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GESENIUS'
HEBREW GRAMMAR AS EDITED
AND ENLARGED BY THE LATE E.
KAUTZSCH
PBOFESSOB OF THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERS...
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OdUr.
GESENIUS'
HEBREW GRAMMAR AS EDITED
AND ENLARGED BY THE LATE E.
KAUTZSCH
PBOFESSOB OF THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF HALLE
SECOND ENGLISH EDITION REVISED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TWENTY-EIGHTH EDITION
A. E.
(1909)
GERMAN
BY
COWLEY
WITH A FACSIMILE OF THE SILOAM INSCRIPTION BY
J.
A TABLE OF ALPHABETS BY M. LIDZBARSKI
OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
EUTING,
AND
Oxford University Press, Amen House, London E.C. 4 GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI CAPE TOWN IBADAN Geoffrey Cumberlege, Publisher
to the
University
iq/o
SECOND ENGU8H EDITION I9IO BEPRINTED LITHOGRAPHICALLY IN GREAT BRrTAtV AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, OXFORD, I946, I949, 1952, I956 FROM CORRECTED SHEETS OF THE SECOND EDITION
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE The
translation of the twenty -sixth
German
edition of
grammar, originally prepared by the Rev. G. W. Collins Since that and revised by me, was published in 1898. this
German edition has appeared and Kautzsch was already engaged on a twenty-eighth in
date a twenty-seventh Prof.
;
1908 when the English translation was becoming exhausted. sent me the sheets as they were printed off, and I began
He
revising the former translation in order to soon as possible after the completion of the
produce
German.
it
as
The
whole of the English has been carefully compared with the
new Prof.
edition, and, it is hoped,
improved
Kautzsch's own corrections and
in
many
points, while
additions have of course
been incorporated. As before, the plan and arrangement of the original have been strictly followed, so that the references
and paragraphs correspond exactly in German and English. Dr. Driver has again most generously given
for sections
up time, in the midst of other engagements, to reading the To him also are sheets, and has made numerous suggestions. due the enlargement of the index of subjects, some expansions in the new index of Hebrew words, and some
chiefly
additions to the index of passages, whereby we hope to have made the book more serviceable to students. I have also to
thank
young friend, Mr. Godfrey R. Driver, of Winchester some welcome help in correcting proofs of the Hebrew index and the index of passages. 2S nott'* D3n p.
my
College, for
Many
cori'ections
have been sent to
me by
scholars
who have
used the former English edition, especially the Rev. W. E. Blomfield, the Rev. S. Holmes, Mr. P. Wilson, Prof. Witton Davies, Mr. G. H. Skipwith, and an unknown correspondent
Translator s Preface
iv
West Croydon.
at
These, as well as suggestions in reviews,
been considered, and where possible, utilized. I am also much indebted to the Press-readers for the great care
have
all
which they have bestowed on the work. Finally, I must pay an affectionate tribute to the memory
who died
of Prof. Kautzsch,
in the spring of this year, shortly
after finishing the last sheets of the
twenty-eighth edition.
For more than thirty years he was indefatigable in improving The German transthe successive editions of the Grammar. lation of the Old Testament first published by him in 1894, with the co-operation of other scholars, under the title Die Heilige Schrift des A Ts, and now (19 10) in the third and
much
enlarged edition, is a valuable work which has been widely appreciated the Apocryphen und Fseudepigraphen des A Ts, edited by him in 1 900, is another important work : :
which he published his GrainTnatik des BiblischAramdischen in 1884, two useful brochures Bibelwissenschaft und Religionsunterricht in 1 900, and Die bleibende Bedeutung besides
A Ts in
1903, six popular lectures on Die Poesie und die Bilcher des A Ts in 1902, his article 'Religion of poetischen Israel' in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, v. (1904),
des
pp. 612-734, not to is
to
a serious
many
loss to
others
it
remarkable alike for
mention minor publications.
His death
me and most kindly friend, his simple piety and his enthusiasm for Biblical scholarship, while
is
the
loss
to
of a
learning.
A. C. Magdalen College, Oxford, Sept. 19 10.
FROM THE GERMAN PREFACE The present (twenty-eighth) edition of this Grammar/ like the former ones, takes account as far as possible of all important
new
publications on the subject, especially
Sj^radnvissenschaftliche
J.
Earth's
Untersuchungen zuvi Semitischen,
the important works of C. Brockelmann (for pt. i, Lpz. 1907 vol. i of the GruTidriss was the titles see the heading of § i ;
;
finished in 1908)
;
Der
P. Kahle's
Tnasoretische Text des
A
Tk
iiach der Uberlieferung der babylonischen
(giving on p. 51
ff.
Juden, Lpz. 1902 an outline of Hebrew accidence from a
Babylonian MS. at Berlin) 1905
f.,
R. Kittel's Bihlia Hehraica, Lpz.
;
2 vols, (discriminating
between
certain, probable,
and
proposed emendations see § 3 ^, end) Th. Noldeke's Beitrdge zur semit. Sprachivissenschaft, Strassburg, 1904; Ed. Sievers' Metrische Studien (for the titles of these striking works see ;
;
§ 2r).
The important work
of J.
des hehr. Bfiythmus, &c. (see also § 2
too late to be used.
The two
W.
Rothstein, Grundzilge
r),
unfortunately appeared
large commentaries edited
Nowack and
by
Marti have been recently completed and in P. Haupt's Polychrome Bible {SBOT.), part ix (Kings) by Stade and Schwally was published in 1904. ;
reviews of the twenty-seventh edition, which of course have been considered as carefully as possible, I have
For
to
full
thank
Max
Margolis
(in
Hehraica, 1902,
p.
159
fF.),
Mayer
The first edition appeared at Halle in 1813 (202 pp. small 8vo) twelve more editions were published by W. Gesenius himself, the fourteenth to the *
;
first (1845-1872) by E. ROdiger, the twenty-second to the twentyeighth (1878-1910) by E. Kautzsch. The first abridged edition appeared in 1896, the second at the same time as the present (twenty-eighth) large edition. The first edition of the Ubungsbuch (Exercises) to Gesenius-
twenty
'
Kautzsch's
Hebrew Grammar appealed
'
in 1881, the sixth in 1908.
From
vi
Lambert {B.EJ. 1902, schrift,
tions I
German Preface
the p.
307
ff.),
and H. Oort
(Theol. Tijd-
For particular remarks and correc1902, p. 373 ff.). must thank Prof. J. Earth (Berlin), Dr. Gasser, pastor
in Bucbberg, Schaffhausen, B. Kirschner, of Charlottenburg, (contributions to the index of passages), Pastor Kohler, of
Augst, Dr. Liebmann, of Kuczkow, Posen, Prof. Th. Noldeke, of Strassburg, Pastor S. Preiswerk junior, of Bale, Dr.
Schwarz, of Leipzig, and Prof. B. Stade, of Giessen (died in 1906). Special mention must be made of the abundant help received from three old friends of this book, Prof. P. Haupt, of Baltimore, Prof.
Strack, of Berlin,
Knudtzon, of Kristiania, and Prof. H. and also, in connexion with the present
H. Hyvernat, of the University of Washington, has rendered great service especially in the correction and enlargement of the indexes. I take this opportunity of edition, Prof.
who
thanking them also
to
my
all
again sincerely.
dear
And
I
am no
less grateful
colleague Steuernagel for the care with which he has unwearying helped me from beginning to end in correcting the proof-sheets. Prof.
C.
Among material changes introduced into this edition may be mentioned the abolition of the term S^wd medium (§10 d). In this
have adopted, not without hesitation, the views of I find it, however, quite impossible to follow him in all distinctions of quantity in the vowels. It is no rejecting doubt possible that such matters may in the spoken language I
Sievers.
have worn a very
different appearance, and especially that in the period of nearly a thousand years, over which the Old Testament writings extend, very great variations may have
taken
place.
Our duty,
language in the form in to us
by the Masoretes
tinction
;
however, is to represent the it has been handed down
which
and that
this
form involves a
dis-
between unchangeable, tone-long, and short vowels, my opinion of no doubt. The discussion of any
admits in
earlier stage of
development belongs not
to
Hebrew grammar
but to comparative Semitic philology. The same answer may be made to Beer's desire {ThLZ. 1904,
From
the
Geinnan Preface
vii
historical Hebrew grammar describing the actual growth of the language on a basis of comparative philology, as it may still be traced within the narrow limits col.
314 f)
for
an
'
of the Old Testament
'.
Such material as
is
available for the
purpose ought indeed to be honestly set forth in the new editions of Gesenius; but Beer seems to me to appraise such material
much
tating an
'
too highly
historical
torical differences
grammar
have
by the harmonizing
when he '.
for the
In
refers
my
July, 1909.
it
as necessi-
opinion these his-
most part been obliterated
activity of the Masoretes.
E. Halle,
to
KAUTZSCH.
ADDITIONS AND COERECTIONS Page
from below, /or note
42, line 13
i
read note
3.
Wickes, Prose Accentuation, 130
[See also
f,, 87 n. the as the however, Babylonian superlinear, system regards (who, to the Hebrew Bible, 76, 78. In and Introduction Ginsburg, earlier);
Page 63,
15 p.
