Hebrew Usage Question

In Hebrew, possessives are constructed as "house of me" (my house) or "end of you" (your end). But I am wondering if the same kind of construction can be used without regard to possession but rather with regard to identity. For instance, I've read poetry in which the poet used phrases such as "your head lay upon the pillow of me", and the poet didn't mean "my pillow", but rather "I was your pillow".

I feel like I have seen this kind of usage/interpretation before, but I'm not sure where. Is this possible and can anyone provide an example or two? Thanks.

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Comments

Lew Worthington

It sounds like you're asking if a noun can be used in an adjectival sense in the construct state. Yes.

Construct nouns in Hebrew can (as you point out) be used as possessives. There are also ways in which nouns, in juxtaposition, can be used in an adjectival sense. Ps 29:3 has "אֵֽל־הַכָּב֥וֹד" ("God of glory" NRSV and many other translations), but it certainly doesn't mean that glory possesses God; rather, it could be "glorious God" as in the GNT.

A side note: We have the same thing in English. So "clown shoe" would be "shoe of a clown"; "corn field" would be a "field of corn". But in these cases, even if there was a way in which this expression was considered as a type of possession, the adjectival sense is already taking over. Even if we don't consider the connotation of "clown shoe" (the extra-semantic stuff that enters your mind when someone says, "You've got clown shoes!"), we probably don't instinctively think of the expression meaning "shoes belonging to a clown". Similarly, "fire hose" does not literally mean "hose of a fire", although such expressions seem to reflect artifacts of a genitive type of construction.

Is this what you were getting at?

David Paul

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/726686#Comment_726686

It sounds like you're asking if a noun can be used in an adjectival sense in the construct state. Yes.

Construct nouns in Hebrew can (as you point out) be used as possessives. There are also ways in which nouns, in juxtaposition, can be used in an adjectival sense. Ps 29:3 has "אֵֽל־הַכָּב֥וֹד" ("God of glory" NRSV and many other translations), but it certainly doesn't mean that glory possesses God; rather, it could be "glorious God" as in the GNT.

Is this what you were getting at?

Actually, I'm not really asking about nouns + nouns, but rather nouns + pronouns, to use English terminology.

In the example you provide, both ':Eil and kaabhohdh are nouns, and, in addition, the maqqeph (־) and the hei' (ה) contribute to giving this combination the sense it has. This example helps somewhat, but it isn't quite what I'm "getting at".

I'm more focused on particle endings that usually indicate possession, such as the hireq-yohdh (י ׅ ) ending that in English usually translates as "my ____". In reality, the construction in Hebrew would mean "____ of me", since the ending comes from the first person pronoun ':aniy (אֲנִי), which has a hireq-yohdh ending. So what I'm wondering is whether this kind of construction can produce in English a literal "of me" identity, like the "pillow of me" = "I am a pillow" example above. I realize it probably wouldn't in most normal cases, but since Scripture is loaded with poetic-prophetic language (most Hebrew prophecy is written in verse, not prose), we've got plenty of "un-normal" examples up for consideration.

Thanks for your reply. If anyone else has insight, please shine on.