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Home , 2 Kings 8, Israelian Hebrew

THREE NOTES ON ISRAELIAN HEBREW SYNTAX1

Jun IKEDA*

My research on IH (Israelian Hebrew) was stimulated by a series of works on the subject by Gary A. Rendsburg. In 1999, the Society for Studies in Japan announced a conference featuring the subject "Old Testament and Language." At the conference, held in October 1999, I read a paper about IH in which I did three things. First, I summarized Rendsburg's methodology of reconstructing IH. Second, I outlined his findings. Third, I proposed three features which I thought at that time were new and original. Sections 1 and 2 of this paper deal with two of them. I kept searching for IH features after that, and read another paper on IH at a monthly meeting of the Japanese Institute for Biblical Studies in April 2001. Section 3 of this paper is one of the features that I proposed there.

1. Infinitive Absolute Used as Narrative Tense In another article in this issue (p. 22-23), Rendsburg lists the "infinitive absolute used as narrative tense" as one of the grammatical features of IH. I reached more or less the same conclusion independently in 19992. Most of the examples that I collected at that time overlap with those listed in Rendsburg's article (section III-7), but a few of his examples require some remarks. Let us take :16 as an example: 1) wayyomaer koh amar YHWH asoh hannahal hazzaeh gebiym gbiym And said, "Thus says the LORD, 'I will make this wadi full of pools.' (2 Kings 3:16) As the translation above shows, the form asoh conveys a modality3 and refers to a single event. Because a narrative is typically characterized by reference to the past (real or imaginary)4 and by a sequence of chronologically ordered events5 , it appears that asoh in this example is not used as narrative tense. Let us take a look at another example: 2) wkatter mehames towdah wkiruw ndabowt hasmiyuw ... Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, Proclaim and announce the

* Associate Professor , Institute of Literature and Linguistics, University of Tsukuba

Vol. XXXVIII 2003 51 freewill offerings; ... (Amos 4:5) The infinitive absolute Otter is followed by two imperatives kir uw and hasmiyuw. If we look at the previous verse, we find four imperatives bouw, pisuw, harbuw, and habiy uw. It is obvious from the verbal sequence that katter in this example is used as an imperative. That is to say that this example satisfies one of the two criteria of a narrative, i.e. sequence, but does not satisfy the other one, i.e. past reference. In contrast, Judges 7:19 exhibits both characteristics:

3) wayyabo gid own uwme ah- iys asaer-ittow bikseh hammaha naeh ro s ha asmoraet hattiykownah ak hakem hekiymuw aet-hassomriym wayyitk uw bassowparowt wnapows hakkaddiym asaer byadam So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just as they had posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. (Judges 7:19) The infinitive absolute napows refers to an event in the past which is chronologically ordered with wayyabo and wayyitk uw. The wayyiktol form is the regular carrier of the narrative sequence in Biblical Hebrew6. Therefore, napows here is evidently used as narrative tense. This means that Rendsburg's heading "infinitive absolute used as narrative tense" applies very well to napows in Judges 7:19, but it does not suit asoh in 2 Kings 3:16 or Otter in Amos 4:5. Among the 18 examples that Rendsburg cites in p. 22-23, half of them (Judges 7:19; 1 Samuel 2:28; Nehemiah 9:8, 13; 1 Kings 9:25; Exodus 8:11; 1 Samuel 22:13, 25:26; 37:19) satisfy the two criteria of a narrative. Only six examples of those that do (Judges 7:19; 1 Samuel 2:28; Nehemiah 9:8, 13; Exodus 8:11; Isaiah 37:19) form a sequence with the wayyiktol form. Judging from these simple statistics, it seems rather difficult to assume that "the basic usage is for qatol to replace the narrative tense (wayyiqtol mainly), with a few instances of qatol pointing to future time as well by analogy."8 I have found, however, additional examples of the infinitive absolute used as narrative tense, which slightly modify the statistics in favor of Rendsburg's view. 4) wayyarkeb otow bmirkaebaet hammisnaeh asaer-low wayyikruw lpanayw abrek wnatown otow al kal- aeraes misrayim And he had him ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried out before him, "Bow the knee!" So he set him over all the land of Egypt. (Genesis 41:43) 5) wayyipnuw elay oraep wlo paniym wlammed otam haskem wlammed weynam somiym lakahat muwsar