§
Ginsburg's Hebrew Bible, ed, 2 (1908), pp. 108 f., 267 f., the two the systems of division are printed in extenso, in parallel columns 10 verses of the superlinear (Babylonian) system consisting (in
—
2.3-6.7.8-U.12.I3.U.16.16.17 (^s numbered in ordinary texts), Exodus) of V. and the 1 2 verses of the sublinear (Palestinian) system, consisting of g R D1 y 2-3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12.13-16.17 < < N3N read X|i< note i,/or § 105 a). Page 65,
(as
[Editions often vary in individual passages, as regards the accentuation of the first syllable: but in the 7 occurrences of NJK,
and the 6 of nJX, Baer, Ginsburg, and Kittel agree in having
at\
accent on both syllables (as N3X) in Gn 50^^, Ex 32'^ \f/ 116", and Metheg on the first syllable and an accent on the second syllable (as in
n^3X)
2
K
20?=Is
except that in
Page Jer
39^^^
79, § 22
add
[So Baer
before
s,
52°
ifr
38',
Jon I'V4^
xp
116^ Ginsburg has n?^.
i/^
ii%'^-^\
S. R.
;
Dn
9*,
Ne
insert exceptions to h are.
^riD''*i"nn
i^",
D.]
and for Ez 9^ read Ezr 9^ note on Jud 20*'; also on Jer
his
(cf.
ii6\
—
39'^,
After
and several
of the other passages in question) but Ginsburg only in 10 of the to and Jacob ben b, exceptions Hayyim and Kittel only in 5, viz. :
Jer 39'S Pr ii^ is\
Page III,
line 12,
Page 123,
Am
4"
§
(§"5
Page 175,
45
52', Ezr 9«.— S. R. D.] for H^nn read H'^T^T}. yj,
add:
e,
§ 67.
Geminate Verbs
'
in
accidentally omitted
Rem.
nasny followed by nx,
also
See B. Halpei-,
ZA
IF.
with the regular verb). Page 177, at the end of
first
cf.
Is
13'*,
4 1
§
'
The
910, pp. 42
67
g-
Participial formations of the ff.,
99
ff.,
201
S. (also dealing
the following paragraph has been
:
According to the prevailing view,
this strengthening of the
radical is merely intended to give the bi-literal stem at least
Additions and Corrections a 4^i-Hteral appearance.
ix
(Possibly aided by the analogy of verbs }*B,
Haupt has suggested to me in conversation.) But cf. Kautzsch, Die sog. aramaisierenden Formen der Verba v"V im Hebr.' in Oriental.
as P. '
Studien
shown
zum
70. Gehurtstag Th. NoldeJces, 1906, p. 771
ff.
It is there
(i) that the sharpening of the ist radical often serves to
emphameaning (cf. *13^, but ^H^.^^, ^nj and ?n^, 3D^ and 3DJ, and elsewhere no doubt to dissiniilate the vowels (as
size a particular Dt?^
and
DK'ri),
never "UJ, ^T, &c.) (2) that the sharpening of the ist ladical often appears to be occasioned by the nature of the first letter 1?!,
:
''1!,
of the stem, especially
when
it is
a sibilant.
Whether
the masoretic
based on an early tradition, or the Masora has arbitrarily adopted aramaizing forms to attain the above objects, must be left undecided. pronunciation
is
Page 193, the second and third paragraphs should have the marginal d and e respectively.
letters
Page 200,
§
Page 232,
§
Page 236,
§
Page 273,
§
Est 2'* add 4". add nDpb' 2813^. 84" s, 85 c, a(i(i r\prf\ Ezr ^'^. 93 qq end, add n^lpto Jer 5^ O^V?!, ^'^S^ Ez 2o\
72
2,
n^JDCb' Is 49«, D^OOb'
line 2, after
La
i'«
(cf
Konig,
ii.
109).
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS The following abbreviations have occasionally been used periodicals frequently quoted
CIS.
= =
Jabl.
=
JQR. KAT.^
= =
AJSL.
:
—
for
works and
American Journal of Semitic Languages. Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum. Ed.Mant.='B\h\i2k Hebraica ex recensione Sal. Norzi edidit Raphael
Hayyim Basila, Mantuae 1742-4. Biblia Hebraica ex recensione D. E. Jablonski, Berolini, Jewish Quarterly Review. Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, 3rd H. Zimmern and H. Winckler, 2 vols., Berlin, 1902
Lexicon
= A
NB.
=
NGGW. = = OLZ. = PEE.
1699-.
ed.
by
f.
Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, based on the Thesaurus and Lexicon of Gesenius, by F. Brown, S. R. Driver, and C. A. Briggs, Oxford, 1906. J. Barth, Die Nominalbildung in den semitischen Sprachen. Lpz. 1889-94.
Nachrichten der Gottinger Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften. Orientalistische Literaturzeitung. Vienna, 1898 if. fiir protestantische Theologie und Kirche, A. Hauck. by Lpz. 1896 ff. Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology. Loudon,
Realencyclopadie 3rd ed.
PSBA
=
REJ. SBOT.
= = =
ThLZ.
=
1879
Sam.
ff.
Revue des Etudes Juives. Paris, 1880 ff, The iHebrew) Pentateuch of the Samaritans. Sacred Books of the Old Testament, ed. by P. Haupt. and Baltimore, 1893 ff. Theologische Literaturzeitung, ed. by E. Schiirer. 1876
Lpz.
Lpz.
ff.
VB.
=
Vorderasiatische Bibliothek, ed. by A. Jeremias and H. Winck-
ZA.
—
Zeitschrift
ler.
Lpz. 1907
C. Bezold.
ZAW.
=
ZDMG. —
Zeitschrift
Assyriologie Lpz. 18S6 ff.
fiir
und verwandte
Gebiete, ed.
by
die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, ed. by K. Marti. ff., and since 1907 by
B. Stade, Giessen, 1881 Zeitschrift
Lj
ZDPV. =
ff.
fiir
z.
1846
Zeitschrift
der deutschen ff.,
des
morgenlandischen Gesellschaft,
since 1903 ed. by A, Fischer.
deutschen
Palastinavereins,
since 1903 ed. by C. Steuernagel.
Lpz.
1878
ff.,
CONTENTS PAGE Additions and Corrections List of Abbreviations Table of Early Semitic Alphabets SiLOAM Inscription
.
viii
X
INTRODUCTION §
1.
§
2.
§
3.
§
4.
The Semitic Languages in General Sketch of the History of the Hebrew Language Grammatical Treatment of the Hebrew Language Division and Arrangement of the Grammar .
I
.
8
22
PIBST PART
ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES, OR THE SOUNDS AND CHARACTERS Chapter 5.
§
6.
§
7.
§
8.
§
9'.
§ 10.
I.
The Individual Sounds and Characters
The Consonants their Forms and Names Pronunciation and Division of Consonants The Vowels in General, Vowel Letters and Vowel S gns The Vowel Signs in particular Character of the several Vowels The Half Vowels and the Syllable Divider (f§°wa) :
§ 11. Other Signs which affect the Reading § 12. Dages in general, and Dages forte in particular § 13. § 14.
§ 15. § 16.
§ 17.
Dages lene Mappiq and Raphe The Accents Of Maqqeph and Metheg Of the Q-re and K^thibh
Chapter
II.
24 31 35
39 45 51
54 55
56 56 57
63
Masora marginalis and
finalis
65
Peculiarities and Changes of Letters: the
Syllable and the Tone In general § 19. Changes of Consonants
68
§ 18.
§20. The Strengthening (Sharpening) of Consonants
...
68
70
Contents
xii
PAGE §21. The Aspiration of the Tenues
75
§ 22, Peculiarities of the Gutturals
§ 23, § 24. § 25. § 26.
§ 27.
§ 28. § 29.
76
The Feebleness of the Gutturals N and n and Changes of the Weak Letters 1
Unchangeable Vowels Syllable-formation and
.
,
.
.
.
.
79 82
^
.
84
Influence on the Quantity of Vowels of the Vowels, especially as regards Quantity its
The Change The Rise of New Vowels and Syllables The Tone, its Changes, and the Pause
85 88
.
92
94
SECOWD PART ETYMOLOGY, OR THE PARTS OF SPEECH § 31.
Stems and Roots Biliteral, Grammatical Structure
§ 32.
The Personal Pronoun.
§ 30.
;
Chapter
Triliteral,
and Quadriliteral
99
.
103
The Pronoun
I.
The Separate Pronoun
.
.
.105
§33. Pronominal Suffixes § 34. The Demonstrative Pronoun
The Article §36. The Relative Pronoun §37. The Interrogative and
108 1
§ 35.
,
.
.
.
112 Indefinite
Chapter
II.
Pronouns
.
.113
The Verb
§88. General View §39. Ground-form and Derived Stems §40. Tenses. Moods. Flexion § 41. Variations
09
.110
114 114 117
from the Ordinary Form of the Strong Verb
.
.118
The Strong Verb.
I.
118
§42. In general A.
The Pure Stem, or Qui.
Form and Meaning
§48.
Its
§ 44.
Flexion of the Perfect of Qal
118 119
122 The Infinitive 124 §46. The Imperative 125 §47. The Imperfect and its Inflexion § 48. Shortening and Lengthening of the Imperfect and Imperative. The Jussive and Cohortative 129 49. Perfect and Imperfect with Waw Consecutive The 132 § .136 § 50. The Participle
§ 45.
.
.
.
Contents
xiii
Veiha Denvativa, or Derived Conjugations.
B.
PAGE § 51.
Niph'al
§ 52. Pi'el
137
and Pu'al
§ 53. Hiph'il
139
and Hopb'al
144
54 Hithpa'el
§
§55. Less
149
Common
Conjugations
151
§ 56. Quadriliteials C.
>
.153
.
.
Strong Verb with Pronominal Suffixes.
§ 57. In general 58.,
(|
a 59. 60. (^
1
The Pronominal Suffixes of the Verb The Perfect with Pronominal Suffixes
158 160
Imperfect with Pronominal Suffixes
§ 61. Infinitive,
54
155
Imperative and Participle with Pronominal Suffixes
162
Verbs with Gutturals. § 62. In
§ 63. § 64. § 65.
164
general
........
