An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

prophetic commands: legislative commands (## 1–2), divine commands (## 3–6), or
legislative jussive (# 7). 51
2.
1. ם ֶכיטֵ ְפֹשׁ־תא ֶ הוֶּ ַצאֲ וָ
רֹמא ֑ ֵל איהִ
ה ַ ת ֵע ָבּ
ם ֶכיחֵ א־ןי ֲ בּ ֵ עֹמ ַ ָשׁ
קדֶ ֶצ ֫ םתֶּ טְ ַפ ְשׁוּ
ת ָבּ ַשּׁ ה ַ םוֹי־תא ֶ רוֹכ ָ
3. ינֵ ְבּ שׁאֹ ר־ת ֶ
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4.
א אֹ שׂנָ תהָ ְק
דוִ דּ־ל ָ א ֶ תָּ רְ ַבּד ִ ו ְ ךְוֹל ָ
5. םיבִ ֵגּ הזֶּ ה ַ לחַ ַנּ֫ ה ַ הֹשׂ ָע
׃םי ִכ ֵגּ
6. רי ִע־י ִק ֲעז ַ ר ַע ַשׁ י ִלי ִליהֵ ךְ֑ לֵּ ֻכּ ת ֶשׁ ֶל֫ ְפּ גוֹמ ָנ
7.
35.5.2 As a Finite Verb
ר ָכז־ל ָ ָכ וֹל לוֹמּ ִ
And I commanded your šopetim at that time, “Hear the
disputes between your kinfolk and judge fairly.”
Deut 1:16
ז Remember the Sabbath day. 52
Exod 20:8
Take a census of the Kohathites.
Num 4:2
ה Go and say to David… 53
2 Sam 24:12
Make this valley full of ditches.
2 Kgs 3:16
Wail, O Gate! Howl, O City! Melt away, all you
Philistines.
Isa 14:31
ה Let every male of his be circumcised.
Exod 12:48
“The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Text of the Old Testament.” New Perspectives on
the Old Testament, ed. J. B. Payne (Waco, Texas: Word, 1970) 212–39, at 215–16.
51
J. D. W. Watts argues that the infinitive absolute serves “as an imperative” only if
there is an adjacent imperative; he thus denies that sense to Exod 20:8; see “Infinitive
Absolute as Imperative and the Interpretation of Exodus 20:8, ” Zeitschrift für die
Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 74 (1962) 141–47.
52
The MT of Deut 5:12 has šāmôr ˒t-ywm hšbt and the Samaritan Pentateuch of Exod
20:8 has šmwr. It may be that it is “in legal texts of rather general, not immediate
application” that this usage is found—so alleges Muraoka, Emphatic Words, 85. The
further suggestion that there are distinct grammatical structures for positive and
negative commands is less clear, though his proposed scheme works in some texts,
notably the second Decalogue: positive commands have the infinitive absolute (Deut
5:12, 16) and negative commands have the non-perfective with lō˒ (Deut 5:17–21).
53 The parallel text in 1 Chr 21:10 has lēk wədibbartā.