An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

introduced by the “relative” marker functions as a principal part of the main verbal
clause, as subject (# 5), object (# 6), or genitive (# 7), or in a verbless clause (# 8).
5. ר ֶשׁ א ֲ הוהי יני ֵ ֵע ְבּ ערַ ֵיּ֫ וַ
השׂ֑ ָ ָע
6. תא ֵ ם ֶכל ָ הדי ָ גִּ֫ אַ וְ
ם ֶכתְ א ֶ ערָ ְקִי־ר ֶשׁ אֲ
7.
תא֑ נֵ ָשׂ ר ֶשׁ א ֲ דַי ְ
8. ינֵ ְבאַ ְבּ וּת ֵמ־ר ֫ ֶשׁ א ֲ םיבִּ רַ
ינֵ ְבּ וּגרְ ה ֽ ָ ר ֶשׁ אֲ ֵמ דרָ ָבּהַ ׃ברֶ חָ֫ ֶבּ לאֵ רָ ְשׂ ִי
What he did was wicked in YHWH’s eyes.
Gen 38:10
I will tell you what will happen, to you.
Gen 49:1
בּ into the hands of those whom you hate
Ezek 23:28
Those who died by the hailstones were more numerous
than those whom the Israelites had killed by the sword.
Josh 10:11
The “relative” markers indicate in ## 5–8 that the clauses introduced by them are
part of a larger sentence.
19.2 Types of Relative-Clause Markers
a There are four classes of relative-clause markers: (1) רשׁא, (2) שׁ, (3) the z series,
and (4) others. The first two are used only as relatives; the z series overlaps with the
demonstratives, and those gathered under the last heading are grammatical elements
used primarily in other ways. The members of the first three groups can be called
relative pronouns. 1
[Page 332] b The most common relative pronoun, רשׁא, is etymologically a locative
noun, ‘a step, place,’ 2 and may be considered a noun always used in the construct. 3
1
Both ˒šr and š are quite often used as conjunctions, but such use is not considered in
this chapter. Cf. nn. 10 and 14. On the development of ˒šr as a conjunction, and the
related problem of the position of the relative pronoun vis-a-vis its head, see M. H.
[Goshen-]Gottstein, “Afterthought and the Syntax of Relative Clauses in Biblical
Hebrew,” Journal of Biblical Literature 68 (1949) 35–47.
A fuller account of the problem, set in the context of Mishnaic and Modern
Hebrew, is given by T. Givón, “Verb Complements and Relative Clauses,”
Afroasiatic Linguistics 1/4 (1974); he argues in essence that relative clauses evolve
from modifying a constituent to modifying a whole clause. There are about 5500
occurrences of ˒šr and 138 of š, 68 of them in Qoheleth (SA/THAT).
2
The noun is not attested as such in Hebrew, but cf. Akkadian ašru ‘place, site’ and
ašar ‘where, wherein’; the root ˒šr/˒ṯr ‘to go’ is attested in Hebrew and Ugaritic. Only
Hebrew and Moabite have ˒šr; of the neighboring languages, both Ammonite and
Phoenician-Punic have ˒š (as does the Canaanite language of the Deir Alla text; see J.
A. Hackett, The Balaam Textirom Deir Alla [Chico: Scholars Press, 1984] 31, 114–