Verbs First Guttural Verbs Middle Guttural Verbs Third Guttural
165
169 171
The Weak Verb.
ir. § 66.
Veibs Primae Radicalis
§ 67.
Verbs y^y
§ 68.
Verbs N"a
§ 69.
Verbs
Nun
173
(i"d)
175
The Weakest Verbs {Verba Quiescentia).
§ 70.
Verbs
§ 71.
Verbs Verbs
§ 72.
§ 73. Verbs
'•''S. '•'''Q.
"""Q.
184 . Verbs originally Td Second Class, or Verbs properly ^"d Third Class, or Verbs with Yodh assimilated
First Class, or
.
.
.
Vy middle
.186 .
.
192 193
I94 i
(vulgo
202
'•"y)
§ 74.
Verbs s"^
205
§ 75.
Verbs n"^
207
§ 76.
Verbs Doubly Weak Relation of the Weak Verbs to one another Verba Defectiva
§ 77. § 78.
Chapter § 79.
.
.
.219 219
The Noun 221
General View
The Indication of Gender §81. Derivation of Nouns § 82. Primitive Nouns § 80.
III.
217 .
in
Nouns
222 225
225
xiv
Contents
§ 83. Verbal
Nouns
in
General
....
Nouns derived from the Simple Stem 84*. Formation of Nouns from the Intensive Stem 85. Nouns with Preformatives and Aflformatives 86. Denominative Nouns 87. Of the Plural 88. Of the Dual 89. The Genitive and the Construct State 90. Real and supposed Remains of Early Case-endings 91. The Noun with Pronominal Suffixes 92. Vowel Changes in the Noun 93. Paradigms of Masculine Nouns 94. Formation of Feminine Nouns 95. Paradigms of Feminine Nouns 96. Nouns of Peculiar Formation 97. Numerals, (a) Cardinal Numbers 98. Numerals. (6) Ordinal Numbers
§ 84". § §
§ § § §
§ § § § § §
§ §
§
.
.
Chapter §
99. General
§ 100.
IV.
PAGE 226 227 233 235
239 241
244 247 248
254 260 262 275 276 281
286 292
The Particles
View
293
Adverbs
294
§ 101. Prepositions § 102. Prefixed Prepositions § 103. Prepositions
297
298
with Pronominal Suffixes and in the Plural
Form
300
§ 104. Conjunctions
305
§ 105. Interjections
307
THIRD PART SYNTAX Chapter I.
A.
J
I.
The Parts of Speech
Synteix of the Verb.
Use of the Tenses and Moods.
Use of the Perfect §107. Use of the Imperfect §108. Use of the Cohortative §109. Use of the Jussive § 110. The Imperative § 111. The Imperfect with Waw Consecutive § 112. The Perfect with Waw Consecutive § 106.
309 313
319 321
324
326
330
xv
Contents B.
The
Infinitive
and
Participle.
PAOE § 114,
The The
§ 115.
Construction of the Infinitive Construct with Subject and
§ 116.
The
§ 113.
Infinitive Absolute
339
Infinitive Construct
347
352
Object
C. § 117.
355
Participles
The Government of
the Verb.
The Direct Subordination of the Noun to the Verb Accusative of the Object. The Double Accusative The Looser Subordination of the Accusative to the Verb The Subordination of Nouns to the Verb by means .
§ 118.
§ 119.
as .
362
.
372
of
377
Prepositions
Verbal Ideas under the Government of a Verb. of Complementary Verbal Ideas §121. Construction of Passive Verbs
§ 120.
II.
Co-ordination
385
387
Syntax of the Noxin.
§122. Indication of the Gender of the Noun §
123.
§ 124.
§ 125. § 126. § 127. § 128.
389
The Representation of Plural Ideas by means of Collectives, and by the Repetition of Words 394 The Various Uses of the Plural-Form 396 Determination of Determination of Nouns in general. 401 Proper Names Determination by means of the Article 404 The Noun determined by a following Determinate Genitive 410 The Indication of the Genitive Relation by means of the .
Construct State
,
Expression of the Genitive by Circumlocution §130. Wider Use of the Construct State § 131. Apposition §132. Connexion of the Substantive with the Adjective § 129.
.
.
-414 .419 421
.
.
.
423 427
§ 133.
The Comparison of Adjectives. (Periphrastic expression of the Comparative and Superlative) 429
§ 134.
Syntax of the Numerals
III.
Syntax of the Pronovm.
Personal Pronoun
§ 137. § 138.
The The The The
§ 139.
Expression of Pronominal Ideas by means of Substantives
§ 135.
§ 136.
432
Demonstrative Pronoun
437 442
Interrogative Pronoun Relative Pronoun
443 444 .
447
xvi
Contents Chapter
The Sentence
II.
The Sentence
I.
in General.
PAGE § 140. § 141.
§ 142. § 143.
Noun- clauses, Verbal-clauses, and the Compound Sentence The Noun-clause
455
457
the Representation of the Subject (especially
in the Verbal-clause) 145.
459
Agreement between the Members of a Sentence, especially between Subject and Predicate, in r^pect of Gender and
Number
462
§ 146.
Construction of
§ 147.
Incomplete Sentences
n. § 148.
Compound
Subjects
467
469
Special Kinds of Sentences.
Exclamations
471
Sentences which express an Oath or Asseveration 150. Interrogative Sentences
§ 149. §
... .
Sentences
§ 151. Desiderative § 152.
i
.
.471
.
...
473 .
Negative Sentences
§ 153. Restrictive
by
483 484
Waw
485
Circumstantial Clauses
489
§ 157. §
Object-clauses (Oratio Obliqua) 158. Causal Clauses
§ 159. Conditional
§ 160. Concessive Clauses
§
491
492
Sentences
493
........
Comparative Clauses 162. Disjunctive Sentences 163. Adversative and Exceptive Clauses
§ 161. §
§ 164.
476 478
and Intensive Clauses
§ 154. Sentences connected § 155. Relative Clauses § 156.
450 451
The Verbal-clause The Compound Sentence
§ 144. Peculiarities in V
J§
.
500
Temporal Clauses
Paradigms Index of Subjects Index op Hebrew Words Index of Passages
499 500 501
§ 165. Final Clauses
§ 166. Consecutive Clauses § 167. Aposiopesis, Anacoluthon, Involved Series of Sentences
498
503
504 .
505 507
533
544 565
a r %
P
^
5S
^ ^ £=
r
J-
•
n
g n -j^ n n •^
'it'-—
^^>fe
p
o
*>
60
a
c o
O
O
O I—
I
W H
HEBREW GRAMMAR INTRODUCTION 1.
§
The Semitic Languages in General.
E. KOnig, Rist.-krit. B. Stade, Lehrh. der hebr. Gramm., Lpz. 1879, § 2 ff. H. Strack, EM. in das A. T., 6th ed., Lehrgeb. der hebr. Spr., i. Lpz. 1881, § 3 Munich, 1906, p. 231 ff. (a good bibliography of all the Semitic dialects) Th, Noldeke, article 'Semitic Languages', in the 9th ed. of the Enqjcl. Brit. {Die semit. Sprachen, 2nd ed., Lpz. 1899), and Beitr. sur sem. Sprachwiss., Strassb., 1904 W. Wright, Lectures on (he Comparative Grariimar of the Semitic Languages, Cambr. 1890 H. Reckendorf, Zur Karakteristik der sem. Sprachen,' in the Actes du .X^' Congres internal, des Orientalistes (at Geneva in 1894), iii. i ff., KonsonanLeiden, 1896 O. E. Lindberg, Vergl. Gramm. der sem. Sprachen, i ;
;
;
;
'
;
A
;
:
H. Zimmern, Vergl. Gramm. der sem. Sprachen, Gothenburg, 1897 E. KOnig, Hebrdisch und Semitisch : Prolegomena und Grundlinien Berlin, 1898 einer Gesch. der sem. Sprachen, &c., Berlin, 1901 C. Brockelmann, Semitische Sprachwissenschaft, Lpz. 1906, Grundriss der vergl. Gramm. der sem. Sprachen, vol. i (Laut- und Formenlehre), parts T-5, Berlin, 1907 f. and his Kurzgef. The material contained vergleichende Gramm. (Porta Ling. Or.) Berlin, 1908. in inscriptions has been in process of collection since 1881 in the Paris To this the best introductions are M. LidzCorpus Inscripiionum Semiticarum. barski's Handbuch der Nordsem. Epigraphik, Weimar, 1898, in 2 parts (text and tismus,
;
;
;
—
plates), f.
1900
and his Ephemeris zur sem. Epigraphik (5 parts published), Giessen, [G. A. Cooke, Handbook of North-Semitic Inscriptions, Oxford, 1903].
The Hebrew language is one branch of a great family of Ianguages in Western Asia which was indigenous in Palestine, Phoenicia, Syria, Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Assyria, and Arabia, that is to say, 1.
in the countries extending from the Mediterranean to the other side of the Euphrates and Tigris, and from the mountains of Armenia to
the southern coast of Arabia.
In early times, however,
it
spread from
Arabia over Abyssinia, and by means of Phoenician colonies over many islands and sea-boards of ihe Mediterranean, as for instance to the Carthaginian coast. No comprehensive designation is found in early times for the languages and nations of this family ; the name Semites or Semitic^ languages (based upon the fact that according to Gn lo^'*^'
almost
Shem)
all is,
retained '
nations
speaking these languages
however, now
are
descended from
generally accepted, and has accordingly been
here.'^
First used
by SchlOzer in Eichhorn's
Liter atur, 1781, p. 16 1.
Eepertorium fiir
bibl.
u. morgenl.