52 ORIENT THREE NOTES ON ISRAELIAN HEBREW SYNTAX `And they have turned to Me the back , and not the face; though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction. ( 32:33) 6) waysawwaeh hammaelaek sidkiyyahuw wayyapkiduw aet-yirmyahuw bahasar hammattarah wnaton low kikkar-laehaem layyowm mihuws haopiym ad-tom hallaehaem min-haiyr wayyesaeb yirmyahuw bahasar hammattarah kal - Then the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah to the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread from the bakers' street, until all the bread in the city was gone. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. (Jeremiah 37:21) 7) wayhiy kikrow yhuwdiy salos dlatowtt warba ah yikraaeha btaar hassoper whaslek ael-ha es asaer ael-haah ... And it happened, when Jehudi had read three or four columns, that the king cut it with the scribe's knife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth ... (Jeremiah 36:23) In Examples 4-6, the infinitive absolute constitutes a sequence with wayyiktol and is obviously used as narrative tense. In Example 7, the infinitive absolute haslek is coordinated with yikraaeha. The latter form may look like the "imperfect" denoting an iterative or durative action in the past9. If we take closer look at the form, however, we see it is more likely that yikra is in the so-called "short form ," because it is followed by the pronominal suffix -.aeha. According to A. F. Rainey, "the forms of -enhu, -ennu, -enha, and perhaps second person singular -ekka , are used with the imperfect ..., while the forms without , viz. - -ehu , -eha (and -ah) were attached to the jussive ... and what we are now calling the preterite continuative ..."10. Since the jussive interpretation does not make sense here, the "short form" most probably denotes the "preterite." Thus, haslek in Example 7 can also be regarded as another example of the infinitive absolute used as narrative tense. All the examples from Jeremiah can be ascribed to the Benjaminite dialect, which is a border dialect according to Rendsburg 11. Example 4 comes from the Joseph story. According to Rendsburg (personal communication), there is no concentration of IH features in the story of Joseph, so this should be regarded simply as an addition to Rendsburg's pre-exilic JH (Judahite Hebrew) examples 12. These examples modify the statistics in favor of Rendsburg's view only slightly. I am inclined to see a device of TMA (tense, aspect, modality) neutralization13 as the phenomenon under discussion. In some languages, overt TMA marking is obligatory for the first or the last verb in a sequence, but for other verbs, the TMA morphological markings can be neutralized for the sake of economy in communication. This device should be distinguished from the

Vol. XXXVIII 2003 53 wayyiktol - katal sequence. In a wayyiktal - katal sequence, wayyiktol conveys the foreground (skeletal events) of the narrative, while katal describes the background (marginal materials)14. TMA neutralization does not involve such a distinction. In a sequence of wayyiktol plus the infinitive absolute, the latter takes its TMA as well as its foregrounding force from the preceding wayyiktol. TMA neutralization seems to offer a fairly comprehensive explanation for the examples that Rendsburg collected as well as for those I have added.15

2. Omission of et in 2 Kings16 The Hebrew ?et has often been called the nota accusativi. This is a sort of misnomer, because it only partially captures the complex grammatical behavior that the particle exhibits: a. A direct object which is grammatically indefinite is usually not marked by et17, but on occasion it is marked18. b. A direct object which is grammatically definite is normally preceded by et, but sporadically the et is missing19. c. et sometimes precedes a noun which cannot be regarded as the object20. I am concerned with these sporadic exceptions to b., i.e. cases where a definite direct object is not preceded by 'et. I read through the Second Book of Kings and found 69 of them (indicated by the bold face) in 48 verses. 1) ... wkol hahxlkah hattowbah tak ibuw ba baniym and ruin every good piece of land with "... stones." (2 Kings 3:19) 2) whaeariym yaharosuw ... ad-hisiyr abanaeyha bakkiyr harasaet ... Then they destroyed the cities ... But they left the stones of Kir Haraseth intact... (2 Kings 3:25) 3) uwba t wsdgart haddaelaet ba adek uwb ad-banayik ... "And when you have come in , you shall shut the door behind you and your sons ..." (:4) 4) wattelaek me ittow wattisgor haddxlmt ba adah uwb ad banaeyha ... So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons ... (2 Kings 4:5) 5) wattahabos ha atown ... Then she saddled a donkey ..." (2 Kings 4:24) 6) wayyo maer lgeyhaziy hagor matnaeyka wkah misantiy byadka walek ... wsamta mis antiy al-pney hanna ar Then he said to , "Get yourself ready, and take my staff in your hand, and be on your way ... but lay my staff on the face of the child." (2 Kings 4:29) 7) wayyabo wayyisgor haddaelaet bad sneyhaem ...

54 ORIENT THREE NOTES ON ISRAELIAN HEBREW SYNTAX He went in therefore, shut the door behind the two of them ... (2 Kings 4:33) 8) ... wayyasaem piyw al-piyw weynayw al-eynayw wkappayw al-kappow (Q21 : kappayw)... And he ... put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes , and his hands on his hands ... (2 Kings 4:34) 9) ... wayyomaer siy bnek ... he said, "Pick up your son." (2 Kings 4:36) 10) ... wayyomaer lnaarow spot hassiyr haggdowlah ... and he said to his servant, "Put on the large pot..." (2 Kings 4:38) 11) wayyabe hassepaerael-maelaek yisrael... Then he brought the letter to the king of Israel ... (2 Kings 5:6) 12) ... wayyomaer hinneh amartiy elay ... wheniyp yadow ael-hammakowm wasap hammsora ... and said, "Indeed, I said to myself, 'He will ... wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.' (2 Kings 5:11) 13) ... wayyigzruw haesiym ... they cut down trees. (2 Kings 6:4) 14) ... wayyasaep habbarzael ... he made the iron float. (2 Kings 6:6) 15) ... wayyislah yadow... So he reached... out his hand ... (2 Kings 6:7) 16) ... sigruw haddaelaet uwlhastaem otow baddaelaet halow kowl ragley adonayw

