Grammar

9.2. Grammar
9.2.1. Nouns
Hebrew and Aramaic nouns can be classified according to:
a. Gender (masculine and feminine)
b. Number (singular, dual and plural). Dual is often used to refer to things that come in natural pairs, such as ‘two hands’.
c. State (absolute and construct). Aramaic has a third state, determined/emphatic.
The Groves-Wheeler Westminster Hebrew Morphology module analyses the nouns for you. As mentioned earlier, the module is not free. The free modules that are currently available will only give you the Hebrew/Aramaic root and its meaning.
Here is an example to illustrate the construct noun in Hebrew. The construct noun is often translated by the English word ‘of’. Some well-known construct phrases are ‘house of God’ and ‘the fear of the LORD’. ‘House of God’ means ‘house belonging to God’. The construct (genitive) here indicates possession. In the phrase ‘the fear of the LORD’, we have a different kind of construct (genitive). It is not the fear belonging to the LORD; in this case, it refers to the fear we have for God. God is not the subject, but the object of the fear.
An example of the Aramaic emphatic state is found in the well-known word Abba. The Aramaic word for ‘father’, just like Hebrew, is ‘Ab’. This makes the Father the unique one, who is addressed in a respectful way, just like the father in a household.
|Absolute|Construct|
|Masculine|Feminine |Masculine|Feminine|
Singular|31,919|10,683|21,561|8,075|
Dual|100|219|361|1,176|
Plural|8,828|2,707|11,646|2,691|
Figure 3: Statistics of Hebrew nouns
9.2.2. Adjectives
Adjectives have gender and number, just like nouns.
An adjective describes or modifies a noun or pronoun. In Daniel 2:45, rav ‘great’ describes God.
The great (rav) God has made known to the king what will occur in the future.
9.2.3. Article
The Hebrew definite article is always attached to the beginning of a word. It is the letter ‘h’.
The Aramaic definite article is always attached to the end of the word. It is the letter ’ (alef) or h (he).
Hebrew does not have an indefinite article (‘a’ or ‘an’). It only has the definite article (‘the’). One of the ways in which the article is used in Hebrew is to indicate a unique person or thing. When God spoke to Abraham he told him to go ‘to a land’ (Gen. 12:1 KJV). What did he mean? The NIV is more specific, because it speaks of a specific land. Abraham was to go ‘to the land’. The difference here is the article ‘the’. God did not want Abraham to go to ‘a’ land, but to ‘the’ land, even though he did not mention its name. Unfortunately the free ES and TW modules do not code the article. It might be helpful to read the Hebrew text to appreciate this.
Here is another example to illustrate this. In Genesis 31:21, we find the following phrase ‘He arose and crossed the river’ (NKJV). Which river is the author referring to? The NASB is more explicit and translated ‘he arose and crossed the Euphrates River’. The NASB rightly observes that, ‘the river’, refers to ‘the well-known river’, which was the ‘Euphrates River’. Most modern translations make this information explicit by adding ‘Euphrates’ to the translation.
9.2.4. Prepositions
Hebrew and Aramaic have two kinds of prepositions:
a. inseparable (the letters: b, k, l) and
b. independent (min, ad, al, im).
Inseparable prepositions are joined to the words they govern. The phrase ‘in the beginning’ in Gen. 1:1is written as בראשׁית with ב ‘in’ attached to ראשׁית ‘beginning.’
Independent prepositions are like English prepositions. They are not attached to another word.
These prepositions should be translated with context-sensitivity. It was explained earlier that prepositions are not the same in different languages. For example, it is difficult to find one English preposition that matches the Hebrew ‘l’ in meaning.
God called (l) the light (Gen. 1:5 NET).
Separate water (l) from water (Gen. 1:6 NET).
9.2.5. Pronouns
Personal pronouns can be independent or suffixed.
An example of a personal pronoun that is attached to a noun can be found in the well-known verse Psalm 23:1. Even non-Christians from time to time will quote verses from this Psalm. In verse 1, the Psalmist said: ‘The LORD is my shepherd’. The verse does not say: ‘The LORD is a shepherd’, although this would have been correct. In Ezekiel 34, God complained about the shepherds in Israel. He then promised in verses 11 and 12:
I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep.
The LORD is a shepherd. In Psalm 23, however, the Psalmist was not speaking in general terms. The pronoun attached to ‘shepherd’ makes it very personal. The Psalmist said ‘the LORD is MY shepherd’. Probably he remembered Jacob, who at the end of his life could say the following about God: ‘The God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day’ (Gen. 48:15). The Hebrew text in Psalm 23:1 does not have a verb. The Psalmist is not referring only to his present situation. He was saying, as it were, ‘the LORD was, is and will always be my shepherd’, therefore ‘I do not and will not lack anything’!
The two major groups of demonstrative pronouns are ‘near’ (this, these) and ‘far’ (that, those).
9.2.6. Verbal pattern
The Hebrew and Aramaic verb has seven or eight basic ‘patterns’ or binyanim. There is no need to memorise this summary of the grammar. ES and TW will parse the verbs for you.