From Shem are derived (Gn 10*' ^•') the Aramaean and Arab families as well as the Hebrews, but not the Canaanites (Phoenicians), who are traced (vv. s-'^ff), although their language belongs decidedly to what The language of the Babylonians and Assyrians also is now called Semitic. was long ago shown to be Semitic, just as ASSur (Gn 10'"') is included among the sons of Shem. ^
back to
Ham
COWLKY
B
CL
2 b
Introduction 2.
[§
b-d
i
The better known Semitic languages may be subdivided'
follows
:
—
as
L The South Semitic or Arabic branch. To this belong, besides the classical literary language of the Arabs and the modern vulgar Arabic, the older southern Arabic preserved in the Sabaean inscriptions (less correctly called Himyaritic), Ethiopic, in Abyssinia.
The Middle Semitic or Canaanitish Hebrew of the Old Testament with
II.
the
and
Hebrew,
as found especially in the
its offshoot,
the Ge'ez or
To
this belonjjs
branch. its
Mishna
descendants, the (see below, § 3 a),
New and
Rabbinic; also Phoenician, with Punic (in Carthage and its colonies), and the various remains of Canaanitish dialects preserved in names of
and persons, and in the inscription of Mesa', king of Moab. III, The North Semitic or Aramaic branch. The subdivisions of this are (i) The Eastern Aramaic or Syriac, the literary language places
C
—
of the
Christian Syrians.
The
religious books of the
Mandaeans
(Nasoraeans, Sabians, also called the disciples of St,
John) represent a very debased offshoot of this, Jewish modification of Syriac is to be seen in the language of the Pabylonian Talmud, (2) The Western or Palestinian Aramaic, incorrectly called also Chaldee '.'^ This latter dialect is represented in the Old Testament by two words
A
'
Gn
by the verse Jer 10", and the sections Dn 2* to 7^; and 7^2-26^ ^^ ^^jj ^g ^^y ^ number of non-Jewish inscriptions and Jewish papyri (see below, under m), but especially by a considerable section of Jewish literature (Targums, Palestinian Gemara, &c.). To th* same branch belongs also the Samaritan, with its admixture of Hebrew forms, and, except for the rather Arabic in
Ezr
31^^,
4* to
6'*,
colouring of the proper names, the idiom of the Nabataean inscriptions in the Sinaitic peninsula, in the East of Palestine, &c.
For further particulars about the remains of Western Aramaic (including those in the New Test,, in the Palmyrene and Egyptian Aramaic inscriptions) see Kautzsch, Gramm. des Biblisch-Aramdischen, Lpz. 1884, p. 6 ff.
d
IV. The East Semitic branch, the language of the AssyrioBabylonian cuneiform inscriptions, the third line of the Achaemenian inscriptions.
On the importance of Assyrian for Hebrew philology especially from a lexicographical point of view cf. Friedr. Delitzsch, Prolegomena eines neuen * For conjectures as to the gradual divergence of the dialects (first the Babylonian, then Canaanite, including Hebrew, lastly Aramaic and Arabic) from primitive Semitic, see Zimmern, KAT.^, ii. p. 644 ff. ' In a wider sense all Jewish Aramaic is sometimes called ' Chaldee '.
§ I
e,/]
The Semitic Languages
in
General
3
zum A. T., Lpz. 1886 P. Haupt, 'Assyrian Phonology, in Hehraica, Chicago, Jan. 1885, vol. i. 3 Delitzsch, Assyrische Grammatik, 2nd ed., Berlin, 1906.
hebr.-aram. Worterbuchs
;
&c.,'
;
If the above division into four branches be reduced to two principal No. I, as South Semitic, will be contrasted with the three
"13y, but from the Palestinian Aramaic 'ebraya, the Hebrew.' '
§ 2 c, rf]
History of the Hebrew Language
9
In referring this name to (see above) had become naturalized among them. the patronymic Eber, the Hebrew genealogists have assigned to it a much more comprehensive signification. For since in Gn lo" (Nu 24^^* does not apply) Shem is called the father of all the children of Eber, and to the latter there also belonged according to Gn iii**^- and lo*"* Aramean and Arab *f-
the name, afterwards restricted in the form of the gentilic 'ibii exclusively to the Israelites, must have originally included a considerably larger group of countries and nations. The etymological significance of the name must in that case not be insisted upon.^ The term efipcuari is first used, to denote the old Hebrew, in the prologue C to Jesus the son of Sirach (about 130 B.C.), and in the New Testament, Rv On the other hand it serves in Jn 5^^, 19^31'' perhaps also in jg"^" and 9". Kv 16'^ to denote what was then the (Aramaic) vernacular of Palestine as opposed to the Greek. The meaning of the expression tBpah Std\tKTos in Acta 21*", 22^, and 26'* is doubtful (cf. Kautzsch, Gramm. des Bihl.-Aram., p. 19 f.). Joseplius also uses the term Hebrew both of the old Hebrew and of the Aramaic vernacular of his time. The Hebrew language is first called the sacred language in the JewishAramaic versions of the Old Testament, as being the language of the sacred books in opposition to the lingua jprofatia, i. e. the Aramaic vulgar tongue. races,
2.
With the exception of the Old Testament (and apart from
the
Phoenician inscriptions ; see below, f--h), only very few remains of Hebrew or old Canaanitish literature have been preserved. Of
old
—
(i) an inscription, unfortunately much injured, of thirtyfour lines, which was found in the ancient territory of the tribe of Reuben, about twelve miles to the east of the Dead Sea, among the
the latter
ruins of the city of Dibon
(now Diban), inhabited in earlier times by the Gadites, afterwards by the Moabites. In it the Moabite king Mesa' (about 850 B.C.) recounts his battles with Israel (cf. 2 3'' "),
K
his buildings,
Of
and other matters.^
old
Hebrew
:
(2) an inscription
We
^ may also leave out of account the linguistically possible identification of the 'Ibriyyim with the Habiri who appear in the Tell-elAmarna letters (about 1400 B. c.) as freebooters and mercenaries in Palestine and its
neighbourhood. * This monument, unique of its kind, was first seen in August, 1868, on the spot, by the German missionary F. A. Klein. It vras aftei wards broken into pieces by the Arabs, so that only an incomplete copy of the inscription could be made. Most of the fragments are now in the Louvre in Paris. For the history of the discovery and for the earlier literature relating to the stone, see Lidzbarski, Nordsemitische Epigraphik, i. pp. 103 f, 415 f., and iu the bibliography (under Me), p. 39 ff. The useful reproduction and translation of the inscription by Smend and Socin (Freiburg in Baden, 1886) was afterwards revised and improved by Nordlander, Die Inschrift des Konigs Mesa von Moab, Lpz. 1896 ; by Socin and Holzinger, 'Zur Mesainschrift' d. Wiss., Dec. 1897) and by Lidzbarski, 'Eine Nachpriifung der Mesainschiift' {Ephemeris, i. i, p. i text in his Altsemitische Texte, pt. i, Giessen, 1907) J. Hal6vy, Eevue Simitique, 1900, M. J. Lagrange, Revue biblique Interpp. 236 ff., 289 ff., 1901, p. 2Q7 ff. nationale, 1901, p. 522 ff.; F. Pratorius in ZDMG. 1905, p. 33 ff., 1906, p. 402. Its genuineness was attacked by A. Lowy, Die Echtheit der Moabit, Inschr. im Louvre (Wien, 1903), and G. Jahn in Das Buck Daniel, Lpz. 1904, p. 122 ff. (also in ZDMG. 1905, p. 723 ff.), but without justification, as shown by E. KOnig in ZDMG. 1905, pp. 233 ff. and 743 ff. [Cf. also Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text (if the Books of Samuel, Oxford, 1890, p. Ixxxv ff. ; Cooke, op. cit., p. i ff.]
{Berichte der K. Sdchsisclien Gesell.
;
flf.
;
;
;
u
Introduction
lo
C§ 2 e,/
of six lines (proLably of the eighth century b.c.^) discovered in June, 1880, in the tunnel between the Virgin's Spring and the Pool of Siloam at Jerusalem ; (3) about forty engraved seal-stones, some of
them
pre-exilic but bearing little except proper
names
'^
;
(4) coins
the 2nd year of deliverance', the coinage of the revolts and and his and successors,^ 140 139 B.C.) in the times of Vespasian and Hadrian. of the Maccabaean prince
6
3.
In the whole
Simon (from
series of the ancient
'
Hebrew writings, as found monuments (see above,
the Old Testament and also in non-biblical
in d),
the language (to judge from its consonantal formation) remains, as
regards
and
its
general character, and apait from slight changes in form k to w), at about the same stage of
differences of style (see
development. In this form, it may at an early time have been fixed as a literary language, and the fact tliat the books contained in the Old Testament were handed down as sacred writings, must have contributed to this constant uniformity.
f •^
To this old Hebrew, the language of the Canaanitish or Phoenician * stocks came the nearest of all the Semitic languages, as is evident partly from the many Canaanitisli names of persons and places with a Hebrew form and meaning which occur in the Old Testament (e.g. plSfiSpip, IDD H^lp^ &c. ;
^
Of this inscription —unfortunately not dated, but linguistically and palaeo-
graphically very important— referring to the boring of the tunnel, a facsimile is given at the beginning of this grammar. See also Lidzbarski, Nordsemitische Epigraphik, i. 105, 163, 439 (bibliography, p. 56 ff. ; facsimile, vol. ii, plate xxi, on the new 1) ; drawing of it by Socin {ZBPV. xxii. p. 61 ff. and separately published at Freiburg i. B. 1899), see Lidzbarski, Ephemeris, i. 53 ff. and 310 f. in Altsemit. (text Texte, p. 9 f.). Against the view of A. Fischer {ZDMG. 1902, p. 800 f.) that the six lines are the continuation of an inscription which
was never executed, see Lidzbarski, Ephemeris, ii. 71. The inscription was removed in 1890, and broken into six or seven pieces in the process. It has since been well restored, and is now in the Imperial Museum at Constantinople. If, as can hardly be doubted, the name T\Vp (i. e. emissio) Is 8® refers to the discharge of water from the Virgin's Spring, through the tunnel (so Stade, Gesch. Isr. i. 594), then the latter, and consequently the inscription, was already in existence about 736 b. c. [Cf. Cooke, op. cit, p. 15 ff.] * M. A. Levy, Siegel u. Gemmen, dec, Bresl. 1869, p. 33 ff. Stade, ZAW. 1897, p. 501 ff. (four old-Semitic seals published in 1896) Lidzbarski, Handbuch, i. 169 f. Ephemei-is, i. 10 ff. ; W. Nowack, Lehrb. d. kebr. Archaol. I. Benzinger, Hebr. Archaol.'^ (Tubingen, 1907), (^Freib. 1894), i. 262 f. ;
;
;
;
pp. 80, 225
from the
ff.,
which includes the beautiful
seal inscribed Cy^"!''
