18. 20. 2 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 3h 32. Seeyenee yn 2 OOP CONTENTS . The Hebrew Alphabet Phonetic values of letters Vowel-signs . . Explanation of writing Vowel-letters : Open and closed syllables Methegh Milra’ and Mil'el Sewa Maqgeph Qames Hauph : . : Daghes. : : : : . Mappiq : : : . Raphe : : : : : + Quigscent letters . The Gutturals—yna . Accents . Pause . Kethibh and Qere . The Article . . ee Noun and Adjective (masc. and fem. sing.) . Gender and Number (of Nouns and Adjectives) The Dual Number . . The Conjunction ‘The Interrogative Pronouns : . The Absolute and Construct _ Table of words in the Absolute and Construct States Pronominal Suffixes (of sing. masc. noun) : ‘The inseparable Prepositions , 3 with suffixes The sign of the definite object The personal Pronouns =. . 5 7 ‘The regular verb (Perfect) . : : More Nouns in the Absolute and Construct States . Fem. sing. Nouns with suffixes. ‘The demonstrative Adjectives CO A hhCONTENTS . The Prepositions >, 1 with suffixes . The active Participle . The old accusative-ending 1, . Plural Nouns with suffixes . Some irregular Nouns with suffixes . Possession . "The Imperfect of the regular verb . The Imperative | Negative commands or prohibitions . The Infinitives . ‘He’ interrogative . . Segholate Nouns n¥—‘ with’ . The passive Participle ” Prepositions with suffixes of the plural (noun) . Cohortative and Jussive . a ). Waw Consecutive . . Stative verbs ” General description of the regular verb . Niphal . Piel . Pual . Hiphil . Hophal . Hithpael Verbal suffixes (of the Perfect) . Verbal suffixes (of the Imperfect and Imperative) . . The Infinitive Construct (with suffixes) . The relative Pronoun . Degrees of comparison . Shortage of adjectives . Changes in pointing due to pause . . The weak verb . . Classification of weak verbs . Pe Nun verbs . The verbs Jn} and np? . Pe Guttural verbs . . Pe *Aleph verbs . ‘Ayin Guttural verbs . Lamedh Guttural verbs xi 63 66 69 2 2 78 76 7 80 82 84 87 88 95 99 ror 105 109 112 115 118 123 130 131 135 136 136 137 139 140 141 148 154 161 166 172xii CONTENTS 73. Lamedh ‘Aleph verbs 74. Some doubly weak verbs. . 75. Pe Yodh and Pe Waw verbs 76. ‘Ayin Waw and ‘Ayin Yodh verbs 7. ‘Ayin Waw verbs continued (Statives) 78. More doubly weak verbs . 79. Lamedh He (Lamedh Yodh and Lamedh Wem) verbs 80. More doubly weak verbs . : 81. Double ‘Ayin verbs 82. Defective verbs 83. Numerals . APPENDIX 1. Names of Hebrew letters . 2. 5 accents 3. Quadriliteral verbs 4. Philological note on Waw Consecutive 5. The Construct-Genitive Relationship. Tables of verbs Tables of nouns . a . : . VOCABULARIES Hebrew—English English—Hebrew INDEX OF SUBJECTS 178 184 187 196 205 210 216 224 231 237 242 251 251 252 252 253 254 280 291 315A. THE HEBREW ALPHABET Tue Hebrew alphabet consists of 22 consonants. They are: Form Name Transliteration” | Numerical Value Finals 7 x *Alep . 1 a3 Bet, Bet b, b (bh) 2 ad Gimel, Gimel 8) g (gh) 3 117 Dalet, Délet d, d (dh) 4 a He h 5 1 Waw w 6 tT Zayin z 7 n Het h 8 o Tet t 9 bd Yd y 10 >> 4 | Kap, Kap k, k (kh) 20 9 Lamed 1 30 m oO | Mém m 40 1 7 | Nan n 50 . Simek 8 y *Ayin : 70 BD | Pe, Pe P, p (ph) 80 a 8 9° Pr Qép or Kop qork 100 7 Re r 200 oe Sin, Sin 48 00 nan L Taw, Taw t, t (th) 400 i * A spirant letter (ph, th, &c.) is represented by a single underlined letter (pf &€.). > ‘The phonetic values are given on p. 3.2 ‘THE ALPHABET "The foregoing Table shows that : (a) Six consonants have alternate forms, namely : 2 1 4.5 572 without a dot, when they are soft or spirant, bedkpt and 237 3 B NA witha dot, which hardens them. bedkpt (A full account is given on p. 14.) (®) Five consonants assume special forms at the end of words. In the beginning or middle of a word their forms are > 9 1D &, but at the end of a word their forms are Tata. () The consonants are also numerical signs.” ‘The units are represented by & to 0, the tens by ” to ¥, and the hundreds by ? ton. Compound numbers are represented thus: 11 XN (110, since Hebrew is written from right to left, see p. 4), 12 3° (2+ 10), 13 YP (3410) &c., 21 ND (1+20), 31 NP (1430), 32 2? (2+30), 33 27 (3430) &., ror NP (1+100), 111 NP (14104100), 121 NDP (1+20+4 100) &€., 201 NT (1 +200), 211 XN" (14104200), 221 ND (1 +20+200) &c., 500 PN (100 + 400), 600 IN (200 + 400), 1000 “INN (200 + 400 + 400). Note: In the compounds of tens and units there are two exceptions to the above system. Nos. 15 and 16 are not denoted by iT” and 1 since these combinations represent forms of the divine name (yH and ¥w representing YAH and yo). No. 15 is therefore designated by 10 (6+9) and 16 by 10 (7 +9). B. PHONETIC VALUES OF LETTERS It is essential to know the correct phonetic value of every Hebrew consonant, since a great deal of Hebrew grammar results directly from the peculiar pronunciation of certain consonants. * This final letter, when vowelless, has two dots in it, thus: 3 » This usage is not Biblical; the first traces of it are found on Maccabean coins.PHONETIC VALUES OF LETTERS 3 Since some consonants have no equivalents in the English alphabet, it was not possible to give their true phonetic value in the foregoing Table. Below is given the pronunciation of each consonant: X (represented by the light breathing ’) is a cutting off of the breath; its consonantal value being apparent when it has a vowel. It is analogous to the silent ‘h’ in a word like ‘honest’. ‘2 is simply ‘b’ and 3 (b) is pronounced as ‘v’, Ais hard ‘g’ as in ‘go’ and 3 (g) is almost like a guttural ‘r’. ‘I is simply ‘d’ and “T (d) is the same as ‘th’ in the word ‘the’, iis ‘h’. Vis tw’. Tis ‘2’, 1 (‘h’ with the dot underneath to distinguish it from #1 ‘h’) is liké the ‘ch’ in the Scots word ‘loch’. D (t with the dot underneath) is a dull ‘t’ produced by placing the tongue against the palate. is fy’. D is “k’ and D (k) is practically a harsh ‘ch’ as above. 