Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/489

 6. Subjects in the dual are construed with the plural of the predicate, since verbs, adjectives, and pronouns, according to, have no dual forms; thus ,  and Leah’s eyes were dull; , , , , ,  (on the other hand, in  the predicate is in the feminine singular after the subject, and in  before it; on both constructions cf. k above); so also , ; , , ,  (in  even with the plural masculine ; cf. p); , , ; ,.

7. Variations from the fundamental rule (see above, a) very frequently occur when the predicate precedes the subject (denoting animals or things ). The speaker or writer begins with the most simple form of the predicate, the uninflected 3rd singular masculine, and leaves us without indication as to which of the following subjects (and so which gender or number) is to define the predicate thus left temporarily indefinite. Thus inflexions are omitted in—

(a) The verb, with a following singular feminine, ; 9:18, 14:11, 28:18, 47:11;  (see note 1 below); b, 22:36,, , ; with a following plural masc.,  , &c.;  , 20:46, , , , , , ,  (see note 1 below);  ; with a following plural feminine, , a, , , , ; before collectives and mixed subjects, e.g. , , , , &c.; before a following dual, ,  (where, however, with the LXX  should be read).

Rem. 1. The instances in which a preceding predicate appears in the plural masculine before a plural (or collective singular) feminine of persons (, b), of animals ( where however may refer specially to male animals) or of things, or before a dual  are to be explained not on the analogy of the examples under o, but from a dislike of using the 3rd plur. fem. imperf., for this is the only form concerned in the above examples (cf., however,  instead of ); cf. the examples of a following predicate in the 3rd plur. masc., instead of the fem., under t and u, and on an analogous phenomenon in the imperative, see.

2. As in the case of verbs proper so also the verb, when used as a copula, frequently remains uninflected before the subject; cf. , 39:5,