functions, nominative (# 22), genitive (## 23–
24), and accusative, always with תא (# 25).
22. ךָ ְל דיגִּ ה ִ ימִ Who told you?
Gen 3:11
23. תְּ א ַ ימ־ת ִ ַבּ Whose daughter are you?
24.
25.
התָּ א־י ַ֫
מִ ְ
ח ַל ְשׁ א ֶ ימ־ת ִ ֶ
Gen 24:23
ל To whom do you belong?
Gen 32:18
א Whom shall I send?
Isa 6:8
The inanimate pronoun is המ; the vocalization varies. Essentially, the form is
ה ָמ before א, ה, and ר; ה ֶמ before ח and א; and ה ַמ elsewhere, with doubling of the
following consonant. 4 Whatever the vocalization, המ may take the maqqeph. 5 This
2
The animate pronoun occurs 422 times and the inanimate 747 times (including
prepositional phrases; SA/THAT). The animate: inanimate contrast is widely attested
in Semitic, but the pronouns are usually animate man: inanimate mā. Other terms used
as indefinites in Hebrew include animate )i=s], )a4da4m, nepeš ‘someone’; lō˒ ˒îš, lō˒
˒ādām, lō˒ nepeš ‘no one’; inanimate dābār, mə˒ûmâ ‘something,’ as well as various
phrases with kōl. The relative ˒šr is rarely used as an indefinite, 19.2 n. 13.
3
The y in Hebrew is a vowel letter, but the Ugaritic form my suggests that it was
bisyllabic.
4
This account is taken from Thomas O. Lambdin, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew
(New York: Scribner, 1971) 83. For further discussion, see Paul Joüon, “Études de
morphologie hébraïque,” Biblica 1 (1920) 353–71, esp. 363–65. Particularly striking
among many “irregular” pointings are the cases of meh before consonants other than
ḥeth and ˓ayin (note, e.g., Judg 16:5bis, 6bis, 10, 13, 15).
5
The h is a vowel letter (but cf. Ugaritic mh) and is sporadically omitted in, e.g., mhm,
Ezek 8:6 Kethiv; the Qere restores the vowel letter; cf. Isa 3:15 Kethiv. On the
Ugaritic, see M. Dietrich and O. Loretz, “Das ugaritische Fragepronomen mh und
seine Erweiterungen,” Studies in Bible and the Ancient Near East Presented to
Samuel E. Loewenstamm, ed. Y. Avishur and J. Blau (Jerusalem: Rubinstein,
1978)19–21.