2 is ‘I’. 1) is ‘m’. lis ‘n’. D is dull ‘s’. Y (represented by the rough breathing ‘) is very difficult to pronounee, being produced at the back of the throat, almost like a gulping sound. D is ‘p’ and D (p) is pronounced like X (represented by s with dot under it) is a hissing ‘s’. P (represented by ‘q’ or ‘k’) is a ‘k’ at the back of the throat, like the cawing of a crow. Vis ‘r’. (with a dot over left-hand corner) is ‘s’—conventionally transcribed §. W (with dot over right-hand corner, represented by 8) is pronounced as ‘sh’. fv and & were originally one letter, and they are still both represented by the one sign W (without a dot) in vowelless texts. Fis ‘t’ and FN (t) is ‘th’ as in the word ‘think’.4 PHONETIC VALUES OF LETTERS DistincuisH carefully between consonants of similar form, as below: and > dand3 9, 7, and final ] Mand D and 79 9,1, and final ] final O and 0 Y, ¥, and final C. VOWEL-SIGNS Short Long - as in ‘yard? sinner = Paruay* -a- as in ‘had” <> Stondr -e- as in ‘bed’ Jong Hireg -i- as in ‘machine’ —— short Htreg -i- as in ‘lid” =< Qupdg -u- as in “bull” AL Sdreg -G- as in ‘flute” -— Qssas-134y0Pu -o- as in ‘top? {= HOLeM -6- as in cecal + “6 Nore: (a) The vowels 4 and 8 are both represented by the sign ,.. No. 7 (page 12) explains how to determine which vowel this sign represents when it occurs in a word, but for the time being (ie. till we reach no. 7) it may be taken as Qames-4. (8) Most vowel-signs appear below the consonant (3 ba, 2 bu, 3 be) but Sareq and full Halem are placed after it (13 ba, 13 bd), while the other form of Holem is a dot placed over the letter (2 ba). (c) Caution must be exercised in giving each vowel its true phonetic sound. The student must not think of Hebrew vowel-signs in terms of English vowels. ‘The sound of Qames is ‘aa’, of Sdreq ‘00’, of Séré ‘ay’, &c. D. EXPLANATION OF WRITING HEBREW IS WRITTEN FROM RIGHT TO LEFT, so that a word having, for example, the consonants J, m, d is written tn?; the vowels being placed under or after the consonant, e.g. lé-mad 119'?, li-mid 710, ® The transliteration of spirant letters in the names of vowel-signs and of grammatical terms follows the older system (bh, kh, since it is widely used for this purpose. > When this dot follows @ or precedes @ it coalesces with the dot which marks the letter.EXPLANATION OF WRITING 5 Once the consonants and vowels are known, syllables are easily formed, A syllable (regarded as open) consists of a con- sonant and a vowel, as 9 ba, 9 bé, 12 ba, 13 bd; or (said to be closed when it consists of) a consonant and a vowel followed by another consonant, as “13 bar, 13 bér, WD bar, W3 bér. It is IMPORTANT to remember that a syllable begins with a con- sonant and cannot begin with a vowel,* so that, for example, the two-syllabled word I} is ba-rid (and cannot be bar-ag). It follows, too, that a vowel must be preceded by a consonant (77), being impossible). When reading a word which has more than one syllable, it is best for beginners to treat each syllable separately, thus: 1] 2 ba-rad. The following reading exercise is transliterated to facilitate the work of the beginner : : : b ning ing op m9 12 12) TTR O13 3 bai-mét bi-md bam ba-ziz bi-zaz baz ‘ba-dad bad ba b bb 3793 779 73 MHZ op A fe Oia? bé ba-hdr ba-rid bar ba-nét ba-nim ba-nd bin ba-mé-jim uoa dag oa img ma dpa cra fa Bb gag ga be-hi-rim ba-bel bé-t0 bétbé-nim = bé-ni- bén bén ‘ b ob 7210037 «ba oy oR bm oh oo de-ber da-bar gé-bim = gi-zal_ gé-zel gi-ddl gan gam gal aphis nis pt oy 2totin 4197 dé-rd-tam dé-ré¢ ddr din di-mim dal dé-dim de-gel dobér op my Ov I 39 PI. OR OTR WT has ha-md hé-lém hé-dar ha-bO bi-daq ga-dal be-ged d-40 weyim 7 sn wa og OD NT wi-h6-84-pat — we- wa-dér © wi-b6-hQ bi-hem = hé-rim —hé-s&b one, 737 7B YY oD et om MN ‘az ba-tah hd-bér ge-zer ze-ra' zi-mam z6-kér mé-wet da-wid on ba-kim ® The only exception is the conjunction (‘and’) which sometimes is 3 (see P. 40. 2). > Final forms, at the end of the word. p. 2 (6).6 EXPLANATION OF WRITING The consonant & is silent, so that only its vowel is heard; yet in transcription it must be represented by the smooth breathing sign (X °a).* HRY MY WY ORO N WIR IN IK 8 ve-lep Yet ‘eben "8 'E-li “€l "E “A-bi-nd = “A-bi ‘ab "a own ND ANT NIK TN mé-ha-’i-gim = mi-"6r_—hi-’b "O-r6t ‘or Read and transcribe: TBP Dep oe amp api TM PI oy 79} 728 Wy] OY wan OR op nn 72 PP orsin wpa mw am YI ya qyin wy oP NX Wy Dip OX cn PL YR viDy ny wy TV? ym howe RK nop wr we We 78 ‘Transcribe into Hebrew : mot mé-ti la-mat gam ydm hen pitim li Itz kén winad qim tal d tor -yo-88| né-ki rd-hél = pa-‘am = i-kem = ‘am Iwi bor pe-regqd-li_ pa-rot_ wa-’d-mar na-bon Seber hawih 16 yagi ké-nim —ha-lam hi-rag yi-dim ke-sep ‘e-bed "O-t6 ‘e-der _ne-peS ha-bG nd-tan qi-ni-t? le-hem sd-sim tam 1. VOWEL-LETTERS The original Hebrew alphabet consisted of consonants only ; vowels were not represented in writing.