Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/483



1. According to § 40 ff. most forms of the finite verb include a specification of the subject in the form of personal afformatives (in the imperfect also in the form of preformatives). Not infrequently, however, masculine forms are used in referring to feminines, e.g. ;  ; in the imperfect,, ; in the imperative, ,  (for other examples, see ). On emphasizing the pronominal subject by the addition of the separate pronoun, see and b.

On the masculine as prior gender, cf. ; on similar anomalies in the use of the personal pronoun,, in the connexion between substantive and adjective, , between subject and predicate, , t, u.

2. The third person singular is often used impersonally, especially in the masculine, e.g., ; followed by , &c., it became hot to him, i.e. he became angry, , &c.;  lit. and it became strait to him, he was distressed, ; also in the feminine, e.g.    , , ,  (unless  in verse 31 be the subject); cf. also the impersonal passives,, 29:6. Somewhat different are the instances in which the 3rd singular feminine occurs as the predicate of a feminine subject which is not mentioned, but is before the mind of the speaker, e.g., , , , (in   is used in this way with a feminine predicate, and in   alone); different, too, are the instances in which the 3rd singular masculine refers to an act just mentioned, e.g.   (the circumcision) shall be a token of a covenant, &c.

Rem. The expressions for natural phenomena may be either in the 3rd sing. masculine or feminine, e.g., (but with an explicit subject, ); ; so also , ; but  ; , ; ,  (where, however, the context requires the reading );.