Hebrew Verbal patterns|
|Simple|Factitive/Resultative|Causative|
Active|Qal|Pi‘el|Hi‘fil|
Passive|Nif‘al|Pu‘al|Ho‘fal|
Reflexive |Nif‘al|Hitpa‘el|-------|
The Aramaic verbal pattern, which is similar to Hebrew, is as follows:
Aramaic Verbal pattern|
Active|Passive|Reflexive|
Pe‘al|Pe‘il|hitpe‘el|
Pa‘el|pu‘al|hitpa‘al|
Haf‘el|hof‘al||
Here is one example of a verb in one of the Hebrew verbal patterns.
And I will bless <01288> (08762) them that bless <01288> (08764) thee, and curse <0779> (08799) him that curseth<07043> (08764) thee: and in thee shall all families <04940> of the earth <0127> be blessed <01288> (08738) (Gen. 12:3 KJV).
This Abrahamic blessing is well known. However, there are a few things that can be translated differently. The last part of the verse is translated in the NIV as ‘and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you’. The NET, however, translates it as: ‘and all the families of the earth will bless one another by your name’. Will the families be blessed through Abram or will they bless one another by Abram’s name? The answer has to do with our understanding of the binyanim, the stem, of the word translated ‘bless’ [H1288]. According to TVM [H8738], it is a niphal form of the word ‘to bless’. The notes provided by the NET help to clarify the problem.
Theoretically the Niphal can be translated either as passive or reflexive/reciprocal. (The Niphal of ‘bless’ is only used in formulations of the Abrahamic covenant, see Gen. 12:2; 18:18; 28:14.) Traditionally the verb is taken as passive here, as if Abram were going to be a channel or source of blessing. But in later formulations of the Abrahamic covenant (see Gen. 22:18; 26:4) the Hitpael replaces this Niphal form, suggesting a translation ‘will bless [i.e. ‘pronounce blessings on’] themselves [or ‘one another’].’ The Hitpael of ‘bless’ is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut. 29:18; Ps. 72:17; Isa. 65:16; Jer. 4:2. Gen. 12:2 predicts that Abram will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae. For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen. 48:20 and Ruth 4:11.
There are two basic finite conjugations: perfect and imperfect.
‘For You, LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You’ (Ps. 9:10, NKJV). In the Hebrew Bible this verse is Psalm 9:11. As you know, when the Bible was written originally, there were no verses and chapters attached to it. You will therefore find differences between the verse numbers when you are using different Bible translations. Not all translations use the same numbering scheme. That, however, is not the most important thing that we want to share in this section.
Hebrew differs from English, in that the focus of the verbs is not only on the time (for example, past, present, future). More important is the kind of action that is portrayed by the verb. The verb in the phrase translated ‘have not forsaken’ according to TVM is a Qal Stem and a Perfect Mood. The NIV says: ‘have never forsaken’. The idea expressed here can be paraphrased as ‘LORD, you have never, not even once, forsaken those who seek You’!
Other forms of the verb are: imperative (and derived forms), participle and infinitives. Whereas Aramaic has one infinitive, Hebrew has two (absolute and construct). One example is used to illustrate the infinitive and another to explain the participle.
Infinitive. ‘In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the LORD’ (1 Sam. 1:10). The literal translation of this phrase in Hebrew is: ‘and weeping, she was weeping’. The NET has the following translation: ‘She was very upset as she prayed to the LORD, and she was weeping uncontrollably’. The translators of the NET added the following explanation. ‘The infinitive absolute emphasises the extent of her sorrow. The imperfect verbal form emphasises the continuation of the action in past time.’
Participle. ‘Lot sat in the gate of Sodom’ (Gen. 19:1 KJV). What was Lot doing there? The word ‘sat’ according to TVM [H8802] is a Qal participle. If we translate this participle in another way, the customs of those days may help us to understand what he was doing there. In this passage, the participle suggests ‘an action or condition in its unbroken continuity’. In order to bring that out, the phrase can be expressed in the following way: ‘Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom’ (NKJV). So it was not a one-time activity. The NET adds the following notes to its translation:
The expression sitting in the city’s gateway may mean that Lot was exercising some type of judicial function (see the use of the idiom in 2 Sam. 19:8; Jer. 26:10; 38:7; 39:3).
Apparently, Lot was one of the senior people in the city, even though they knew he was a foreigner (see Gen. 19:9).
Conjugations are conjugated by person, gender, and number.
|QAL|NIF‘AL|PI‘EL|PU‘AL|HITPA‘EL|HIF‘IL|HOF‘AL|TOTAL|
PERF|9827|1065|1588|113|82|1741|88|14504|
IMPF|10409|1093|1461|79|264|2295|123|15724|
IMPERATIVE|2896|118|436|0|64|740|2|4256|
INF CONS|4599|207|710|1|95|950|5|6567|
INF ABS|518|35|84|1|3|225|6|872|
PART ACT|5605|808|679|186|123|841|108|8350|
PART PAS|1039|0|0|0|0|0|0|1039|
|34893|3326|4958|380|631|6792|332|51312|
Figure 4 Statistics of Hebrew verbs
[See image15]
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In Daniel 2:8, the KJV reads: ‘The king answered’. The TVM (Tense Voice and Mood) parser indicates that ‘answered’ is [H8750]. This refers to the verbal stem Peal and the mood Participle. TVM provides an explanation for both the Peal stem(see [H8837]) and the Participle (see [H8813]). The Peal represents the base form of the verb, and is equivalent to the Hebrew Qal stem.