I'm not at my Logos computer right now, but I believe if you have any Hebrew grammars and you open the Exegetical guide, it should show you anywhere this passage is mentioned in the grammars that you have.
You may want to look at a discussion of Hebrew "weak" verbs. When one of the root consonants of a verb is a guttural, it affects the way the verb is conjugated. In this case, the final He drops off. This can be massively confusing when you're looking up words in a lexicon, until you get used to it. (Probably a bit like a non-native English speaker trying to understand why "singing a song" becomes "singin' a song" in some parts of the U.S.)
We have to add ה the to the word, so we get ראה. What is the Hebrew Grammar rule that tells us to add this ה? That is my immediate question. Why was a ה added?
It might be easier to understand the rules from the other direction. The conjugation is constructed from the root, so it's a case of the ה being dropped.
Grammars use different terminology for these cases. Some grammars refer to the types as:
Other grammars break down the types into subtype (gizrah), using a 2-letter abbreviation. The first letter signifies the position in the root (פ is 1, ע is 2, ל is 3). Here are a few examples:
The rules (that determine whether letters like an ה or י) is dropped, are based on these subtypes (gizrot, plural).
Grammars have lots of technical explanations for these rules.
Personally, I found it much easier to get a handle on Hebrew verbs from a far less technical standpoint, by watching some step-by-step videos by Rut Avni. She has a 15-part Hebrew verb video series on Youtube (as well as a Hebrew Verbs Step by Step book on Amazon).
Thanks, I created a new page layout with my grammars. I found the word apocopated in relation to this issue of dropping a letter. That was fantastic, Thanks so much, Phil.
EastTN, this is very helpful. I will look up the details of the guttural and weak verbs, and see what I can find. This is precisely as you say, the difficulty in finding words in the lexicons. I suppose one builds a sixth sense for this sort of thing over time.
PetahChristian. Nice handle. These are great suggestions. Thanks for the grammatical explanations. Also thanks for pointing me to Rut Avni and her work. I plan to watch the YouTubes and order her book. Thanks so much.
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