Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/486

 person; cf. e.g. (41:13), 41:14, 43:34 (and he commanded to set before them, &c.); 46:29,.

2. Supposed ellipses of a definite subject are due either to a misunderstanding of the passage, or to a corruption of the text. Thus in after  either  has dropped out (through confusion with ) or we should read with the LXX. In  the text is obviously corrupt.

3. In poetic (or prophetic) language there sometimes occurs (supposing the text to be correct) a more or less abrupt transition from one person to another. Thus from the 2nd to the 3rd (i.e. from an address to a statement), (?),  (?), 42:20, 52:14, 61:7,  (where, however, for  we should undoubtedly read );  [and regularly after a vocative,, , , , 11, , , 16, f.,  (=), , ; and after  , , ]. From the 3rd to the 2nd pers.,, (but read probably  for , which has caused the insertion of ), 5:8, , , cf. also. From the 1st to the 3rd pers., (in a relative clause). In the 3rd pers. is probably employed δεικτικῶς for the 1st.

1. As in other languages, so also in Hebrew, the predicate in general conforms to the subject in gender and number (even when it is a pronoun, e.g., ). There are, however, numerous exceptions to this fundamental rule. These are due partly to the constructio ad sensum (where attention is paid to the meaning rather than to the grammatical form; see b–l below), partly to the position of the predicate (regarded as being without gender) before the subject.

2. Singular nouns which include in themselves a collective idea, or which occasionally have a collective sense , may readily, in accordance with their meaning, be construed with the plural of the predicate, whether it precedes or follows. This is also the case, when the collective is itself feminine but represents, exclusively or at least generally, masculine persons.

Examples:—

(a) Of collectives proper (cf. ): (α) with the predicate preceding,  (cf. 30:39, 31:8 and 33:13);  f.  representing persons belonging to the tribe;  ;  ;