© Even to-day, the Hebrew Scrolls of the Law which are read in the Synagogues are unpointed, ie. without vowel-signs.4 However, long before the introduction of the vowel-signs it ® See p. 3. » ‘E-zer. © The system of vowel-signs was introduced, most probably, about the seventh century of this era. 4 When one refers to the ‘letters’ of the Hebrew alphabet, it is the conso- nants, and not the vowels, which are meant.VOWEL-LETTERS 7 was felt that the main vowel-sounds should be indicated in writing, and so the three letters "It were used to represent the long vowels, thus : iT represents 4, so that 117) reads ma. ° represents i and é, so that "7 reads mi or mé. ‘represents G and 6, so that 17) reads ma or mé. Because these three letters—"/1—represent both vowels and letters they are known as VOWEL-LETTERS. 2. OPEN AND CLOSED SYLLABLES Taking as our example the two-syllabled word 872" (qi-tal) the syllable 7? (qa) ends in a vowel and is said to be open, whereas the syllable Sp (tal) ends in a consonant and is said to be closed. DeriniT1on: An open syllable is one which ends in a vowel, and a closed syllable is one which ends in a consonant. So that in “TOi} (hé-sed) 1 is open and ‘TQ is closed, and in oN (mé-"4-dam) § 2 are open and OT is closed. Usually an open syllable has a long vowel but, if accented,” may have a short vowel. Conversely, a closed syllable usually has a short vowel but, if accented, may have a long vowel.” ‘The importance of this section may be expressed in one rule (which is of special significance, e.g. pp. 12 and 13), namely: A syllable which is CLOSED and UNACCENTED must have @ SHORT VOWEL." 3. METHEGH* In the word O”$y7 (he'arim) the vowel S‘ghol , has a short vertical stroke to the left of it. This vertical stroke is called * An arrow-head is conventionally used to mark the accented syllable, thus: bp ai-tél, Tf hé-sed. >In ep the open syllable p has a long vowel, but in 79f the open syllable 3 is accented and therefore can pee a short vowel. In 79H | the closed syllable ni} has a short vowel, but in oye the closed syllable oy is accented and therefore can have a long vowel. © In the example 1p the last syllable "1 is closed and unaccented ; there- fore its vowel must be short (the pointing ‘T9f} is impossible). 4 See p. 4, footnote a.8 METHEGH Methegh (Nf ‘bridle’) and it indicates that the reader must pause, so that the word above is to be read O°Y 7 he'arlm; similarly DN 7 ha’adim. Derinition: Methegh is a short vertical stroke placed at the left of a vowel. Its effect is to make the reader pause after it, That is to say: when a natural pause occurs within a spoken word, that pause is indicated in writing by a Methegh. Nore: The uses of Methegh are illustrated in the following chapters. It will be seen that, acting as a check, it serves as a kind of half-accent (see 4 below), determines whether a syllable is closed or open (see 5 below), and whether the vowel-sign + represents & or 0 (p. 12. 7). 4, MILRA' AND MIL'EL In the word 13%] (dabér) the accent is on the last (ie. ulti- mate) syllable, and is said to be Milra' (972% ‘from below’; i.e. last syllable). In the word ‘TQT}iJ (hahésed) the accent is on the last but one (ie. the penultimate) syllable, and is said to be Mil'él (2°Y'22) ‘from above’; i.e. the syllable before the last). The accent on 1 (dabar) is Milra’, and on 7909 (habésed) is Mil'al. : 7y imi), =, VY Hamsra), . DPD (hi'adim),, =, = TBP Cebed) Most Hebrew words are accented Milra‘, but there are, of course, many Mil‘él words. Ina word of more than two syllables the accent may be either on the last or next but last syllable, but it never occurs on the syllable second before the last (the antepenultimate)." A methegh often appears two places before the accent, thus: O”9Y (he'arim), PW) (meha'dres) and serves as a kind of half-accent. 5. SEWA When, in a pointed text, there is a vowelless letter at the beginning or in the middle of a word, then the sign —called ® Except when a long word has two accents, in which case it is treated virtually as two words.SEWA 9 Sewa (NY) fills the gap under it. Thus, instead of writing TA, TW, one writes T3, W2H?. Sewa is of two kinds: (a) SIMPLE and (5) CoMPosITE. (a) Stmece Sewa. (i) The shewa* in ‘oY (&'mé) and O°%9|10 (86-m'rim) begins the syllable with a quick vowel-like sound.” This is vocal shewa. The shewa in “9% (yis-mor) and T°? [98 (‘ap-qid) closes the syllable and is silent. This is silent shewa. Hence we see that shewa is vocal when it begins a syllable—at the beginning or middle of a word, and silent when it ends (or closes) a syllable— in the middle of a word. (ii) It will also be observed from the above examples that when shewa occurs in the middle of a word then, after along vowel it is vocal (as O°°Y7)|10 86-m'rim) and after a short vowel it is silent (as “WO\9" yi8-mor).4 (iii) When two shewas occur together in the middle of a word as in 119|Q? (yi8-m'rd), the first shewa closes the one syllable and és therefore silent, while the second begins the next syllable and is therefore vocal, Similarly TPYPR Cea-ta). (iv) We shall see later (p. 15) that a dot (called Daghe’ Forte) placed in a letter shows that that letter is doubled, so that a word like 170) is really the same as 17007 (qit-t*l0); this, then, is a condensed form of the preceding case. Thus, a shewa under a letter which is doubled (and has a Daghes Forte in it) is vocal. ® For the sake of convenience it may be thus spelt—shewa. ‘The shewa is not a vowel. The quick vowel-like sound is like the ‘e’ in ‘because’, and ny is regarded as one syllable, opie as a two-syllabled word, © "The vowelless