Not a Logos question, but a question regarding Hebrew. Could someone help.

Sarel Slabbert

This question is not about Logos, but rather about Hebrew. I am in a disagreement with someone regarding pronominal suffixes in Psalm 59:12 (Hebrew Text). He says they are 3rd person masculine singular. I feel they are 3rd person masculine plural. In verse 12 there are two 2 person masculine hiphil imperative verbs with pronominal suffixes. Should these suffixes be translated singular or plural (I hope the Hebrew will display correctly).

1)  הֲנִיעֵמוֹ  "shake them" or "shake him"?

2) וְהוֹרִידֵמוֹ  "bring them down" or "bring him down"?

Most English translations are plural. Also, "Anderson-Forbes Phrase Marker,"  "Analytical Key to the Old Testament" and BHS/WIVU identify these as plural.

My friend feels that there is a shift from plural in the previous verses to singular in these verses. Can anyone with a bit more Hebrew knowledge give me more illumination here. If possible a resource reference that could help me (apart from those I already noted).  Any help will be appreciated.

Sarel Slabbert

This particular example is referenced in Gesenius' grammar (quotation below). The form looks like a 3rd person masculine singular pronominal suffix at first glance, but it is in fact a rare form of the 3rd person masculine plural. You were right.

The termination ֵ֫מוֹ (also with the dual, e.g. Ps 58:7, 59:13), like מוֹ and ־ ָ֫מוֹ, occurs with the noun (as with the verb, § 58 g) almost exclusively in the later poets [viz. with a substantive in the singular, Ps 21:11, 17:10, 10, 58:7, 59:13, 89:18; with a dual or plural, Dt 32:27, 32, 37, 38, 33:29, Ps 2:3, 3, 11:7, 35:16, 49:12, 58:7, 59:14, 73:5, 7, 83:12, 12, 140:4, 10, Jb 27:23; after prepositions, see § 103 f, o, notes], and cannot, therefore, by itself be taken as an indication of archaic language. On the other hand there can be no doubt that these are revivals of really old forms. That they are consciously and artificially used is shown by the evidently intentional accumulation of them, e.g. in Ex 15:5, 7, 9 Ps 2:3, 5, and 140:4, 10, and also by the fact observed by Diehl (see the heading of this section) that in Ex 15 they occur only as verbal suffixes, in Dt 32 only as noun suffixes [Friedrich Wilhelm Gesenius, Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, ed. E. Kautzsch and Sir Arthur Ernest Cowley, 2d English ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910), 258.].

Thank you Jonathan, you are a life saver.