An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

5. ןהֶ ֵלא ֲ אוֹבתּ ָ םרֶ ט֫ ֶ בְּ
׃וּד ָלָי ו ְ תדֶ ֶלַּי ֫ מְ ה ַ
Before the midwife (Piel) (lit., one who makes brought
forth) comes to them, they will have given birth (Qal).
Exod 1:19.
f A “psychological/linguistic” factitive refers to a subjective event. The salient feature
of that event is open to discussion. Jenni refers to such verbs as declarativeestimative,
by which he means that the state described is attained by a declaration
(i.e., ‘to declare someone to be in a state’) or as a result of an estimation (i.e., ‘to
esteem someone as being in a state’). Delbert Hillers prefers to call the so-called
declarative verbs “delocutive verbs.” 24 He correctly notes that with some of these
verbs the Piel usage is based on a locution rather than on an adjectival or even a
verbal use. The verb ללק, for example, in the Qal means ‘to be light, slight, trifling.’
6a.
׃וּלּקֵי ָ֫ י ַ
זֹבוּ Those who despise me are trifling.
1 Sam 2:30
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The Piel usage is often glossed ‘to curse,’ but more strictly it means ‘to declare to
be trifling.’
6b. ת ַמוּי אֹ ל תאֹ ז תחַ תַ ֫ הֲ
ל ֵלּ ִק י ִכּ יע֑ ִ ְמ ִשׁ
׃הוהי חי ַ ִשׁ מ־ת ְ א ֶ
Is it not the case that Shimei should be put to death for
this: that he declared the anointed of YHWH to be
trifling?
2 Sam 19:22
The offense in view is not cursing or even thinking poorly of someone; it is
publicly declaring him of no importance. Shimei’s crime, that is, is sedition (verging
on lèse majesté), not nastiness. A clear example of a delocutive Piel is ר ֵשּׁ א ִ ‘to
pronounce blessed’; it cannot be based on the verbal notion of רשׁא ‘to march’ but
must be derived from the locution ירֵ ְשׁ א ַ ‘blessed.’ On the lexical level, if the simple
verb is attested, it can occur in a locution. Since the delocutive use of the Piel is based
on a statement, it can be grouped with the denominatives (24.4g); because of the
experiential basis, which is physical, it can be grouped with the “real” factitives. In
point of fact, however, the pronouncement depends on a prior subjective assessment,
and some Piels are simply estimative; we ought not to insist too strongly on the
difference between Hillers’s “delocutive” and Jenni’s “declarative.
g The relationship between the “real” factitive and the delocutive-estimative Piel can
be seen in these examples.
7a. עַ ֻשׁוֹהְי־לא ֶ הוהי ר ֶמאֹ יּ֫ וַ
YHWH said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to make you
ךָ ְלדֶּ גּ ַ לחֵ א ָ הזֶּ ה ַ םוֹיּהַ great (Piel) in the eyes of all Israel.”
24 See D. R. Hillers, “Delocutive Verbs in Biblical Hebrew,” Journal of Biblical
Literature 86 (1967) 320–24. For a Qal: Hiphil pair, see ṣdq Qal (e.g., Job 10:15) and
delocutive Hiphil (Deut 25:1, Prov 17:15).