21st Century Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 2:24, oblique modality (2)

I apologize, I don't know why I didn't post this on Thursday. You will get another lesson this Thursday.

Genesis 2:24

 

כד עַל־כֵּן֙ יַֽעֲזָב־אִ֔ישׁ אֶת־אָבִ֖יו וְאֶת־אִמּ֑וֹ וְדָבַ֣ק בְּאִשְׁתּ֔וֹ וְהָי֖וּ לְבָשָׂ֥ר אֶחָֽד:

 

Translation:     Therefore a man abandons his father and his mother; so that he sticks to his wife, from then on they become one flesh.

 

Vocabulary in this lesson:

יַעֲזָב	leave
אָבִיו	His father
אִמּוֹ	His mother
דָבַק	Stick to

 

There are two zaqefs in this verse and notice that the first one comes after another of those curves. The curve is called qadma and it is conjunctive.

 

The other zaqef comes after a word marked underneath by a right-angle pointing toward the end of the verse. This is another conjunctive trop called munach.

 

The first zaqef separates the man from his parents, just like the word yaazav does. He’s the one responsible for making a new unit with his wife, and he is responsible for supporting his wife.

 

Note that yaazav is an anomalous form. The normal imperfect aspect is yaazov. When I say “anomalous”, I mean that there’s no other example in Torah and so I’m not sure if it has a special meaning. There’s an example in Chronicles I 16:37 which means, not to abandon, but to have a purpose in separating somebody out as special, namely setting aside Asaf and his brothers because they will be serving the ark of the covenant. So parents are special in a man’s life, but he has to put them on one side because it’s his wife with whom he forms the new family.

 

There are lots of one-off forms in Tannakh. It’s no use saying that they are mistakes of some kind or other. Tannakh existed using its current grammar before the Babylonian Captivity. It’s probably true to say that anomalous forms only occur once in the text, but they were actually part of a complex grammar that people used on the street without thinking about it. Since we only have one example, we don’t know what they meant when they used it. 

 

Now notice the v’davaq. This is another case of oblique modality, which I introduced in verse 2:6. Remember, the pattern is main clause in imperfect aspect, subordinate clause in vav plus perfect aspect. Most of the time, there will be an etnach between them, as there is here.

 

In this verse we have an effect clause. If a man puts his parents on one side when he marries, then he can cling to his wife so that they become truly united.

 

In other words, her in-laws have the power to ruin the marriage and it’s her husband’s job to prevent that by sticking up for her against his parents.