letter at the end of a word has no shewa written, as 7. Exceptions to this are some words, such as x (‘at)—‘thou’ (£.), 77] (nerd)— 4 Since a long vowel is usually in an open syllable, the shewa following it begins the next syllable. Conversely, since a short vowel is usually in a closed syllable, the shewa following it closes that syllable. A word like "777 (wa-y°hi) is an exception. The Methegh after the short vowel makes the reader pause and the syllable is thus left open. The shewa then begins the next syllable is therefore vocal. see p. 18, Note. -10 SEWA (6) Compostre SHEwa. The guttural letters (STIX) exhibit many peculiarities (pp. 19 f.). One is that when a guttural stands vowelless at the beginning of a syllable, the shewa- sound is practically a half-vowel. There are three such half- vowels called Hatéph'-vowels (FQ) ‘hurried’): _, Hateph- Pathah [*], ,, Hateph-Seghol [*], ,, Hateph-Qames [°]. ‘The composite representation by shewa and short vowel together gave rise to the term COMPOSITE SHEWA, and the ordinary shewa, in contradistinction, is called Simple Shewa. To illustrate how a composite shewa appears under a guttural instead of a simple vocal shewa, we may take an ordinary verb like 129 (Sabar—‘he broke’) the imperative of which is 139 (8*bor—' break’), but of a corresponding verb whose first letter is a guttural like VY (‘dbar—he passed’) the imperative is 7y (‘“"bor— pass’) with composite shewa under the guttural (instead of VAY “bor). Similarly the plural of WQ* (ya8ar— ‘upright’) is O°? (y’sarim), but the plural of a corresponding adjective whose first letter is a guttural, such as O31} (hakim— wise’), is O%)31] (h'kamim: instead of O%91) h'kamim). Note: A syllable cannot begin with two vowelless letters, ie. with two vocal shewas. If, however, conditions are such that a letter with a vocal shewa be placed immediately before another letter with vocal shewa, then the first vocal shewa becomes the nearest short vowel (in sound), namely short Hireq (,). For example, the preposition ‘to’ is a prefixed (vowelless) ‘2, so that when it is prefixed to the word Dany (8°md’el—‘Samuel’) the combination ‘oxi? (I'smo’el) cannot be articulated, and the first vocal shewa becomes the short vowel Hireq ‘2x1? (lis°mt2l—‘to Samuel’). The second shewa remains vocal, as it was before the preposition was attached. (An exception to this will be found later, p. 80, footnote &.) When a simple vocal shewa is placed immediately before a composite shewa it becomes, under the influence of the latter, the corres- ponding short vowel, e.g. ‘To Edom’ is (not DIT? but) (cf. p. 27. 4, Ps 41. 4). ‘4 footnote a. > The vowel-like sound is like the ‘a’ in ‘about’,SEWA 1" Summary: Shewa fills the empty space under a vowelless letter. It is of two kinds: (a) Simple and (6) Composite. (@) i. Simple shewa (,) is vocal when it begins a syllable (at the beginning or middle of a word) and silent when it closes a syllable (in the middle of a word). ii, After a long vowel it is vocal: after a short silent. iii, When two shewas occur together in the middle of a word, the first is silent and the second vocal. iv. Shewa under a letter doubled by a dot (Daghe3 Forte, pp. 15-16) is vocal. (6) Composite shewa _, ,, , replaces vocal shewa simple under the guttural ‘letters (YTITN). Nore: When two simple shewas occur together at the begin- ning of a word, the first becomes the short vowel Hireq (,); before a composite shewa the simple vocal shewa becomes the corresponding short vowel. Read and transcribe: mig WaT PI ng ings PID AA TT nap Ty Na orig nioyin ay OTE has . ; arp od avd, Thg¥o apy: PMR OFS A apey eye) O77 vay ovis myn by 5 ° ir Semi oro iq ung Apyy ay? Ting ‘mp oping oye) oth prey oni nba nivvin ongp ‘Transcribe into Hebrew: b’nét d°barim hebrén —_binyamin “damét —n°bi’im nigm*ra ——hi8kim q"taltem mor ta"bod dark"ka* misrim. zob*hé be" ‘met yabdal motrét napsi ‘umlal I'malkiyithali"kgn tiSm*rém =—mi8p*t@—_yikr“@ baqq’sa ~— mi8"I6t ® ‘The vowel is placed in the final ‘J. » The doubling dot.2 6. MAQQEPH* ‘When two or more short words are closely associated in mean- ing they are often joined together by a hyphen-like line called Magqgéph (F722, ‘binding’). For example “fy 258 OX (im téb “ni, ‘if good [am] I’) may be united by Maqgeph, thus *X-THW~ON (’im-tob-"ni), and then, for grammatical purposes, they are considered as being virtually one word. That is to say:— as separate words not connected by Maqqeph they have each an accent, but once they have been joined together by Maqgeph (and have thereby become one word) it is only the last of the group which retains its accent, while the accent on the word before the Maqgeph is dropped—as above. ‘The loss of an accent before a Maqgeph may often lead to adjustment in pointing (i.e. in vowels). When, for example, the words “Jip nif (at qoli, ‘my voice’) are joined by Maqgeph, the word MW loses its accent and, being a closed syllable, it is now a closed unaccented syllable; therefore (see p. 7) it must have ‘a short vowel, and so the long vowel Sere ,, is shortened to its short vowel Seghol ,, thus: "?1P~N¥ (‘et-qoli). DEFINITION: Maqgeph is a short horizontal line connecting words together. Its effect is to deprive those words pre- ceding it of their accents. 