IDV
J?CK'^
Megiddo, found in 1904 [Cooke, p. 363]. * De Saulcy, Numismatique de la Terre Sainte, Par. 1874; M. A. Levy, Gesch. der jud. Miinzen, Breslau, 1862; Madden, The Coins of the Jews, Lond. 1881 Reinach, Les monnaies juives, Paris, 1888. Cf. the literature in Schiirer's Gesch. dcs jiid.Volkes im Zeitalter J, C, Lpz. 1901, i. p. 20 ff. [Cooke, p. 352 ff.]. * |y?3, ^P_V?3 is the native name, common both to the Canaanitish tribes in Palestine and to those which dwelt at the foot of the Lebanon and on the Syrian coast, whom we call Phoenicians, while they called themselves fV3D on their coins. The people of Carthage also called themselves so. castle-hill of
;
—
;
;
History of the Hebrew Language
§ 2 J7-0
11
on 'Canaanite glosses '^ to Assyrian words in the cuneiform tablets of Tell-el-Amarna [about 1400 b. c] cf. H. Winekler, Die Thontafeln von Tellel-Amarna,' in Keilinschr. Bibliothek, vol. v, Berlin, 1896 f. [transcription and translation] J. A. Knudtzon, Die El-Amarna-Tafeln, Lpz. 1907 f. H. Ziramern, ZA. 1891, p. 154 S. and KAT.^, p. 651 ff.), and partly from the numerous remains of the Phoenician and Punic languages. The latter we find in their peculiar writing (§ i k, I) in a great number of inscriptions and on coins, copies of which have been collected by Gesenius, Judas, Bourgade, Davis, de Vogiie, Levy, P. Schroder, v. Maltzan, Euting, but especially in Part I of the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, Paris, 1881 If. Among the inscriptions but few public documents are found, e.g. two lists of fees for sacrifices by far the most are epitaphs or votive tablets. Of special importance is the inscription on the sarcophagus of King Esmunazar of Sidon, found in 1855, now in the Louvre; see the bibliography in on the inscription, i. 97 Lidzbarski, Nordsem. Epigr., i. 23 141 f-, 417, ii. plate iv, 2 [Cooke, p. 30 ff.]. To these may be added isolated words in Greek and Latin authors, and the Punic texts in Plautus, Poenulus 5, 1-3 (best treated by Gildemeister in Eitschl's edition of Plautus, Lips. 1884, torn, ii, fasc. 5). From the monuments we learn the native orthography, from the Greek and Latin transcriptions the pronunciation and vocalization the two together give a tolerably distinct idea of the language and its relation '
;
;
;
fif.
;
fif".,
;
;
Hebrew.
to
Phoenician (Punic) words occurring in inscriptions are,
DIN man, 7V2
ny
CJK'
p
^p
to
tJ'pa
seek,
D*"
sea,
pK
stone,
5)03
|n3
silver,
DiifO monument, DpD place, 33tJ'D ynnx four, ^DJI five, B'B' six, three,
grave,
B'^K'
two,
= Hebr.
(
son, T)2 daughter, "^PO king, IDJJ servant,
tfCB' sun, J'lK land,
lord,
time,
p
to
rTTl)
be,
yOiJ'
to
hear,
nflB
to
priest,
7t~0
bed,
^3
yaC
God,
g
riQT sacrifice,
\C^
iron,
TnS
all,
oil,
one,
"iK'y ten,
seven,
"113 to vow,
open,
PK
e. g.
to
"^IH
bless,
Proper names pjf Sidon, 12? Tyre, X3n Hanno, py33n See the complete vocabulary in Lidzbarski, Nordsem. Epigr.,
&c.
:
Hannibal, &c. i. 204 ff. Variations from Hebrew in Phoenician orthography and inflection are, e.g. the almost invariable omission of the vowel letters (§ 7 b), as n3 for IT'S
hmse, ^p for bSp
voice,
pX
for
]\T'^^
DJn3
for
h
priests, D3^N (in Plant. ending in n {ath) (§ 80 h)
Qianij)
alonim) gods ; the fem., even in the absolute state, as well as K (6), the relative tJ'K (Hebr. "IK'X), &c.
The
differences in pro-
nunciation are more remarkable, especially in Punic, where the
i
was
regularly pronounced as m, e. g. tDBCJ' siijet (judge), E'/B' salus (three), B'T ms = K'X") head ; i and e often as the obscure dull sound of y, e.g. ^3311 ynnynnu
m
the y as 0, e.g. -\p)}Ki Mocar (cf. (D^N) yth; nijjo LXX, See the collection of the grammatical peculiarities in Gesenius, Monumenta Phoenicia, p. 430 ff. Paul Schroder, Die phoniz. Sprache, Halle, 1869; B. Stade, 'Erneute Priifung des zwischen dem PhOnic. und Hebr. bestehenden Verwandtschaftsgrades,' in the Morgenldnd. Forschungen, Lpz. 1875, p. 169 ff. (occe
Gn
eum),
22^*
Mcyx^J3
13
son,
Pi. roof over,
The extensive use of Hebrew in the popular religious literature which partly preserved to us in the Midrasim, the Misna, and the Liturgy, indicates, moreover, that Hebrew was widely understood much later than *
is
this.
Cf.
M. H. Segal,
and Aramaic,' in
'
ML^naic Hebrew and its relations to Biblical Hebrew 1908, p. 647 ff. (also separately).
J. Q. R.,
History of the Hebrew Language
§§ i w, 3 a]
nyO
stray, 5)3 rock,
"]^0
a^frtse,
N3E' 6e wiany, tD7B' = ^5J3
ipN
(to say)
to
= }^i5 PliD
command
'"fe; ^P.''^ ;
njy
(to
end,
= n?^
= b3p ni5b
^^ strong.
answer)
to
tafte,
—Later
17
yjn = }^Xn
J^rea/t,
meanings are, e.g.
begin speaking.
— Orthographical
and grammatical peculiarities are, the frequent scriptio plena of S and ''__ e. g. l>n' (elsewhere IH), even E'Tp for tJ'lp, 311 for 31 the interchange ;
n
of
and N
final
;
the more frequent use of substantives in
|i
|
n^
Dav. Strauss, Sprachl. Studien zu d. hebr. Sirach/ragmenten, Zurich, 1900, for the Psalms Choyne, Origin of the Psalter, p. 461 S., and especially p. 19 ff. Giesebrecht in ZAW. 1881, p. 276 ff. in general, Kautzsch, Die Aramaismen im A. T. (i, Lexikal. Teil), Halle, 1902, But all the peculiarities of these later writers are not Aramaisms. Several ilo not occur in Aramaic and must have belonged at an earlier period to the Hebrew vernacular, especially it would seem in northern Palestine. There certain parts of Judges, amongst others, may have originated, as is indicated, e.g. by •£J', a common form in Phoenician (as well as l^N), for "It^X (§ 36), which afterwards recurs in Jonah, Lamentations, the Song of &c.
Cf.
;
;
Songs, the later Psalms, and Ecclesiastes. Rem. I. Of dialectical varieties in the old Hebrew language, only one express mention occurs in the 0. T. (Ju 12*), according to which the Ephraimites in certain cases pronounced the B' as D. (Cf. Marquart in
W
ZAW.
1888, p. 151 ff.) Whether in Neh 13^* by the speech of Ashdod a Hebrew, or a (wholly different) Philistine dialect is intended, cannot be determined. On the other hand, many peculiarities in the North Palestinian hooks (Judges and Hosea) are probably to be regarded as differences in dialect, and so also some anomalies in the Moabite inscription of Mesa' (see above, d). On later developments see L. Metman, Die hebr. Sprache, ihre Geschichte u. lexikal. Enticickelung seit Abschluss des Kanons u. ihr Bau in d. Gegenwart,
Jerusalem, 1906. 2. It is evident that, in the extant remains of old Hebrew literature, ^ the entire store of the ancient language is not preserved. The canonical books of the Old Testament formed certainly only a fraction of the whole Hebrew national literature.
§ 3.
Grammatical Treatment of
the
Hebrew Language.
Gesenius, Gesch. derhebr. Sprache, §§ 19-39 ; Oehler's article, 'Hebr. Sprache,' in Schmid's Encykl. des ges. Erziehungs- u. Unterrichtswesens, vol. iii. p. 346 ff. Cf. also the literature cited (in the 2nd ed. revised by Nestle, p. 314 ff.). above in the headings of §§ 1 and 2 ; also BOttcher, Lehrb. der hebr. Spr., i. Lpz. 1866, p. 30 ff. ; L. Geiger, Das Studium der Hebr. Spr. in Deutschl. vom Ende des XV. bis zur Mitte des XVI. Jahrh., Breslau, 1870 B. Pick, 'The Study of the Hebrew Language among Jews and Christians,' in Bibliotheca Sacra, 1884, W. Bacher, article 'Grammar' in the Jew. p. 450 ff., and 1885, p. 470 ff. Encyclopaedia, vol. vi, N«w York and London, 1904. Cf. also the note on d. ;
;
1.
