Reading Genesis 1-2 in Hebrew - Bibal.Net

Reading Genesis 1–2 in Hebrew
This pronunciation, however, is due to an error dating as far back as the 14 th century CE, which
attempts to read this Hebrew word as written. Jewish reverence for the name, which may never
have been pronounced in normal life in ancient Israel, led to the substitution of the word yƒnOd‹'
(“Lord”) instead. In order to remind themselves of this tradition, later Jews regularly point hwhy
not with its own vowels, but with those of yƒnOd‹' (“Lord”) as here.
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�����—transliteration: w¸-kOµl WÓµ-ax haW-WA-deµh Xeµ-rem
yih-yeµh bA-'Aµ-rec, “and every shrub of the field was not yet in the earth.” The noun axyiW (“shrub,
bush, plant”) is in construct relation with the definite noun hedLAWah (“the field). The adverb of time
£ereX (“not yet, before that”) appears here with h∆y¯hiy the Qal imperfect 3 rd sg. masc. form of the
verb hyh (“be[come]”). The sense of the verb here illustrates the difficulty in determining the
tense of the imperfect in Hebrew as we are forced to translate the text periphrastically (with Fox
and Korsak): “no shrub of the field was yet in the earth.” The vowel in the preposition ñb (“in”)
represents the vowel of the definite article it displaces, which is lengthened in compensation for
the fact that the following ' cannot be doubled.
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��‘�����—transliteration: w¸-kol-vEµ-Web haW-WA-deµh Xeµ-rem yic-mAµx, “and
every plant of the field had not yet sprouted.” Korsak renders it: “no plant of the field had yet
sprouted.” The masc. noun beWEv (“herb[age]”) appears elsewhere as grass or food for cattle.
Here it is in construct relation with the definite noun hedLAWah (“the field), like axyiW in the previous
line. The adverb of time £ereX (“not yet”) here governs the Qal imperfect 3 rd sg. masc. form of the
root xmc (“sprout, spring up”).
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�����������������������ƒ—transliteration:
KÓµ lOµ' him-CXÓµr yhwh 'È-lO-hÓµm
val-hA-'Aµ-rec, “for YHWH-Elohim had not sent rain upon the earth.” The verb ryiX⁄mih is the Hiphil
perfect 3 rd sg. masc from the root rXm (“rain”), which is preceded by the adverb of negation 'Ol
(“not”).
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������—transliteration: w¸-'A-dAµm 'aµ-yin la-v·-bOµd 'et-hA-'·-Da-MMm‰µ, “and
there was no human to work the ground.” Taken literally, the first two words may be translated:
“and a human (there was) not.” The word §iya' is much more common in the construct state as §yE'
where it functions as a particle of negation. In the absolute form, the word is a substantive with
the meaning “nothing, naught,” which is always used as a predicate; hence the phrase means
“and a human was not,” or “there was no human.” The verbal form dOb‹val is a Qal infinitive
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