An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

ָ ְ
ִ
ֵ
ִ
ָ ֱ ַ
ִ ֫ ַ ְ
3a. ֑זגּרִי 3b.
ן ֻבי
3c.
ןוּזחאֹ י Isa 13:8
3d.
ןוּ ֑ליחְי Isa 13:8
3e.
ןוּ֑ית אֶיּו Isa 41:5
ינ ַנוּא ְכּד 3f.
ןוּ Exod 15:14
רְי Exod 21:18 52
תוּ Job 19:2 53
According to J. Hoftijzer’s counts, there are 6,900 cases of forms that could show
the ending, 23% of the 30,606 non-perfective forms in Biblical Hebrew; of these
6,900, about 300 do show the nun (4% of the forms that could bear it; 1% of the nonperfective
forms). 54 The paragogics tend to occur in pause. 55 Hoftijzer believes that
there is in prose a difference between ובתכי and ןובתכי, with the longer form
marking contrast; 56 other scholars treat the longer form as curative. In line with its
origin as long-form non-perfective, the paragogic form is never found after לא
(which governs the jussive) and rarely after w (in either weəyiqtol or wayyiqtol shape;
but note ## 1f-h, 3e-f). 57 The forms are more common in earlier texts; thus, for the
synoptic passages, paragogics in Kings are not found in Chronicles (# 4), 58 and
Qoheleth and the Hebrew of Daniel have no paragogics. 59
4a. ימֵּ ַע־ל ָכּ ןוּעדֵי ְ ן ַע ַמ ֫ לְ
ךָמֶ ֫ ְשׁ־תא ֶ ץרֶ א֫ ָ הָ
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517]
4b.
ימֵּ ַע־ל ָכּ וּעדֵי ְ ן ַע ַמ ֫ לְ
ךָמֶ ֫ ְשׁ־תא ֶ ץרֶ א֫ ָ הָ
so that all the peoples of the earth know your name
1 Kgs 8:43
so that all the peoples of the earth know your name
2 Chr 6:33
b Certain features of Hoftijzer’s study of the paragogics deserve note. 60 He is clear that
while the paragogics may mark “contrastivity,” their absence does not signal the
absence of the feature; rather, it leaves the matter open. The substance of contrastivity
involves “exceptions to normal practice, contradictions, deviations from normal
expectation,…[and] statements…which are contrary to the wishes…of other
52 Defective spellings of the ending are rare.
53 Forms with a suffix are rare; GKC §60e / p. 161.
54 Hoftijzer, Nun Paragogicum, 2.
55 Hoftijzer, Nun Paragogicum, 98 n. 27.
56 Hoftijzer, Nun Paragogicum, 55–56; for other views, see pp. 96–97 n. 10.
57 Hoftijzer, Nun Paragogicum, 2–3, 97 n. 17.
58 GKC §47m / pp. 128–29; cf. Hoftijzer, Nun Paragogicum, 43–44, etc.
59 Hoftijzer, Nun Paragogicum, 21, 89; they are rare in P material, p. 23; cf LHS 99.
60 Of Hoftijzer’s important monographs (including those on the he-locale and on the
nominal clause), Nun Paragogicum may be the most accessible.