Bible Lexicons

1. The subject of a noun-clause (see §140a) may be—

(a) A substantive, e.g. וְנָהָר יֹצֵא מֵעֵ֫דֶן‎ and a river went out (was going out) of Eden, Genesis 2:10.

(b) A pronoun, e.g. Genesis 7:4 אָֽנֹכִי מַמְטִיר‎ I will cause it to rain; 14:18 וְהוּא כֹהֵן‎ and he was priest; 2:23 (זֹאת‎ before a feminine predicate, as אֵ֫לֶּה‎ before a plural in Exodus 32:4); מִי חָכָם‎ who is wise? Hosea 14:10.—In 1 Chronicles 5:2 וּלְנָגִיד מִמֶּ֫נּוּ‎ and of him one became a prince, the subject is contained in מִמֶּ֫נּוּ‎.^[1]

2. The predicate of a noun-clause may be—

(a) A substantive, e.g. Deuteronomy 14:1 בָּנִים אַתֶּם וגו׳‎ ye are children of the Lord your God; Genesis 42:13. Specially characteristic of the Semitic mode of expression are the cases in which both subject and predicate are substantives, thus emphasizing their identity (‘the thing is its measure, material, or equivalent’), e.g. Ezekiel 41:22 הַמִּזְבֵּחַ עֵץ ... וְקִֽירֹתָיו עֵץ‎ the altar (was) wood ..., and the walls thereof (were) wood, i.e. of wood. Cf. below, c.

(b) An adjective or participle, e.g. Genesis 2:12 וּֽזֲהַב הָאָ֫רֶץ הַהִיא טוֹב‎ and the gold of that land is good; וְעֶפְרוֹן ישֵׁב‎ now Ephron was sitting, &c., Genesis 23:10.^[2] Very frequently such noun-clauses, attached by Wāw to a verbal-clause, are used to represent a state contemporaneous with the principal action; cf. e below.

(c) A numeral, e.g. Genesis 42:13 שְׁנֵים עָשָׂר עֲבָדֶ֫יךָ‎ the twelve (of us) are thy servants. (d) A pronoun, e.g. Genesis 10:12 (הִיא‎), Exodus 9:27 (אֲנִי‎), Genesis 24:65 (מִי‎), 1 Kings 9:13 (מָה‎).^[3]

(e) An adverb or (esp. if formed with a preposition) any specification of time, place, quality, possessor, &c., which may be regarded as the equivalent of a noun-idea, e.g. שָׁם הַבְּדֹ֫לַח‎ there is the bdellium, Genesis 2:12; אֵי הֶ֫בֶל‎ where is Abel? 4:9; לְעוֹלָם חַםְדּוֹ‎ his mercy endureth for ever, Psalms 136:1 f.; ע֫שֶׁר בְּבֵיתוֹ‎ riches are in his house, Psalms 112:3; לוֹ אֲנָחְ֑נוּ‎ we are his, Psalms 100:3 Q^erê.

Rem. 1. The employment of a substantive as predicate of a noun-clause is especially frequent, either when no corresponding adjective exists (so mostly with words expressing the material; cf. §128o) or when the attribute is intended to receive a certain emphasis. For in all cases there is a much greater stress upon a substantival predicate,^[4] since it represents something as identical with the subject (see above, b [a]), than upon an adjectival or verbal predicate; cf. Song of Solomon 1:10; Psalms 25:10 all the paths of the Lord are חֶ֫סֶד וֶֽאֱמֶת‎ lovingkindness and truth (i.e. wholly lovingkindness, &c.; cf. Jeremiah 10:10); Ezekiel 38:5, Psalms 10:5, Psalms 19:10, Psalms 23:5, Psalms 88:19, Proverbs 3:17,^[5] Job 22:12, Job 23:2, Job 26:13, Ruth 3:2. Sometimes the emphasis on the predicate is obtained by the use of the plural form (according to §124e), e.g. Psalms 110:3 thy people are נְדָבֹת‎ altogether willingness; Song of Solomon 5:16, Daniel 9:23.

