Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/456

 a continuous progress, higher and higher... lower and lower; in  (see ) and 16:20 (nothing but justice) the constancy of the action. Cf. .

The repetition of substantives serves also as a periphrasis for the superlative in such cases as  = to the remotest generations; cf. 17:16,, ;  ( three times); 35:7, ; cf. also f. and the emphatic combination of synonymous verbs in. Sometimes the completeness of an action or state is expressed by placing together two or even three substantives of the same stem and of similar sound, cf. , (33:28f., 35:3); 32:15,,.

Cf. the exhaustive statistics collected by Sven Herner,, Lund, 1893. E. König, ‘Zur Syntax der Zahlwörter im A.T.,’ AJSL. xviii, 129 ff.

1. The numerals from 2 to 10, as being originally abstract substantives, may be connected with their substantives in three different ways. They may stand either—

(a) In the construct state before the substantive (the object numbered being consequently in the genitive), e.g., i.e. three days; ; or

(b) In the absolute state before it (the object numbered being in apposition, ), e.g., viz. sons, i.e. three sons; ; or

(c) In the absolute state (likewise in apposition) after the object numbered, e.g. . So especially in long lists, since in these the substantives naturally come first, e.g. .,. Apart from such cases, the frequency of this order in the later Books is due to the fact that the character of the numeral tended more and more to become adjectival rather than substantival.