At the time when the old Hebrew language was gradually a the formation of the O. T. canon was
becoming extinct, and
1 Tl^ in the Minor Prophets throughout (Ho 3', &c.) is due merely to a caprice of the Masoretes, 2 According to the calculation of the Dutch scholar Leusden, the 0. T. contains 5,642 different Hebrew and Aramaic words; according to rabbinical Cf. also E. Nestle, ZAW, calculations, 79,856 altogether in the Pentateuch.
H. Strack, ZAW. 1907, p. 69 ff. ; Blau, 1906, p. 2S^3 in JQR. xvi. 357 ff., treats of the number of letters division in the 0. T. ;
COWLET
c.
Neue masoret. Studien,' and words, and the ve se'
18
Introduction
[§36
approaching completion, the Jews began to explain and critically revise their sacred text, and sometimes to translate it into the vernacular languages which in various countries had become current among them. The oldest translation is the Greek of the Seventy
(more correctly Seventy-two) Interpreters (LXX), which was begun with the Pentateuch at Alexandria under Ptolemy Philadelphus, but only completed later. It was the work of various authoi's, some of whom had a living knowledge of the original, and was intended for the use of Greek-speaking Jews, especially in Alexandria. Somewhat later the Aramaic translations, or Targums (D''0^3iri i, e. interpretations), were foi'med by successive recensions made in Palestine and
The explanations, derived in part from alleged tradition, and ritual law and dogmatic theology, no more scientific in character than much of the textual
Babylonia.
refer almost exclusively to civil
and are
tradition of that period.
Both kinds of tradition are preserved
Talmud, the first part of which, the Misna, was finally brought of the present form towards the end of the second century
in the to its
;
remainder, the Gemara, one recension (the Jerusalem or Palestinian Gem.) about the middle of the fourth century, the other (the Babylonian Gem.) about the middle of the sixth century a.d. The Mi§na
forms the beginning of the New-Hebrew literature; the language of the Gemaras is for the most part Aramaic. 2. To the interval between the completion of the Talmud and b the earliest grammatical writers, belong mainly the vocalization and accentuation of the hitherto unpointed text of the 0. T., according to the pronunciation traditional in the Synagogues and Schools (§ 7 h, i), as well as the greater part of the collection of critical notes which From this the text bears the name of Masora (•^'jiOO traditio 1).^
which has since been transmitted with rigid uniformity by the MSS.,
name Masora (or Massora, as e.g. E. KSnig, Einleitung in das A. T.. Lehrgeb. d. hebr. Sprache, ii. 358 fif.), and the great difficulty of satisW. Bacher's factorily explaining it, cf. De Lagarde, Mitleilungen, i. 91 S. derivation of the expression (in JQR. 1891, p. 785 ff. ; so also C. Levias in '
On
p. 38
the
fif. ;
Annual, Cincinnati, 1904, p. 147 ff.) from Ee 20" an equally legitimate form) is iTJpiD, being rightly rejected by Konig, 1. c. The correctness of the form niDD (by the side of the equally well-attested form JTIDIO) does not seem to us to be
the Hebrew Union (JT'l^n
n"lDD
;
College
moo,
i.e.
invalidated by his arguments, nor by Blau's proposal to read D^iDD {JQK. xii. 241). The remark of Levias (I.e.) deserves notice, that with the earlier Masoretes
miDD
equivalent to orthography, i. e. plene- and defective writing, and only to mean traditio. G. Wildboer, in ZAW. 1909, p. 74, contends that as ">DD to hand on is not found in the O.T., it must be a late denominalater
is
came
tive in this sense.
—
§3c,rf]
and
Grammatical Treatment of the Language
19
name
of the
is still
the received text of the O.T., has obtained the
Masoretic Text. E. F. K. Rosenmiiller already (Handbuch fiir d. Liter, der bibl. Kritik u. 1797, i. 247; Vorrede sur Stereotyp-Ausg. des A. T., Lpz. 1834) maintained that our 0. T. text was derived from Codices belonging to a single recension. J. G. Sommer (cf. Cornill, ZAW. 1892, p. 309), Olshausen (since
C
Exegese,
^nd especially De Lagarde
1^53))
(Proverbien, 1863, p.
i
ff.),
have even made
it
probable that the original Masoretic text was derived from a single standard manuscript. Cf., however, E. KCnig in Ztschr. f. kirchl. Wiss., 1887, p. 279 f., and especially his Einleitung ins A. T., p, 88 ff. Moreover a great many facts, which will be noticed in their proper places, indicate that the Masora itself is by no means uniform but shows clear traces of different schools and opinions cf. H. Strack in Semitic Studies in memory of Kohut, Berlin, 1897, p. 563 ff. An excellent foundation for the history of the Masora and the settlement of the masoretic tradition was laid by Joh. Buxtorf in his Tiberias seu Commeniarius Masorethicus, first published at Basel in 1620 as an appendix to the Rabbinical Bible of 1618 f. For more recent work see Geiger, Jiidische Ztschr., iii. 78 ff., followed by Harris in JQR. i. 128 ff, 243 ff. S. Frensdorff. Ochla and his Massor. Wiirierb., part i, Hanover and Lpz. W'ochla, Hanover, 1864 1876 and Ch. D. Ginsburg, The Massora compiled from Manuscripts, tfcc, 3 vols., Lond. 1880 ff., and Introduction to the Massoretico-critical edition of the Hebr. Bible, Lond. 1897 (his text, reprinted from that of Jacob b. Hayyim [Venice, 1524-5] with variants from MSS. and the earliest editions, was published in 2 vols. at London in 1894, 2nd ed. 1906; a revised edition is in progress); H. Hyvemat, 'La langue et le langage de la Massore' (as a mixture of NewHebrew and Aramaic), in the Revue biblique, Oct. 1903, p. 529 ff. and B: Lexique massor6tique,' ibid., Oct. 1904, p. 521 ff., 1905, p. 481 ff., and p. 515 ff. In the use of the Massora for the critical construction of the Text, useful work has been done especially by S. Baer, in the editions of the several books (only Exod.-Deut. have still to appear), edited from 1869 conjointly with Fr. ;
.
.
.
;
;
;
'
and since 1891 by Baer alone. Cf. also § 7 /*. The various readings of the Q*re (see § 17) form one of the oldest and most important parts of the Masora. The punctuation of the Text, however, is not to be confounded with the compilation of the Masora. The former was settled at an earlier period, and is the result of a much more exhaustive labour than the Masora, which was not completed till a considerably later time. Delitzsch,
3. It was not until about the beginning of the tentli century that the Jews, following the example of the Arabs, began their grammatical Of the numerous grammatical and lexicographical compilations.
works of R. Sa'adya,' beyond fragments in the commentary on the Sepher Yesira (ed. Mayer-Lambert, pp. 42, 47, 75, &c.), only the explanation in Arabic of the seventy (more correctly ninety) hapax legomena in the O. T. has been preserved. "Written likewise in Arabic, but frequently translated into Hebrew, were the grammarians R. Yehuda Hayyug (also called the year 1000) and R.
By
1030).
monly
called
still
extant works of the
Abu Zakarya Yahya, about Yona (Abu '1-Walid Merwan ibn Ganah, about
the aid of these earlier labours,
Aben Ezra,
ob. 1167)
Abraham ben Ezra (com-
and R. David Qirahi
especially gained a classical reputation by their
(ob.
c.
1235)
Hebrew grammatical
writings. ^ On his independent attitude towards the Masoretic punctuation, see Delitzsch, Comm. su den Psalmen*, p. 39.
C 2
(I
20
Introduction
[§ 3
«.
/
From these earliest grammarians are derived many principles of arrangement and technical terms, some of which are still retained, e. g. the naming of the conjugations and weak vexbs according to the paradigm of bVS, certain DDB'IJB and the
voces memoriales, as
€
4.
like.^
The father of Hebrew philology among Christians was John (ob. 1522),^ to whom Greek literature also is so much
Reuchliu
Like the grammarians who succeeded him, till the time John Buxtorf the elder (ob. 1629), he still adhered almost entirely
indebted. of
From the middle of the seventeenth century the gradually widened, and the study of the kindred languages, chiefly through the leaders of the Dutch school, Albert Schultens (ob. 1750) and N. W. Schroder (ob. 1798), became of to Jewish tradition.
field of investigation
Hebrew grammar. In the nineteenth century ' the advances in Hebrew philology are especially connected with the names of W. Gesenius (born at Nordhausen, Feb. 3, 1786; from the year 1810 Professor at Halle, where he died Oct. 23, 1842), who above all things aimed at the fruitful service to
f
5.
comprehensive observation and lucid presentation of the actually
H. Ewald (ob. 1875, at Gottingen occurring linguistic phenomena Krit. Gramm. der Hebr. Spr., Lpz. 1827; Ausfuhrl. Lehrb. d. hebr. Sjyr., 8th ed., Gbtt. 1870), who chiefly aimed at referring linguistic ;
;
forms to general laws and rationally explaining the latter J. Olshausen 1882, at Berlin; Lehrb. der hebr. Sjtrache, Brunswick, 1861) who attempted a consistent explanation of the existing condition of the language, from the presupposed primitive Semitic forms, preserved ;
(ob.