7. QAMES-HATUPH* Since the vowel-sign | is used to represent both Qames and Qames-Hatuph ‘o’, we have to determine when it is (long) “q and when (short) ‘o’. The rule enunciated on p. 7 is here applied thus:—If the vowel-sign , occurs in a closed unaccented syllable it must be short and is therefore (short) ‘o’ = Qames- Hatuph. If, on the other hand, it occurs in an open syllable, or in a syllable which, though closed, is accented, then it is long and therefore (long) ‘a’ = Qames.” Examples: a ® See p. 4, footnote a. » ‘There are some exceptions, e.g. “Af (loh°li); in this case the vowel under the first letter is ‘0’, since an original simple vocal shewa under the prefixed has become, under the influence of the composite shewa, the corresponding short vowel (see p. 10, Note).QAMES-HATUPH 13 1. OP) (wayy4qom). This word is accented Mil'el (p. 8). The vowel , in the open syllable 7 is ‘a’, but in the closed unaccented syllable D7? it is ‘0’. Similarly DY) (wattinos). How- ever, in the word 13'2 (lébab), the vowel , is in a syllable which, though closed, is accented; and so it is ‘a’, 2, T1990 (hok|ma). This word is accented Milra' (p. 8). The syllable 17 is closed and unaccented; therefore the vowel , in it is‘o’. The vowel , in the open syllable 11) is ‘a’. Nore: This type of noun (meaning ‘ wisdom’) can be easily distinguished from the verb 77931 (halk°ma, ‘she was wise’) by the Methegh in the first syllable of the word. The Methegh makes the reader pause (pp. 7 f.) and leave the sylla- ble open, so that the vowel _ isin an open syllable and there- fore ‘a’, Similarly we distinguish between the noun 7X (ok|la, ‘food’) and the verb T2DX ("a|k'la, ‘she ate’), 3- "HIT has the doubling dot (DagheS Forte, pp. 15-16) in the first 1 and is on that account really "{)31} (hon|néni). ‘The vowel , is in a closed unaccented syllable and is therefore ‘o’. But in the word 729) = 79[f9'9 (ldm|rha) the vowel , is in a syllable which, though closed, is accented, and it is therefore ‘4’. N.B. The word pny (‘houses’) is found with Methegh—mng, which would seem to indicate that it was read as ‘batim’ and not ‘bottim’. 4. WRAD (kol-i8). The Maqgeph after ~'7 has deprived it of its accent (p. 12), so that its vowel , is in a closed unaccented syllable and is ‘o’.* Summary: The vowel-sign , is Qames—'‘a’—in an open syllable or in a syllable which is closed but accented. It is Qames-Hatuph—‘o’—in a closed syllable which is unaccented (i.e. apart from ordinarily recognizable closed syllables, when followed by a silent shewa, by the doubling dot, or by Maqqeph—and the syllable is unaccented). Read and transcribe: s : bes Ra OY WIR TIT NPD NIK ADT TAA * Without Maqgeph the word is 5 (‘all’, ‘ every’). When linked by Maqgeph the syllable becomes unaccented, as well as being closed, so that its vowel is reduced from Holem (6) to Qames-Hatuph, see p. 12. 6. » Only words which have the accent Mil'el (i.e. on the syllable before the last) will be marked by the arrow-head over the accented syllable. Words over which there ie nn areruhead ere Millea® (acrant re. leet acilahie’4 QAMES-HATUPH WPL WSPTTD 2} ony OYIT, wy OpIOY Tay PNT? ITO TP) OMY OPAPP OT TPB AN nanp ome IR PII"7p MB} IP] Op~EN? on 8. DAGHES* a8 Daghés (WA, ‘piercing’) is a dot in the heart of a letter. It is of two kinds: (a) Daghe3 Lene or weak” and (6) DagheS Forte or strong. (a) Dacue’ Lenz. There are six letters which have each a hard and a soft pronunciation—indicated in writing with and without adot. They are: ab lg awd 2k Dp ne ab ag Id Dk Be. nt These six letters without the dot are soft, i.e. pronounced as spirants; when the dot is inserted they become hard. This dot is called Daghes Lene. Daghe8 Lene, then, applies to the six letters NDD733 (which are known mnemonically as NDD 739 B’gad K‘pat) and, when inserted in them, hardens them. Below are examples of these letters with and without Daghe’ Lene: 3 a G) mp3 (batab) apr (via bor)} by (eazal) YY (lin op) Gi) MR (vib tab) ap (aa bar) | Dip (vig za!) Fy (nd gap) 7 > (DAVY Girém)—pYTET (his diq) | 95 (ko!) ‘TSP (ez kor) Gi) BIT (wFdarom) Ty (64 dag) 9d) (wks!) T3y (2a kar) D [ n @ 7B (Pars) “bY? (vis por) | pp (tala) pin? (lab tom) Gi) IRL pars) PGR par) | PMY (wed) — ONT (ba tem) last) will be marked by the arrow-head over the accented syllable. Words over which there is no arrow-head are Milra’ (accent on last syllable). * See p. 4, footnote a. > Weak DagheS may have been so called in contradistinction to the other type of DagheS which, denoting that a letter is doubled, is considered strong.DAGHES 15 Examples in lines (i) show that Dagheé Lene appears in a letter (NDD72) when that letter commences a syllable in the beginning or middle of a word providing that there is no vowel immediately before that letter. Conversely, the examples in lines (ii) show that Daghe# Lene is absent when the letter (ND222)-does not commence a syllable or when, at the beginning of a syllable, it is immediately preceded by a vowel. (6) When Dacue’ Fore appears in a letter it shows that, for some reason, that letter is doubled: YY? = YYOP; TD = WYP: Wem =W. Daghed Forte can appear in all letters (including the six letters NDDTI3), with the exception of the guttural letters (YTIAR) and the letter 1. The gutturals, being throat-letters, cannot be doubled in pronunciation, nor can “I, so that Daghe3 Forte cannot apply to these five letters (see p. 16, Note (6). A letter in a word may have to be doubled—and the doubling represented by a Daghe3 Forte—for several reasons. Here are some main types of Daghe& Forte: (i) Daghes Forte Compensative, e.g.: The preposition 2 (min) —‘from’—is often joined to