Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/484

 3. The indefinite personal subject (our they, one, the French on, and the German man ) is expressed—

(a) By the 3rd person singular masculine, e.g. it,, , , ;  , 10, , ; , , ; other examples are  one put out a hand; , ,  ; 8:4 ; 46:7 ; , , ; by the 3rd singular feminine.

Rem. The Jewish commentators, following the Arab grammarians, usually explain these singulars by the addition of the participle (generally determinate) of the same stem, e.g. . This view is supported by the fact that such a complement sometimes occurs, e.g., for one treads out; 28:4, 24 (doth one plow continually?);  , ,  , ; with an indeterminate participle (as in Arabic, e.g. qāla qāʾilun, a sayer says, i.e. some one says), e.g. , ; cf. above,, and, on the whole question, Driver on.

(b) Very frequently by the 3rd plural masculine, e.g. for out of that well  (i.e. people generally) watered the flocks; 26:18, 35:5, 41:14, 49:31,, , , , , ,.

Rem. The 3rd plur. also is sometimes used to express an indefinite subject, where the context does not admit of a human agent or at least not of several, e.g. . In such a case the 3rd plur. comes to be equivalent to a passive, as very commonly in Aramaic (see Kautzsch’s, § 96. 1 c); e.g. wearisome nights  (equivalent to were allotted to me; to make ‘invisible powers’ the subject is a merely artificial device); , , , , , , ,  (in parallelism with a passive); 9:11.

(c) By the 2nd singular masculine, e.g.  (or can) not come thither (prop. thou wilt...);, ,  (unless the reading should be ). Cf. also or simply  (, 30, 13:10 ) prop. until thy coming, i.e. until one comes.

(d) By the plural of the participle, e.g. and all thy wives and thy children  (prop. are they bringing out=) they will bring out, &c.; cf. ,, (for some are coming to slay thee)