F. Bottcher {Ausfuhrl. according to him notably in old Arabic. Lehrb. d. hebr. Spr. ed. by F.Miihlau, 2 vols., Lpz. 1866-8) endeavoured to present an exhaustive synopsis of the linguistic phenomena, as
well as to give an explanation of
them from
the sphere of
Hebrew
On the oldest Hebrew grammarians, see Strack and Siegfried, Lehrb. d. neuhebr. Spr. u. Liter., Carlsr. 1884, p. 107 fif., and the prefaces to the Hebrew Lexicons of Gesenius and Fiirst Berliner. Beitrage zur hebr. Gramm. im Talmud u. Midrasih, Berlin, 1879; Baer and Strack, Die Dikduke ha-i'amim des Ahron ben Moscheh ben Ascher u. andere alte grammatisch-massorethische Lehrstiicke, Lpz. 1879, and P. Kahle's criticisms in ZDMG. Iv. 170, n. 2 ; Ewald and Dukes, Gesch. der altesfen u. Beitrage z. Auslegung Spracherklarvng des A. T., Stuttg. 1844, •
;
3 vols.
;
Hupfeld, De
pioribus, Hal. 1846 I
ff.
and 335
ff.
;
;
and
grammaticae apud Judaeos initiis antiquissimisque scriBacher, 'Die Anfange der hebr. Gr.,' in ZDMG. 1S95,
rei
W.
Die hebr. Sprachwissenschaft vo7n 10.
bis
sum
16. Jahrh.,
Trier, 1892.
A
2 strong impulse was naturally given to these studies by the introduction of printing the Psalter in 1477, the Bologna Pentateuch in 1482, the Soncino 0. T. complete in 1488 see the description of the twenty-four earliest editions (down to 1528) in Ginsburg's Introduction, p. 779 ff. ' Of the literature 01 the subject down to the year 1850, see a tolerably full account in Steinschneider'a Bibliogr. Handb.f. hebr. Sprachkunde, Lpz. 1859.
—
:
§
3
Grammatical Treatment of the Language
17]
B. Stade, on the other liand {Lehrb. der hebr. Gr., pt.
alone.
21 i.
Lpz.
1879), adopted a strictly scientific method in endeavouring to reduce the systems of Ewald and Olshausen to a more fundamental unity. E. Kouig^ in his very thorough researches into the phonology and accidence starts generally from the position reached by the early Jewish grammarians (in his second part with comparative reference '
aud instead of adopting the usual ') dogmatic method, takes pains to re-open the discussion of disputed grammatical questions. The syntax Konig has endeavoured to treat to the Semitic languages in general
'
in sevei'al respects in such a
—
way as
to
show
its affinity
to the
common
Semitic syntax '. Among the works of Jewish scholars, special attention may be called to the grammar by S. D. Luzzatto written in Italian (Padua, 1853-69). The chief requirements for one
an ancient language are
—
who
(i) that
is
treating the
grammar
of
should observe as fully and
he
accurately as possible the existing linguistic phenomena and describe them, after showing their organic connexion (the empirical and ; (2) that he should try to explain these partly by comparing them with one another aud by the analogy of the sister languages, partly from the general laws of philology
historico-critical element) facts,
(the logical element).
Such observation has more and more led to the belief that the original text of the O. T. has suffered to a
much
greater extent than former scholars were inclined to admit, in spite of the number of variants in jJarallel passages:
2o'^ Jer 52 ^ 70, io8 >//•
Is
= 2 K 24'«-25''», 2 = V' 57**^' and 60'
2'*^
= Mi
S 22=^^
'^•.
4'"^-,
18,
f
1336-39 = 2X18'^14
=
^/^
53, >/.4o»''
Cf. also the parallels
=
between the
Chronicles and the older historical books, and F. Vodel, Die konsonant.
Yarianten in den doppelt
iiberlief.
poet. Stucken d. masoret. Textes,
Lpz. 1905. As to the extent and causes of the corruption of the Masoretic text, the newly discovered fragments of the Hebrew Ecclesiasticus are very instructive;
cf.
Smend,
Gott. gel. Anz.,
1906,
P- 763-
The causes cases are
:
of unintentional corruption in the great majority of
—Interchange
place in the early
'
of similar letters,
which has sometimes taken
'
Phoenician
writing; transposition or omission of
' Ilistorisch-krit. Lehrgeb. der hebr. Sprache mit stetcr Besiehung auf Qitncki und die anderen Autoritdlen I, 'Lehre von der Sohrift, der Aussprache, dero Pron. :
dem Verbum,'
Lpz. 1881 generelle Forraenl.,' 1895;
u.
1897.
;
II. ii. 2,
'
i, '
Abscliluss der speziellen Formenlehre u. d, hebr. Spr.,'
Historisch-kompar. Syntax
a-
22
hiti'oduction
[§ 4
whole sentences, single letters, words, or even
wrong place
which are then often
margin and thence brought back into the text in the such omission is generally due to homoioteleuton (of.
in the
added
;
(jinsburg, Introd., p. 171
ff.),
i.e.
the scribe's eye wanders from the
word of the same or similar form.
place to a subsequent
Other
auses are dittography, i. e. erroneous repetition of letters, words, and even sentences ; its opposite, haplography ; and lastly wrong (
division of words
(cf.
Ginsburg, Introd.,
p.
158
ff.),
since at a certain
—
the text the words were not separated.^ period in the transmission of Intentional changes are due to corrections for the sake of decency or of
dogma, and to the insertion of
glosses,
some of them very
early.
grammar is therefore closely dependent on progress The systematic pursuit of the latter has only criticism. recent years: cf. especially Doorninck on Ju 1-16, Leid.
Advance in textual
in
begun in Cornill, 1879; Wellhausen, Text der Bh. Sam,., Gott. 187 1 Klostermann, Bh. Sam. u. d. Kon., Nordl. 1887 Lpz. 1886
Ezechiel,
;
;
;
Driver,
of the Books of Sam., Oxf. 1890; KlosterOort, Textus hebr. emendationes, Munich, 1893 mann, Deuterojesaja, Oxf. the commentaries of Marti on 1903; Kivigs, Lugd. 1900; Burney Notes on
Hehr.
tlte
text
;
and
Nowack
the
;
Internat.
Schriften des A.T.^, 1909-10.
Crit.
Comm.
A critical
;
Kautzsch,
Die
heil.
edition of the O.T. with full
textual notes, and indicating the different documents by colours, is being published in a handsome form by P. Haupt in The Sacred Books Test., Lpz. and Baltimore, 1893 ff. (sixteen paits have Exod., Deut., Minor Prophets, and Megilloth are still to 'KiiieX, Biblia hebraica', 1909, Masoretic text from Jacob b.
of the Old
appeared
come);
:
with a valuable selection of variants from the
Hayyim
(see
versions,
and emendations.
§ 4.
The
c),
Division
division
and Arrangement
of the
Grammar.
and arrangement of Hebrew grammar follow the
three constituent parts of every language, viz. (i) articulate sounds represented by letters, and united to form syllables, (2) words, and (3) sentences.
The
first
of sounds
part (the elements) comprises accordingly the treatment It describes the nature
and their representation in writing.
and relations of the sounds of the language, teaches the pronunciation 1 This The scriptio continna is also found in Phoenician inscriptions. inscription of Me"a' always divides the words by a point (and so the Siloam at the tlie facsimile of see tliis and frebeginning inscription ; grammar), quently marks the close of a sentence by a stroke.
A7'rangement of the
§ 4]
of the written signs (orthoepy),
(orthography).
Grammar
23
and the established mode
It then treats of the sounds as
of writing
combined in
syllables
and words, and specifies the laws and conditions under which combination takes place.
The second part (etymology) as parts of speech,
treats of
and comprises:
this
words in their character
(i) the principles
oiihe formation
of words, or of the derivation of the different parts of speech from the roots or from one another (2) the principles of inflexion, i. e. ;
which the words assume according to their other words and to the sentence.
of the various forms relation to
The third part (syntax, or how the word-formations and
the arrangement of words) (i) shows inflexions occurring in the language are :
used to express different shades of ideas, and how other ideas, for which the language hus not coined any forms, are expressed by periphrasis ; (2) states the laws according to which the parts of speech are combined in sentences (the principles of the sentence,
or syntax in the stricter sense of the term).
FIRST PART ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OR THE SOUNDS AND CHARACTERS CHAPTER,
I
THE INDIVIDUAL SOUNDS AND CHARACTERS The Consonants
§ 5.
:
their
Forms and Names.
the Table of Alphabets.)
(Cf.
the abundant literature on the subject, special attention is directed to A. Berliner, Beitrage zurhebr. Gramm., Berlin, 1879, p. 15 ff., on the names, forms,and pronunciation of the consonants in Talmud and Midrash H. Strack, Schreibkunst u. Schrift bei d. Hebraern, PRE?, Lpz. 1906, p. 766 ff. Benzinger, Hebr. Archdologie^, Tiibingen, 1907, p. 172 ff. Nowack, Lehrbicch d. hebr. Archdol, d. Handbuch nordsem. i. Epigraphik, Weimar, Lidzbarski, fif.; Freiburg, 1894, 279 also his art. Hebrew Alphabet,' in the Jewish Encyclopaedia, i, 1898, i. I73ff. and 'Die Namen der Alphabet1 901, p. 439 fF. (cf. his Ephemeris, i. 316 ff.) buchstaben ', in Ephemeris, ii. 125 ff.; Kenyon, art. Writing,' in the Dictionary of the Bible, iv. Edinb. 1902, p. 944 ff. NOldeke, Diesemit. Buchstabennamen,' in Beitr. sur semit. Sprachwiss., Strassb. 1904, p. 124 ff. F. Praetorius, Ueber den Ursprung des kanaan. Alphabets, Berlin, 1906; H. Grimme, 'Zur Genesis des R. Stiibe, Grundlinien su einer semit. Alphabets,' in ZA. xx. 1907, p. 49 ff. Jermain, In the path of the Alphabet, Entwickelungsgesch, d. Schrift, Munich, 1907 Fort Wayne, 1907. L. Blau, Studien zum althebr. Buchwesen, dc, Strassb. 1903 and his Ueber d. Einfluss d. althebr. Buchwesens auf d. Originale ', &c., in Festschr. zu Ehren A. Berliners, Frkf. 1903. The best tables of alphabets are those of J. Euting in G. Bickell's Outlines in Pt. vii of the Oriental Series of Heb. Gram, transl. by S. I. Curtiss, Lpz. 1877 of the Palaeographical Soc, London, 1882 and, the fullest of all, in Chwolson's Corpus inscr. Hebr., Petersburg, 1882; also Lidzbarski's in the Jewish Encycl., see above.