the word it governs, so that the phrase ‘from Saul’ 73N% 7?) (min 82’l) may become one word (a hypothetical) ZING) (minsa’dl); but the vowelless 3 between the two vowelled consonants (is scarcely audible and, in fact) disappears—?INY 17)—causing the following letter to be doubled (in pronunciation) and so represented (in writing) by a Daghe8 Forte in it—?IN@7 (mi&7’dl). Since the loss of the 3 is com- pensated for by the doubling of the following letter, we have an example of Daghes Forte Compensative. The same process is observed in some English words taken directly from Latin, e.g.: ‘inlegal’ becomes ‘ illegal’, ‘inmune’ becomes ‘immune’. (ii) Daghe§ Forte Characteristic. There are conjugations of the Hebrew verb (pp. 105 f.) called ‘intensive’, because the second root-letter is doubled, e.g. W239 (biqga’, ‘to seek’). Since this doubling is characteristic of the conjugation, the Daghe8 Forte which denotes the doubling is known as Daghes Forte Charac- teristic.6 DAGHES (iii) Daghe¥ Forte Euphonic, Sometimes, for the sake of clearer or smoother pronunciation, a letter in a word is doubled. The Daghe’ which denotes this doubling is called Daghes Forte Euphonic. Nore: (a) If, for example, the preposition 7) (‘from’) is joined with a word beginning with one of the six letters NDIA, such as ‘75D (kdl, ‘all’), and the combination be- comes (hypothetically 23%, minkél, and then) 23%) ='2997) (mikk6l), the Daghe3 in the D acts both as Lene (since it shows that the letter is hardened) and Forte (since it shows that the letter is doubled). (6) If the letter to be doubled happens to be a guttural or 7 then, since these cannot be doubled (and so cannot receive Dagheé Forte), certain adjustments take place. An example will best illustrate. When the preposition [9 is joined to the noun WR (’i8, ‘a man’), the resulting combination can- not be U7) (mi”i8), so the vowel (here Hireq .) preceding the guttural (here &) is prolonged (into Sere ,) producing the form WNT) (mei, ‘from a man’), The (first) syllable, which would normally be closed by the doubling of the next letter, has become open and, since an open syllable usually has a long vowel (p. 7), the vowel in it is lengthened. Similarly ‘from evil’ is (not the impossible Y7V9, irra‘, but) YY) (mara’). (Hireq is lengthened to Sere because they are in the same class of vowels.) Summary: Daghe3—a dot in the heart of a letter—is of two kinds: (a) Daghe8 Lene applies to the six letters NDD"2 and, when inserted in them, hardens them by changing the sound from spirant to momentary. Daghe’ Lene occurs in these letters at the beginning of a syllable, provided that no vowel immediately precedes. (6) Daghe8 Forte denotes that a letter is doubled. It applies to all letters except the gutturals (UMN) and 7. It may be |DAGHES 17 (i) Compensative. When, for some reason, a letter is assimilated, the following one is doubled (with Daghe’ Forte in it) to compensate for its loss. (ii) Characteristic. The characteristic of certain conjuga- tions of the verb is the doubling of the second root- letter, which receives a Daghe’ Forte. (iii) Euphonic. A letter in a word is sometimes doubled for clearer pronunciation. Nore: When the letter to be doubled is a guttural or 1) then, since these cannot be doubled (i.e. receive Daghe& Forte) the preceding vowel is lengthened. 9. MAPPIQ When the letter 11 stands vowelless at the end of a syllable it is usually silent, as 117) (ma). There are cases, however, where, standing vowelless at the end of a syllable, it is (not meant to be a silent or vowel-letter but) to have the full status of a consonant and be pronounced as a sharp ‘h’. To illustrate: the fem. of the noun 030 (sis, ‘horse’) is 930 (sisi, ‘ mare’), but O10 with the fem. sing. possessive (‘her horse’) is FIQ30 (sisah). ‘The T1 in the first case is silent, but in the second it is audible and sharp—as denoted by the dot in it, called ?"3%—Mappiq (‘bringing out’). The 71 in the verb 7193 (gabah) is likewise an ordinary letter, sharply audible. 10. RAPHE* ‘We have seen (on p. 16) that a letter is sometimes doubled for smoother pronunciation, in which case it has a Daghe8 Forte Euphonic. Conversely, for the same reason, the doubling of a letter is sometimes omitted and Daghe& Forte is dropped, in which case a short horizontal line, called 1] Raphe* (‘soft’) appears over the letter. For example, the plural verb ‘they sought” should be 10/23 (biqq’8d) with a Daghed Forte Character- istic in the /? (p. 15), but it is often found without the doubling of the second root-letter as 122 (biq’8G) with a Raphe over that ® See p. 4, footnote a.8 RAPHE letter, indicating that, for smoother pronunciation, the doubling (ie. the Daghe8 Forte) has been omitted. Nore: Often, especially in words of very frequent use, even Raphe does not appear over the letter which has been de- prived of its (doubling, ie. its) Daghe3 Forte. The expression ‘and he was’ should strictly be (wayy‘hi) but is found either as "71") (wa y‘hi) (without a Raphe over the”, but) with Methegh after the Pathah showing that the shewa following it is vocal (pp. 7 f,, and p. 9, footnote d), or simply as "771." DEFINITION: RAPHE is a short horizontal line placed over a letter to indicate that the doubling of that letter, i.e- Daghe3 Forte, is omitted. 