An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

22. ר ֵבּד ַמְ
ה ַ י ִפ־י ִכּ
׃ם ֶכי ֵלאֲ My mouth is the one that speaks to you.
Gen 45:12
e The relative participle is a non-finite form and thus, as Paul Joüon remarks, “it
expresses by itself neither time nor even aspect;…thus א ָבּ ה ַ שׁיאִ הָ
can signify,
according to context, the man who comes, who will come, who has come, and these
once or often, in an instantaneous or durative fashion.” 40 The relative participle
occurs predominantly in connection with time contemporary with the main verb (#
23), or overlapping with it (# 24) and less often for action completed in the past (##
ַ ְ ָ ָ ְ
25–26).
23. תא ֵצֹיּ ה ה ָמ ל ַעה הָיהו בֹא ְשׁ ִל
24. ךָאי ֲ בִ ְמ ךָיהלֹ ֶ֫
א ֱ הוהי י ִכּ
. . . הבוֹט ֑ ָ ץרֶ
א־ל ֶ֫
אֶ
םיאִ ְצֹי תֹמֹהתוּ ְ תֹנָי ֲע
׃רהָ ָבוּ ה ָע ְק בִּ ַבּ
25. ב ָשּׁ ה ַ ףסֶ כֶּ ֫ הַ
ה ָלּחִ תְּ ַבּ וּניתֹח ֵ֫
תְּ ְמ אַ ְבּ
26. הוהי ַל חַ ֵבּז ְמ
ִ ם ָשׁ ן ֶביּ ִ֫וַ
׃וי ָלא ֵ האֶ רְ ִנּהַ Let it be that the ˓almâ who comes out to draw water…
Gen 24:43
For YHWH your God is bringing you into a good
land…with springs and pools that flow in the valleys
and the hills.
Deut 8:7
the silver that had been put back into our sacks the
first time
Gen 43:18
He built there an altar to YHWH, who had appeared to
him.
Gen 12:7
f The relative participle is negated either by the clausal adverb ןיא, ֵ a predicator of nonexistence
(# 27), even as שֵׁי is used with it as a predicator of existence (# 28;
39.3.2a), or by the item adverb אֹ ל (# 29).
׃א ָבּ ןיאֵ ו ְ א ֵצוֹי ןי ֵ
27.
28. ר ֵ ַפ ְמ שֵׁי
29.
37.6 Predicate Use
א There was none who went out or came in.
Josh 6:1
זּ There is one who scatters.
Prov 11:24
ה ָעוּר ְז אֹ ל ץרֶ א֫ ֶ ְבּ in a land not sown
Jer 2:2
Joüon Paul Joüon. 1923. Grammaire de l’hébreu biblique.
40 Joüon §121i / p. 341.