Bit at a time Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 1:28

Genesis 1:28

 

כח וַיְבָרֶךְ אֹתָם אֱלֹהִים וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם אֱלֹהִים פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ וּמִלְאוּ אֶת־הָאָרֶץ וְכִבְשֻׁהָ וּרְדוּ בִּדְגַת הַיָּם וּבְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם וּבְכָל־חַיָּה הָרֹמֶשֶׂת עַל־הָאָרֶץ:

 

Transliteration: Va-yivarekh otam elohim va-yomer lahem elohim p’ru u-r’vu u-milu et-ha-arets v’khivshuha u-r’du bi-d’gat ha-yam u-v’of ha-shamaim u-v’khal chayah ha-romeset al-ha-arets.

Translation:     Gd blessed them and Gd said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and dominate it and subjugate the fish of the sea and the flyer of heaven and all wild animal that creeps on the earth.

Vocabulary in this lesson:

כִבְשֻׁהָ

Dominate it

 

This verb form shows an important feature of the Hebrew language.  It could have said v-khivshu otah but instead it combines the object pronoun with the verb.  The suffix should look familiar.  Let’s go through the forms although you would never say some of them.

 

Singular	Plural	Person/gender
כִּבְשֻׁנִי	כִּבְשֻׁנוּ	First
כִּבְשֻׁךָ	כִּבְשֻׁכֶם	Second/masculine
כִּבְשֻׁךְ	כִּבְשֻׁכֶן	Second/feminine
כִּבְשׁוּהוּ	כִּבְשֻׁתָם	Third/masculine
כִּבְשֻׁהָ	כִּבְשֻׁתָן	Third/feminine

 

 So when it looks like a verb but doesn’t have the ordinary personal ending for the binyan, or the person, number or gender, think about otam and its personal endings; you may be looking at a verb with a personal suffix ending.

 

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