Sometimes the boldness of such combinations is modified by the repetition of the subject, as regens of the predicate, e.g. Job 6:12 אִם־כֹּחַ אֲבָנִים כֹּחִי‎ is my strength the strength of stones? Proverbs 3:17. That the language, however—especially in poetry—is not averse even to the boldest combinations in order to emphasize very strongly the unconditional relation between the subject and predicate, is shown by such examples as Psalms 45:9 myrrh and aloes and cassia are all thy garments (i.e. so perfumed with them that they seem to be composed of them); Song of Solomon 1:15 thine eyes are doves, i.e. dove’s eyes (but 5:12 כְּיוֹנִים‎);^[6] Psalms 23:5, Psalms 109:4, Job 8:9, Job 12:12, Song of Solomon 2:13. In prose, e.g. Exodus 9:31, Ezra 10:13 הָעֵת גְּשָׁמִים‎ the season is rain showers, i.e. the rainy season; with a bold enallage of the number, Genesis 34:30 וַֽאֲנִי מְתֵי מִסְפָּר‎ and I (with my family) am persons few in number. For similarly bold expressions with הָיָה‎ cf. Genesis 11:1, Genesis 12:2, Exodus 17:12, Isaiah 5:12, Jeremiah 2:28, and again with a bold enallage of the number, Job 29:15 I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame, but in prose, Numbers 10:31 and thou shalt be to us לְעֵנַ֫יִם‎. 2. The noun-clause connected by wāw copulative to a verbal-clause, or its equivalent, always describes a state contemporaneous with the principal action, or (when the predicate is a transitive participle) an action represented in constant duration (cf. §107d, as well as §116n and o), e.g. Genesis 19:1 and the two angels came to Sodom at even, וְלוֹט ישֵׁב‎ while Lot sat, &c.; 18:1, 8, 16, 22, 25:26, Judges 13:9, 1 Samuel 1:9, 2 Samuel 4:7, 2 Samuel 11:4 (always with a participle); with an adjectival predicate, Genesis 18:12; with a substantival predicate, 18:27; with an adverbial predicate, 9:23. Not infrequently such a circumstantial clause indicates at the same time some contradictory fact, so that וְ‎ is equivalent to whereas, whilst, although, e.g. Genesis 15:2, Genesis 18:27, Genesis 20:3, Genesis 48:14 (although he was the younger); Judges 16:15 how canst thou say, I love thee, וְלִבְּךָ אֵין אִתִּי‎ whereas thine heart is not with me? 2 Samuel 3:39, Psalms 28:3 whilst mischief is in their hearts. These clauses describing a state are, however, only a subdivision of the large class of circumstantial clauses, on which see § 156.

3. As the examples given under a and b show, the syntactical relation existing between the subject and predicate of a noun-clause is as a rule expressed by simple juxtaposition, without a copula of any kind. To what period of time the statement applies must be inferred from the context; e.g. 1 Kings 18:21 יְהֹוָה הָֽאֱלֹהִים‎ the Lord is the true God; 1 Samuel 9:19; Isaiah 31:2 גַּם־הוּא חָכָם‎ yet he also is wise; Genesis 42:11; on the other hand, Genesis 19:1 וְלוֹט ישֵׁב‎ and (=while) Lot was sitting; Ezekiel 28:15; Genesis 7:4 אָֽנֹכִי מַמְטִיר‎ I am raining, i.e. I will rain. Sometimes even a jussive or optative is to be supplied as predicate, Genesis 27:13 upon me be thy curse; Genesis 11:3, Genesis 20:13, Exodus 12:2. Cf. §116r, note.

Not infrequently, however, a connexion is established between subject and predicate (a) by adding the separate pronoun of the 3rd person singular or plural, expressly resuming and therefore strengthening the subject, or (b) (especially for the sake of a more exact specification of time) by the help of the verb הָיָה‎. The first of these will be a compound sentence, since the predicate to the main subject consists of an independent clause.