11, QUIESCENT LETTERS The letters "FIN are so feeble (in pronunciation) that, under cer- tain conditions, they lose their consonantal character and quiesce, i.e. they become silent. Hence they are called Quiescent Letters. ‘The examples below illustrate how they quiesce : 1. The word for ‘God’ is O° (“Ihim) but in the com- bination ‘to God’ (first O'T'7%'2 (le“lohim)®) the X quiesces and loses it consonantal character, and the word becomes D°7]'?X'2 (le'lohim)—see p. 28. 5. 2, When the preposition 9 (‘to’) is prefixed to the word ITM (y*haga, ‘Judah’), the combination (172, Ity*hada) first becomes M379? (liy*hada), but the ” guiesces and loses its consonantal status, the word becoming MJ31"? (lihtda)— see p. 27. 3. . 3. The word for ‘death’ is MN} (mfwet) which, when taken together with a following word (e.g. ‘death-of Moses’) is spoken hurriedly and (becomes first a hypothetical NY mawt and then) the 1 quiesces, producing the form 1%20~ Nia (mét-md%eh). ‘® s7y7] is actually the normal form, but when this expression is attached by Maqgeph to a monosyllable, or a two-syllabled word accented Mil'el, then } becomes two places back from the accented syllable and receives Methegh. Thus Dy “MM, Ty YM but FN, IW N- » See p. 10, Note.QUIESCENT LETTERS 19 Nore: When, at the end of a syllable, the letters ° and 1 are preceded by vowels which are not homogeneous to them, they retain their consonantal character, e.g.: [% mi and "7 mé, but] "T day, “A géy, "U2 qanuy. (1? 10 and 19 16, but] 1¥ saw, 1" piw, 172 qaw. 12, THE GUTTURALS—YNAN The gutturals, UMN, being throat-letters, have the following peculiarities : 1. As explained on p. 16, Note (8), they cannot be doubled and therefore never receive Daghe3 Forte; instead of the doubling, the vowel before them is lengthened, e.g. ‘from a man’ is OFX) (mé’adam) (instead of O°787) (mi”adam) ).* 2. On p. 10 it was shown how gutturals take Composite instead of the simple vocal shewa; thus, while the pl. of “10? (upright) is OY? (y"tarim), the pl. of (a word of the same class but beginning with a guttural, as) O91 (wise) is mim). 3. The gutturals have a preference for the vowel Pathah (_.) under them and even before them. For example, (mélek, ‘king’) is a type of noun which has the vowel Seghol (,,) in both syllables, but a noun of the same class which has a terminal guttural is MT (zébah, ‘sacrifice’, instead of M9}, zébeh), the guttural attracting the vowel Pathah. With medial guttural it is ‘WY] (instead of TY}). 4. The type of noun 040 (sds, ‘horse’) is a monosyllable with the vowel Sureq (3) between two consonants; but the same type of noun with a terminal guttural is 919 (read ‘rdah’,> ‘wind’, instead of M1, rah). The extra vowel—Pathah—under the guttural arises involuntarily in pronunciation when the guttural follows a full accented vowel. This is called Furtive Pathah. Similarly in the verb; the normal infinitive is aay (&mir, ‘to keep’) but the infinitive of a verb with a guttural third root- letter is Yi (&ma‘,” ‘to hear’). ® Similarly the letter ‘ (p. 16, Note (6). > ‘The Furtive Pathah is read before its consonant,20 THE GUTTURALS Summary: The guttural letters YNTAN: 1. Do not admit Daghe8 Forte (since they cannot be doubled) but the preceding vowel is lengthened instead. (Similarly with 7.) z. Take Composite Shewa instead of simple Vocal Shewa. 3. Prefer the vowel Pathah (_) under them and even before them. 4. Take a Furtive Pathah after a full accented vowel. 13, ACCENTS ‘The opening lines of Genesis, as they appear in the printed editions of the Hebrew Bible, are reproduced here, to indicate the presence of accents and their main functions. ‘They are : SPIT DN) OPT NY orp N]Z MYND (verse 1) +. DID BT by yw) way wh ANT Pw Each word has, apart from vowels, a small sign either below or above one of its syllables. These small signs are the accents and they serve: (@) To mark the tone-syllable, i.e. to indicate the syllable to be stressed in pronunciation. In each of the first three words of verse 1 the accent is on the last syllable (Milra‘, p. 8), showing that the stress is to be on the last syllable (b*ré’sit bard’ “lohim); but in O'DW (hassamayim, v. 1) and PR) (w'ha"Ares, v. 2), the accent is on the syllable last but one (Mil‘el, p. 8).* (6) As punctuation marks, i.e. they divide the verse into its logical constituent parts. These are of two kinds which may conveniently be called Stops and Continuation marks.” The two major stops being: i, (,) called Silldg (P19), which always appears under the last word of a verse, as under PJ at the end of verse 1. The ‘* In grammars all accents are indicated by a conventional arrow-head over the stressed syllable. Since most words are Milra‘, only Mil'el words are marked. » These are usually termed ‘ Disjunctive and Conjunctive accents’ A full list of accents is given at the end of the book, Appendix, § 2. } (verse 2)ACCENTS ar Sillug is naturally the greatest stop in a verse, and regularly followed by the sign : called Séph" Pasig (P10B *{I0, ‘end of verse’). ii, (,,) called *Athnah* (MYNY), as under the word O")7¥, is the second greatest stop and divides the verse into two logical parts. The values of ’Athnah and Sillug are seen in the translation of verse 1. ‘In the beginning God created ’—first half of verse, ends with ’Athnah. ‘The heavens and the earth’—second half of verse, ends with Silluq, followed by the Soph Pasuq sign. N.B. Since the sign (,) is used for both the accent Sillug and the Methegh, they are to be distinguished. If this sign occurs under a word in the middle of a verse it must be Methegh; if it occurs under the accented syllable of a word at the end of a verse it is Sillug. They may both occur together, thus: : O72) has both a Methegh and a Sillug. Silluq always occurs in the accented syllable (of the last word in a verse) but Methegh never does. (0) As musical signs for chanting the Scriptures in the Syna- gogues. Summary: The accents serve (a) to mark the tone-syllable, (8) as marks of punctuation, and (c) as musical signs for chanting Scripture. 