Among :
;
;
;
'
;
;
'
'
;
;
;
—
;
;
'
;
;
a
1.
The Hebrew
letters
now
scripts of the O. T. are written
printed,
commonly
Assyrian character
in
use,
in
and our
which both the manu-
editions of the Bible are
called the square character (V?"?? ^^?)> ^l^o the (^l^tS'K '3),*
are not those originally employed.
Old Hehrcio (or Old Canaanitish^) writing, as
it
was used on
The name 'l^E'N (Assyria) is here used in the widest sense, to include the countries on the Mediterranean inhabited by Aramaeans ; cf. Stade in ZAW. 1882, p. 292 f. On some other names for Old Hebrew writing, cf. G. Hoffmann, ibid. 1881, p. 334 ff. ; Buhl, Car^on and Text of the 0. T. (transl. ^
Macpherson), Edinb. 1893, p. 200. assumed here that this was the mother of all Semitic alphabets. In ZDMG. 1909, p. 189 ff., however, Pratorius has shown good
by
'
J.
It is tacitly
I
§
The Consonants :
5 a]
their
Foiins and
Names
25
monuments
in the beginning of the ninth and in the seconit century B.C., is to be seen in the inscription of The characters on the MaccaMesa', as well as in that of Siloam. public
half of the eighth
baean coins of the second century B.C., and also on ancient gems, bear much resemblance to this (cf § 2 d). With the Old Hebrew
still
writing the Phoenician is nearly identical (see § i A;, ^ 2 f, and the From the analogy of the history of other kinds Table of Alphabets). of writing, it
may
be assumed that out of and along with this monu-
mental character, a less antique and in some ways more convenient, rounded style was early developed, for use on softer materials, skins, bark, papyrus, and the like. This the Samaritans retained after their separation from the Jews, while the Jews gradually (between the sixth and the fourth century) exchanged it for an Aramaic character. '
From
this gradually arose (from
third century)
what
is
about the fourth to the middle of the
called the square character,
which consequently
bears great resemblance to the extant forms of Aramaic writing, such as the Egyptian- Aramaic, the Nabatean and especially the Palmyrene.
Of Hebrew inscriptions in the older square character, that of 'Araq al-Emir (15^ miles north-east of the mouth of the Jordan) probably belongs to 183
B.C.''
The Jewish sarcophagus-inscriptions
of the time of Christ, found in Jerusalem in 1905, almost without exception exhibit a pure square character. This altered little in the course of centuries, so that the age of a Hebrew MS. cannot easily be determined from the style of the writing. The oldest known biblical fragment is the Nash papyrus (found in 1902), containing the ten commandments and the beginning of Dt 6*'*, of the end of the first or beginning of the second century a. d. cf. N. Peters, Die dlteste Abschr. der 10 Of actual MSS. of the Bible the oldest is probably Geboie, Freibg. i. B. 1905. one of 820-850 A. D. described by Ginsburg, Introd., p. 469 ff., at the head of his sixty principal MSS. next in age is the codex of Moses ben Asher at Cairo (897 a. d., cf. the art. Scribes' in the Jew. Encycl. xi and Gottheil in JQR. 1905, p. 32). The date (916 a. d.) of the Codex prophetarum Babylon. Petropol. (see § 8 jr, note) is quite certain. In the synagogue-rolls a distinction is drawn between the Tam-character (said to be so called from Rabbi Tam, grandson of R. Yishaqi, in the twelfth century) with its straight strokes, square corners and tittles (tagin), in German and Polish MSS., and the See foreign character with rounded letters and tittles in Spanish MSS. further E. KOnig, Einl. in das A. T., Bonn, 1893, p. 16 ff. ;
;
'
—
'
'
grounds for believing that the South Semitic alphabet is derived not from the Mesa,' character, or from some kindred and hardly older script, but from some unknown and much earlier form of writing. ^ On the effect of the transitional mixture of earlier and later forms on the constitution of the text, see R. Kittel, Ueher d. Notwendigk. d. Herausg. einer ' neuen hebr. Bibel, Lpz. 1901, p. 20 fif. Wie lange stand die althebr. L. Blau, Schrift bei den Juden im Gebrauch?' in Kaufmanngedenkbuch, Breslau, 1900,
—
p.
44 '
ff.
Not
176, as formerly held. correctly, not rfilD.
Driver and Lidzbarski
now
read n"'3iy,
S6
The Individual Sounds and Characters
[§56
2. The Alphabet consists, like all Semitic alphabets, solely of consonants, twenty-two in number, some of which, however, liave also a kind of vocalic power (§ 7 6). The following Table shows their form, names, pronunciation, and numerical value (see k') :
FOEM.
—
§ 5
The Consonants
c-f]
3.
As
:
Form and Names
their
27
the Table shows, five letters have a special form at the end C They are called final letters, and were combined by the
the word.
t)f
Jewish grammarians in the mnemonic word K??.'?? Kamnephds, or better, with A. Miiller and Stade, K???'?? i- e. as the breaker in pieces}
Of
these,
"],
shaft being
S],
|,
y are distinguished from the common form by the in the usual form it is bent
drawn straight down, while
round towards the
left.^
In the case of D the letter
is
completely
closed.
4.
Hebrew
is
read and written from right to
not be divided at the end of
tl>e lines
• ;
left.^
"Words must
but, in order that
d
no empty
space may be left, in MSS. and printed texts, certain letters suitable for the purpose are dilated at the end or in the middle of the line. In oiir printed texts these literae dilatahiles are the five following
Qn n "7
(mnemonic word
{>?
DHp'!?^ '%altem).
:
In some MSS. other
letters suitable for the n, 3,
"1
;
cf.
purpose are also employed in this way, as Strack in the Theol Lehrb., 1882, No. 22; Nestle, ZAW.
1906, p. 170
f.
The forms of the letters originally represent the rude outlines of e perceptible objects, the names of which, respectively, begin with the consonant represented (akrophony). Thus Yod, in the earlier alphabets the rude picture Rem.
I.
of a hand, properly denotes hand (Heb. 1^), but as a letter simply the sound ' a circle, properly an (j/), with which this word begins; 'Ayin, originally
stands for the consonant y. In the Phoenician alphabet, especiallj', the resemblance of the forms to the objects denoted by the name is still for the most part recognizable (see the Table). In some letters the (i^ )^ T, £3, tJ') similarity is still preserved in the square character. It is another question whether the present names are all original. They may be merely due to a later, and not always accurate, interpretation of the forms. Moreover, it is possible that in the period from about 1 500 to 1000 b. c. the original forms underwent considerable change. The usual explanation of the present names of the letters ^ is Pj^N ox,
eye (py),
.
:
In the Talmud, disregarding the alphabetical order, ^QV~|0 o/thy watcher, See the discussions of this mnemonic word by Nestle, ZAW. 1907, p. 119 ff., K6nig, Bacher (who would read '!]^a>rfjp = proceed ing/rom thy '
i.e. prophet.
Krauss, Marmorstein, ibid. p. 278 ff. All the twenty-two together with the five final forms, occur in Zp3^ * Chwolson, Corpus Inscr. Hebr., col. 68, rightly observes that the more original forms of these letters are preserved in the literae finales. Instances of them go back to the time of Christ. * The same was originally the practice in Greek, which only adopted the opposite direction exclusively about 400 b.c. On the boustrophedon writing (alternately in each direction) in early Greek, early Sabaean, and in the Safa-inscriptions of the first three centuries a. d., cf. Lidzbarski, Ephemeris, i. ii6f. * This does not apply to early inscriptions or seals. Cf. Mela', 11. 1-5, to be customary. 7, 8, &c., Siloam 2, 3, 5, where the division of words appears * possess Greek transcriptions of the Hebrew names, dating from the fifth century b. c. The LXX give them (in almost the same form as Eusebius, J'raep. Evang. 10. 5) in La 1-4, as do also many Codices of the Vulgate (e. g. the
prophets, Is 52^), letters,
We
/*
28 n*2
The Individual Sounds and Characters house,
[§ 5 ^
^03 camel (according to Lidzbarski, see below, perhaps originally
jna axe or pick-axe), TO"^ door (jproperly folding door
perhaps Tl
the
female
NH
breast),
comparing the Greek
tceapow (according to Nestle, rrin /ence, barrier (but
according to Lidzbarski,
;
air-hole (?), lattice-window (?), f^jra,
11
rather
hook, nail, p) JT'I olive-tree),
perhaps only differentiated from n by the left-hand
stroke), n"'tp a winding (?), according to others a leather
perhaps only differentiated from
D by
a circle round
bottle
it),
or a snake (but
HV
hand, P|3 ben/
IJ^p ox-goad, D^IO wa<er, pj fish (Lidzbarski, 'perhaps originally t^PIJ snake,' as in Ethiopic), T]pD prop (perhaps a modification of T), PS? e2/e, J