Examples of (a): Genesis 41:26 the seven good kine שֶׁ֫בַע שָׁנִים הֵ֫נָּה‎ they are seven years; Deuteronomy 1:17, Deuteronomy 4:24; Ecclesiastes 5:18 זֹה מַתַּת אֱלֹהִים הִיא‎ this—it is a gift of God; Numbers 3:27 אֵ֫לֶּה הֵם‎; in a question, Genesis 27:38. Sometimes הוּא‎ is used in this way to strengthen a pronominal subject of the first or second person, and at the same time to connect it with the predicate which follows,^[7] e.g. אָֽנֹכִי אָֽנֹכִי הוּא‎ Isaiah 43:25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out, &c.; 51:12; אַתָּה הוּא‎ 2 Samuel 7:28, Isaiah 37:16, Psalms 44:5, Nehemiah 9:6, 7; in an interrogative sentence, Jeremiah 14:22;^[8] in Jeremiah 49:12 הוּא‎ in a verbal-clause strengthens אַתָּה‎. Of (b): naturally this does not apply to the examples, in which הָיָה‎, in the sense of to become, to fare, to exist, still retains its full force as a verb, and where accordingly the sentence is verbal, and not a noun-clause; especially when the predicate precedes the subject. On the other hand, such examples as Genesis 1:2 and the earth was (הָֽיְתָה‎) waste and emptiness, can scarcely be regarded as properly verbal clauses; הָֽיְתָה‎ is used here really only for the purpose of referring to past time a statement which, as the description of a state, might also appear in the form of a pure noun-clause; cf. Genesis 3:1. This is especially true of the somewhat numerous instances in which הָיָה‎ occurs as a connecting word between the subject and the participial predicate; e.g. Judges 1:7, Job 1:14 (immediately afterwards a pure noun-clause). The imperfect of הָיָה‎ announces what is future in Numbers 14:33, &c.; cf. §116r. However, especially in the latter case, הָיָה‎ is not wholly without verbal force, but comes very near to being a mere copula, and this use is more frequent in the later books^[9] than in the earlier.

Rem. On the employment of יֵשׁ‎ existence, and אַ֫יִן‎ non-existence, which were originally substantives (on their tendency to be used as verbs, equivalent to est, and non est, cf. §100o, and the Negative Sentences, § 152) as a connecting link between a pronominal subject and a participial predicate (especially in conditional and interrogative sentences, Genesis 24:42, 49, 43:4, &c.), see above, §116q, and the various kinds of subordinate clauses mentioned in §§ 150, 159.

4. The natural arrangement of words in the noun-clause, as describing a state, is subject—predicate; the principal stress falls on the former since it is the object of the description. Very frequently, however (and not merely in poetry, where greater freedom is naturally allowed in the arrangement of words), the reverse order is found, i.e. predicate—subject. The latter order must be used when special emphasis is laid on the predicate,^[10] or when it consists of an interrogative word; thus with a substantival predicate, e.g. Genesis 3:19 עָפָר אַתָּה‎ dust thou art; 4:9, 12:13 (my sister, not my wife); 20:2, 12, 29:14, Is 6^{3 b}, Job 5:24, Job 6:12; with an adjectival predicate, e.g. Is 6^{3 a}, 28:21, Jeremiah 10:6; with a participle, Genesis 30:1, Genesis 32:12; with an interrogative pronoun, e.g. Genesis 24:65;^[11] with an adverbial interrogative, e.g. Genesis 4:9.

Rem. On the above cf. the exhaustive investigations of C. Albrecht, ‘Die Wortstellung im hebr. Nominalsatze,’ ZAW. vii. 218 ff. and viii. 249 ff.; with a complete list of the exceptions to the order subject—predicate, p. 254 ff. The predicate must precede for the reasons stated (an adjectival predicate is particularly emphatic when it has the force of a comparative, e.g. Genesis 4:13; the predicate expressed by means of a preposition precedes most frequently when it serves to convey the ideas of having, possessing, e.g. Genesis 18:14, Genesis 29:16, &c.; cf. also 26:20, 31:16, 43).

The predicate may precede: (a) when the subject is a pronoun, for ‘the person assumed to be generally known, does not excite the same interest as that which is stated about him;’ (b) ‘in order not to be a mere appendage to a subject which consists of several words,’ e.g. 2 Kings 20:19; (c) in interrogative sentences (with a substantival or adjectival predicate or one compounded with a preposition), e.g. 1 Samuel 16:4; finally (d) in a relative clause, when the predicate is adverbial or compounded with a preposition, as a rule closely united (by Maqqeph) with אֲשֶׁר‎, e.g. Genesis 2:11 אֲשֶׁר־שָׁם‎; 1:29 f. אֲשֶׁר־בּוֹ‎.