14, PAUSE A word is said to be in pause when its accent is a major stop, ie. a Silluq or ’Athnah (pp. 20-1); in either case the word being at the end of a clause. The tendency, in speech, is to prolong the accented syllable of the last word in a sentence, i.e. when the word is in pause: thus, the word for ‘water’ is 0%) (mdyim) in the middle of a sentence, but in pause it is : O°%)—D%}) (mfyim) with ’Athnah or Silluq, ie. the short vowel Pathah (_) in the accented syllable is lengthened to Qames (,). Similarly, ‘he hath kept’ is Oe (Samar) in the middle of a sentence, but in pause it is : “YY—"WY (Simér) with ’Athnah or Sillug. (The changes in pointing due to pause are dealt with more fully on pp. 137 £}) ® See p. 4, footnote a.22 15. KETHIBH* AND QERE An interesting feature in the printed Hebrew Bibles is that corrections of recognized errors are made in the margin or foot- note, while the uncorrected words are retained in the text. The refusal to change the text, even where obvious errors are recog- nized, is due to the extreme reverence felt for it and acts as a safeguard against tampering with it. (a) Anexcellent illustration of this is afforded by the impossible word 3X (in Jeremiah xlii 6) which obviously cannot be read. We may imagine that what happened was somewhat as follows. ‘The Personal Pronoun ‘we’ is °AMS¥ in Classical Hebrew, but there is a shorter form ‘38 which does not occur in the Bible. The scribe of the text in Jeremiah began writing the word M38 but, after having written the first two letters, left it in its shorter (unclassical) form YX. Since the manuscript was written without vowel-signs (pp. 6-7) the scribe wrote IN instead of IMIX. When, later, the vowel-signs were introduced, a scheme was devised for attracting the attention of the reader to the error and its correction, without altering the text. The consonants of the erroneous word (here WN, ie. IN) were retained but were given the vowels of the corrected form (here *33%, namely 3 , thereby producing an impossible form (here 338). ‘The reader is thus forced to halt at the impossible word and to refer to the margin or footnote where the correction is given. The uncorrected word in the text is the Kthibh (A°ND, ‘it is written’), The corrected reading in the margin or footnote is the Qtré (WP, ‘to be read’). In the example quoted above the K‘thibh is U8 and the Q'ré is UN. Nore: In the unpointed scrolls read in the Synagogues, the Kethibh (ie. the uncorrected form) is similarly retained in the text, but no Qere (corrected form) is given in the margin or footnote. The reader is expected to be familiar with the text and to know when a word is to be corrected, i.e. to read the Qere instead of the (written) Kethibh. (8) A word which has an offensive or indelicate meaning, * See p. 4, footnote a.KETHIBH AND QERE 23 though written in the text (Kethibh) is often replaced in reading (Qere, footnote) by another word—usually a euphemistic one. (c) Another type of deliberate change in reading due, in this case, to reverence, is the Divine name MY]? or MI? (Yah'weh or Yahweh). ‘The Divine name was considered too sacred to be pro- nounced ; so the consonants of this word were written in the text (Kethibh), but the word read (Qere) was "J78 (meaning ‘Lord’). The consonants of the (Kethibh) #111” were given the vowels of the (Qere) "JTH namely ,-,, producing the impossible form myn" (Y*howa).? Since, however, the Divine name occurs so often in the Bible, the printed editions do not put the reading required (Qere) in the margin or footnote ; the reader is expected to substitute the Qere for Kethibh, without having his attention drawn to it every time it occurs. For this reason it has been called Qere Perpetuum, i.e. permanent Qere.° Another example of Qere Perpetuum is the fem. sing. Personal Pronoun N%J (hi’, ‘she’), which so frequently appears in the Pentateuch in the impossible form N17. This is due to confusion with the masc. sing. NWI (hu’, ‘he’).? The consonants of the uncorrected form N11 (Kethibh) were given the vowel of the cor- rection (Qere) N°sJ, namely the vowel Hireq (,) and the impossible form Nj] was produced. Once again, the required reading (Qere) is not given marginally or in a footnote, because of the frequency with which this word occurs in the Bible. 16. THE ARTICLE There fs no word for the indefinite article in Hebrew; ‘a’ or a is not expressed, e.g. Teh « king’ or ‘a king’, ]™ y or ‘an eye’. The context implies that the word is indefinite. (a) The definite article ‘ the’ is said to have been originally 77] ® ‘The composite shewa which was under the guttural 8 in the word 9} becomes a simple shewa under the ” of the Kethibh mijn. : > ‘The English Jehovah. © In the Qumrin (Dead Sea) scroll of Isaiah, the Qere of the Divine name is usually written above the Kethibh, thus HHP. This device of substitution is early, belonging to a period before vowel-points were introduced. @ Before the main vowel-sounds were represented by the vowel-letters, both 3M and W7] were written N7.