An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

Niphal participle of שׁאי ‘to despair,’ the form שׁאוֹנ ָ is used as a cry of despair (#
3). 40
1. . . הרוּב ֑ ְגּ סוּסּל ַ ןתֵּ תִ הֲ
חאָ ה ֶ ר ַמאֹ י ר ָפֹשׁ ידֵ בְּ
.
המ֑ ָ חָ ְל ִמ חי ַ רָי ִ קוֹחרָ ֵמוּ
׃ה ָעוּרתוּ ְ םירִ ָשׂ ֫ ם ַער ֫ ַ
2. יתוֹמּ ִ ח ַ חאָ ה ֶ ר ַמאֹ יוַ ׃רוּא יתי ִ א֫ ִ ר ָ
3. אוֹל שׁאוֹנ ָ ירִ ְמאֹ תּוַ םירִ ָז יתִּ ְבהַ ֫ א־י ָ ִכּ
׃ךְ ֵלא ֵ םהי ֶ רֵ חֲ אַ ו ְ
Did you give the horse strength…? As often as the
trumpet sounds, he says “he˒aḥ“ and from afar smells
battle, officers’ thunder and taratantara. 41
Job 39:19, 25
He says, “Aha! I am warm! I can see the fire!”
Isa 44:16
You said, “I quit! No! I’ve loved strangers and I’ll
follow them.” 42
Jer 2:25
c Several exclamations are polite, more like promptings than cries. The need for
silence is marked by סה ָ (e.g., Amos 6:10); apparently at base an exclamation, this
word came to be treated as a verb (only twice: Qal in Neh 8:11, Hiphil in Num
13:30). The opposite process is illustrated by a hortatory term בה ַ (e.g., Exod 1:10):
the root בהי ‘to give,’ common in Aramaic, is rare in Hebrew, occurring only in the
imperative[Page 684] (e.g., Gen 29:21), from which the hortatory use (‘Come on,…’)
developed. The enclitic particle א ָנ־ is often used after imperatives and other
volitional forms (e.g., Isa 1:18, 5:5), as well as after הנה and other exclamations and
adverbs. As Lambdin observes, “the particle seems…to denote that the command [or
the like] in question is a logical consequence, either of an immediately preceding
statement or of the general situation in which it is uttered.” 43 A related term,
אנָּ א/ה ָ ָנּא, ָ is used before imperatives (e.g., Gen 50:17) and in similar contexts.
d The sense of the exclamation אה ֵ is unknown; its context is different in both its
occurrences (Gen 47:23, Ezek 16:43). 44
40.3 Polar Questions
40 See Holladay, Jeremiah, 1. 53–54, 102, 517.
41 Does the trumpet also “say” “he˒aḥ“? The metaphorical use of ˒mr for the horse is
related to the synesthesia in the rest of the verse, viz., the smelling of noise.
42 See Holladay (cited in n. 40) further on this verse.
43 Lambdin, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew, 170. For the possible etymology of -nā˒
in the energic form, see 31.7.2 n. 63; note that the particle occurs in a variety of
positions but almost never after a suffix form (GKC §105b / p. 308).
44 The Mishnaic analog apparently means ‘behold’; see M. H. Segal, A Grammar of
Mishnaic Hebrew (Oxford: Clarendon, 1927) 148.