An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

1b. אֹ בא־ר ָ ֶשׁ א ֲ ד ַע
ינֹד ִ א־ל ֲ א ֶ
Gen 39:16
until I come to my lord
Gen 33:14
[Page 604]
These temporal clauses are equivalent in sense, and, since the gerund construction
is awkward in English, the first construction is best translated like the second,
employing a subordinate clause construction.
b The preposition used most commonly with infinitives is ל, and for this reason, we
discuss it separately (36.2.3). The construction occurs with every preposition, but
most frequently with בּ and כּ , especially with a temporal sense. With the infinitive
construct, בּ denotes in general the temporal proximity of one event to another, ךּ
more specifically the more immediately preceding time. 23
2. דוִ דּ ָ ה ָנ ָשׁ םי ִשׁלֹ ְשׁ־ן ֶבּ
וֹ ֑כלְ ָמ ְבּ
3. ה ָכּה ִ וֹכלְ ָמ ְכ יהְי ִ וַ
ם ָע ְברָי ָ תיבּ־ל ֵ ָכּ־תאֶ 4. איב֑ ִ ָנּה ַ ןתָ ָנ וי ָלא־אוֹב ֵ ְבּ
א ָבּ־ר ֶשׁ אֲ ַכּ
׃ע ַב ָשׁ־ת ַבּ־לאֶ David was thirty years old when he became king.
2 Sam 5:4
Right when he (Baasha) became king he killed off the
whole house of Jeroboam.
1 Kgs 15:29
when the prophet Nathan came to him right after he
had gone into Bathsheba
Ps 51:2
The most common infinitive clauses are, as noted, temporal, involving בּ (## 2, 4,
5), כּ (## 3, 6, 7), דע (## 1a, 8), רחא and ירחא (# 9), and ןמ (# 10). 24 Another
group of clauses denotes logical relations, specifying a cause or a goal. Causal clauses
are governed by בּ (# 11), ןמ (# 12), ןעי (# 13), and לע (# 14). Final or result clauses
are governed by ןעמל (# 15). There are two negative clause types, separative in ןמ (#
16) and concessive (‘although’) in לע (# 17). Thus, בּ may be temporal (## 2, 4, 5) or
causal (# 11); לע may be causal (# 14) or concessive (# 17); and ןמ may be temporal
23 LHS 119.
24 On the prevalence of infinitives construct in Deuteronomy and thus in the examples
here, see C. H. Miller, “The Infinitive Construct in the Lawbooks of the Old
Testament,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 32 (1970) 222–26. On temporal clauses with
˓m in Qumranic Hebrew, see E. Qimron, The Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls
(Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986) 73–74.