21st Century Bible Hebrew -- object suffixes

So somebody who was reading the old Bit at a Time thread was doing his job and asked a question I haven’t dealt with here. Until now.

One of the features of Biblical Hebrew is that conjugated verbs, like aspectless verbs, can take personal suffixes as direct objects.

An example of the aspectless verb situation is Genesis 2:4.

אֵ֣לֶּה תֽוֹלְד֧וֹת הַשָּׁמַ֛יִם וְהָאָ֖רֶץ בְּהִבָּֽרְאָ֑ם בְּי֗וֹם עֲשׂ֛וֹת יְהוָֹ֥ה אֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶ֥רֶץ וְשָׁמָֽיִם:

The bolded word is actually a prepositional phrase: b meaning “at the time of”; hibar, the nifal aspectless for “create”, and -am, a personal suffix meaning “them”. The whole phrase means “at the time of [Gd] decreeing their creation [out of nothing].”

Here are examples of four of the personal suffixes.

Exodus 1:22

כב וַיְצַ֣ו פַּרְעֹ֔ה לְכָל־עַמּ֖וֹ לֵאמֹ֑ר כָּל־הַבֵּ֣ן הַיִּלּ֗וֹד הַיְאֹ֨רָה֙ תַּשְׁלִיכֻ֔הוּ וְכָל־הַבַּ֖ת תְּחַיּֽוּן:

The bolded word has the 3^rd singular masculine suffix so, “throw him”, the son of the Israelitess.

Exodus 2:3

ג וְלֹא־יָֽכְלָ֣ה עוֹד֘ הַצְּפִינוֹ֒ וַתִּֽקַּֽח־לוֹ֙ תֵּ֣בַת גֹּ֔מֶא וַתַּחְמְרָ֥ה בַֽחֵמָ֖ר וּבַזָּ֑פֶת וַתָּ֤שֶׂם בָּהּ֙ אֶת־הַיֶּ֔לֶד וַתָּ֥שֶׂם בַּסּ֖וּף עַל־שְׂפַ֥ת הַיְאֹֽר:

The suffix is 3^rd singular feminine, referring to tevah so, “pitched it with pitch”, that is Yocheved coated the box with pitch to make it waterproof.

Exodus 3:13

יג וַיֹּ֨אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֜ה אֶל־הָֽאֱלֹהִ֗ים הִנֵּ֨ה אָֽנֹכִ֣י בָא֘ אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵל֒ וְאָֽמַרְתִּ֣י לָהֶ֔ם אֱלֹהֵ֥י אֲבֽוֹתֵיכֶ֖ם שְׁלָחַ֣נִי אֲלֵיכֶ֑ם וְאָֽמְרוּ־לִ֣י מַה־שְּׁמ֔וֹ מָ֥ה אֹמַ֖ר אֲלֵהֶֽם:

This is 1^st singular, “sent me”, Mosheh, to you…

Exodus 5:3

ג וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ אֱלֹהֵ֥י הָֽעִבְרִ֖ים נִקְרָ֣א עָלֵ֑ינוּ נֵֽלְכָה־נָּ֡א דֶּ֩רֶךְ֩ שְׁל֨שֶׁת יָמִ֜ים בַּמִּדְבָּ֗ר וְנִזְבְּחָה֙ לַֽיהוָֹ֣ה אֱלֹהֵ֔ינוּ פֶּ֨ן־יִפְגָּעֵ֔נוּ בַּדֶּ֖בֶר א֥וֹ בֶחָֽרֶב:

This is 1^st plural, “let He strike us”.

Now. In first person you will always see -n- before the final vowel. In 2^nd person, the ending always starts with a consonant and there are no worries. In 3^rd person, there’s a problem. The feminine ending is -ah. When the conjugated verb ends in a vowel, it’s hard to say that combination. Hebrew will stick in either a -h- or an -n-. If it’s an -n-, it will take dagesh. 

So: Deuteronomy 1:38

יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בִּן־נוּן הָעֹמֵד לְפָנֶיךָ הוּא יָבֹא שָׁמָּה אֹתוֹ חַזֵּק כִּי־הוּא יַנְחִלֶנָּה אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל:

“…he [Joshua] will cause to inherit it…” literally inherit her, the Holy Land, because erets is feminine.

Before you ask, these suffixes work with both imperfect and perfect aspect verbs. Most of the ones above were imperfect, but shlachani was based on perfect aspect – I think. The unsuffixed perfect aspect would be shalach. I don’t know why shva replaces the qamatz unless it has something to do with the suffix.

These are not common. Torah frequently uses a suffixed form of et, but only when there’s a non-suffixed form of et that goes with a noun.

So say thanks to the guy who asked the question on the other Hebrew thread, because if you’ve been reading on your own you might have come across these and you didn’t know what you were looking at.

There’s just one little wrinkle and I’ll talk about it next week.