The Cases
The Cases
§ 18. The cases are not marked by means of terminations except in rare instances. They must be supposed, however, to exist, and an accurate analysis of construction will take them into account. The cases are three, Nom., Gen., and Acc. When a word is governed by prep. ל to, the dative is sometimes spoken of, and the abl. when it is governed by prep. מן from, &c.; but this is inaccurate application of classical terminology.
1. The Nom.— The nom. has no particular termination (Gr. § 17). The personal pronouns are only used in nom., their oblique cases appearing as suffixes. The nom. is often pendens, being resumed by pronoun (§ 106).
2. The Gen.— (a) All words after a cons. state are in gen., as סוּס הָאִישׁ the man's horse. (b) All words governed by a prep. are in gen., as לְרוּחַ הַיּוֹם at the cool of the day; cool is gen. by prep., and day is gen. by cool. (c) All suffixes to nouns and prep. are to be considered in gen., as סוּסוֹ his horse (h. of him), אֶצְלָהּ beside her (at the side of her). (d) Sometimes a clause assumes the place of a gen. to a preceding noun, the clause being equivalent to the infin. or nomen actionis. Isaiah 29:1 קִרְיַת חָנָה דָוִד thou city where David dwelt (of David's dwelling).
3. The Acc.— There are traces of a case ending in a. (a) The acc. may be directly governed by a verb, וַיִּקַּח אֶת־הָֽאָדָם he took the man. The verbal suffixes are usually direct obj., וַיַּנִּחֵֽהוּ and put him. (b) The acc. may be of the kind called adverbial or modal, as in designations of place, time, &c., in statements of the condition of subj. or obj. during an action, or in limitations of the incidence of an action, or the extent of the application of a quality (§ 70, § 24, R. 5). (c) So-called prepp. like אַֽחֲרֵי behind, אֵצֶל beside, &c., are really nouns in this kind of acc, except when preceded by another prep., as מֵאַֽחֲרֵי from behind, when, of course, they are in the gen. (d) Many times clauses with כִּי that, אֲשֶׁר, אֶת־אֲשֶׁר how that, assume the place of a virtual acc. to a preceding verb.
4. The construct is not a case but a state of the noun. The cons. is the governing noun in a genitive-relation; its state or difference of form from the abs. or ordinary form is due to the closeness of the connection between it and its gen. The cons. may be in any case, as nom. וּזֲהַב הָאָרֶץ הַהִיא טוֹב and the gold of that land is good; or gen. בְּתוֹךְ הַגָּן in the midst of the garden, where midst is gen. by prep.; or acc. לִשְׁמֺר דֶּרֶךְ עֵץ הַֽחַיִּים to keep the way of the tree of life, where way is acc. after keep, and cons. before its gen. tree, &c.
The cons. occasionally ends in i, more rarely in o or u. In Eth. the vowel a marks the cons.