Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/425

, ; cf. , &c., (but  );, , , , , , , , , &c. ; ; so perhaps, , (according to others sons of gods); or finally even

(c) By using the plural of the nomen rectum; e.g., , 4 ff., &c., as plur. of father’s house, family;,  (also  23:19); , , ; cf. also the head of Oreb and Zeeb, i.e. the heads, &c.

Rem. When a substantive (in a distributive sense) with a suffix refers back to a plural, the singular form of the substantive suffices, since the idea of plurality is already adequately expressed by the suffix, e.g. (for ora) eorum, ;,  [so in the English RV.], for hands.

Brockelmann,, i. 466 ff.

1. A noun may either be determinate in itself, as a proper name or pronoun (see below, d and i), or be made so by its context. In the latter case, the determination may be effected either by prefixing the article (see § 126), or by the connexion of the noun (in the construct state) with a following determinate genitive, and consequently also (according to ) by its union with a pronominal suffix. It is to be taken as a fundamental rule, that the determination can only be effected in one of the ways here mentioned; the article cannot be prefixed to a proper name, nor to a noun followed by the genitive, nor can a proper name be used in the construct state. Deviations from this rule are either only apparent or have arisen from a corruption of the text.

Rem. Only in a few passages is a noun made expressly indeterminate by the addition of in the sense of our indefinite article; cf. ,, , , , 12, , , , , , , , , , (in 8:13  i.e. one, viz. a holy one, is opposed to another).

It is further to be noticed, that in Hebrew the phenomenon sometimes occurs, which the Arab grammarians call indeterminateness for the sake of amplification; e.g. and he shall flee, i.e. from an irresistible sword (God’s sword); cf. ; ; , without doubt to be referred to the Gomer mentioned in cap. 1;