21st Century Bible Hebrew -- "k"

Genesis 3:5-6

 

ה  כִּ֚י יֹדֵ֣עַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים כִּ֗י בְּיוֹם֙ אֲכָלְכֶ֣ם מִמֶּ֔נּוּ וְנִפְקְח֖וּ עֵֽינֵיכֶ֑ם וִֽהְיִיתֶם֙ כֵּֽאלֹהִ֔ים יֹֽדְעֵ֖י ט֥וֹב וָרָֽע:

ו וַתֵּ֣רֶא הָֽאִשָּׁ֡ה כִּ֣י טוֹב֩ הָעֵ֨ץ לְמַֽאֲכָ֜ל וְכִ֧י תַֽאֲוָה־ה֣וּא לָֽעֵינַ֗יִם וְנֶחְמָ֤ד הָעֵץ֙ לְהַשְׂכִּ֔יל וַתִּקַּ֥ח מִפִּרְי֖וֹ וַתֹּאכַ֑ל וַתִּתֵּ֧ן גַּם־לְאִישָׁ֛הּ עִמָּ֖הּ וַיֹּאכַֽל:

 

Translation:     For Gd knows that on the day of your eating from it, your eyes will be opened; you will be like Gd, knowing good and evil. 

The woman must have seen that the tree was good for food, and an attraction to the eyes, and the tree was desirable for enlightening, and she took some of its fruit and ate; she gave also to her man with her and he ate.

 

Last but not least, here is k’, with object suffixes.  K’ means “the same manner as”, “similar to”, and with aspectless verbs it often means “just at the time that” as opposed to the  broader meaning of b’ plus an aspectless verb as “in the time period when…”

 

Notice that k’ needs an infix like me does.  You’ll see why when I tell you that without a suffix, when it is not prefixed to a verb or noun, this preposition is spelled כְּמוֹ.  Also notice the switch from “n” to “h” before the suffix.

 

Singular	Plural	Person/gender
כָּמֹנִי	כָּמֹנוּ	First
כָּמוֹךָ	כְּמוֹכֶם	Second/masculine
כָּמוֹךְ	כְּמוֹכֶן	Second/feminine
כָּמֹהוּ	כְּמוֹהֶם	Third/masculine
כָּמוֹהָ	כְּמוֹהֶן	Third/feminine

 

I talked about ba-asher and la-asher.  There is also a fairly frequent phrase ka-asher which means “like, in the same manner as”. 
 

So now you’ve had three things: k’ meaning “as, as soon as, according to”.
 

Ki which depending on context can mean “if”, “when” (“as soon as”), “but”, “lest”. Rashi quotes this and he gets it from Resh Laqish in Babylonian Talmud Gittin 90a.
 

Ki- which refers to the essence of something and can even turn imperfect aspect verbs into something like a noun for the status of something.