aharayw ... shut the door, and hold him fast at the door . Is not the sound of his master's feet behind him?" (2 Kings 6:32) 17) ... mibsreyhaem tsallah baes uwbahureyhaem bahaeraeb taharog wolleyhaem trattes wharoteyhaem tbakkea ... Their strongholds you will set on fire, and their young men you will kill with the sword; and you will dash their children, and rip open their women with child." (2 Kings 8:12) 18) ... wayyikkah hammakber he took a thick... cloth ... (2 Kings 8:15) 19) ... hagor matnaeyka wkah pak hassaemaen hazzaeh byadaeka...... "Get yourself ready, take this flask of oil in your hand ..." (:1) 20) wlakahta pak-hassaemaen ... uwpatahta haddaelaet... "Then take the flask of oil ... Then open the door ..." (2 Kings 9:3) 21) ... wayyisok hassaemaen ael-rosow wayyomaer low ...... And he poured the oil on his head, and said to him , ... (2 Kings 9:6) 22) whikkiytah aet-beyt adonaeka wnikkamtiy dmey abaday hannbiyiym uwdmey kal-abdey YHWH miyyad iyzabael

Vol. XXXVIII 2003 55 ' You shall strike down the house of Ahab your master, that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, at the hand of . (2 Kings 9:7) 23) ... wayyiptah haddaelaet wayyanos ... And he opened the door and fled. (2 Kings 9:10) 24) wayyahapok yhowram yadayw wayyanos ... Then Joram turned around and fled ... (2 Kings 9:23) 25) wyehuw mille yadow bakkaesaet ... Now drew his bow with full strength ... (2 Kings 9:24) 26) ... hattowb beynaeyka aseh .... Do what is good in your sight." (:5) 27) ... hebiyuw rasey bney-hammaelaek ...... "They have brought the heads of the king's sons." ... (2 Kings 10:8) 28) ... wayyitten yadow ...... So he gave him his hand ... (2 Kings 10:15) 29) wattah kal-nbiyey habbaal kal-obdayw wkal-kohanayw kiruw elay ... "Now therefore , call to me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests ... (2 Kings 10:19) 30) ... wayyose lahaem hammalbuws ... So he brought out vestments for them. (2 Kings 10:22) 31) ... wayyasaem panayw laalowt al-yruwsalaim ... then Hazael set his face to go up to . (2 Kings 12:18) 32) wayyomaer ptah hahallown kedmah ... And he said, "Open the east window" ... (:17) 33) wayyomaer kah hahissiym ... Then he said, "Take the arrows" ... (2 Kings 13:18) 34) wayyaabduw haggilluliym asaer amar YHWH lahaem lo taasuw aet- haddabar hazzaeh for they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, "You shall not do this thing." (:12) 35) ... wsimruw miswotay hukkowtay kkal-hattowrah asaer siwwiytiy aet- aboteykaem ...... and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers ..." (2 Kings 17:13) 36) kiy-kara yisrael meal beyt dawid ... For He tore Israel from the house of David, ... (2 Kings 17:21) 37) wha awwiym asuw nibhaz waet-tartak ... and the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak ... (2 Kings 17:31) 38) ... wayyismor miswotayw asaer-siwwah YHWH aet-mosaeh

56 ORIENT THREE NOTES ON ISRAELIAN HEBREW SYNTAX ... but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses. (:6) 39) ... wayyomaer simuw dbar-hammaelaek haggadowl maelaek assuwr saying, "Hear the word of the great king, the king... of ! (2 Kings 18:28) 40) ... wayyaggiduw low dibrey rab-sakeh ... and told him the words of the Rabshakeh. (2 Kings 18:37) 41) hatteh YHWH aznka uwsama pkah YHWH eynaeyka uwreh uwsma et dibrey sanheriyb asaer slahow lharep 'aelohiymhay "Incline Your ear , O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear the words of , which he has sent to reproach the living God. (:16) 42) byad malakaeyka herapta adondy ... By your messengers you have reproached the Lord ... (2 Kings 19:23) 43) ... wahrib bkap-pamay kol yorey masowr ... And with the soles of my feet I have dried up All the brooks of defense." (2 Kings 19:24) 44) wsibtka wsetka uwboaka yada tiy wet hitraggaezka elay But I know your dwelling place, Your 'going out and your coming in, And your rage against Me. (2 Kings 19:27) 45) ... wsamtiy hahiy bappaeka uwmitgiy bispataeyka ... Therefore I will put My hook in your nose And My bridle in your lips ... (2 Kings 19:28) 46) yaan asaer asah mnassaeh maelaek-yhuwdah hattoebowt haellaeh hera mikkol asaer-asuw haaemoriy ... "Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations (he has acted more wickedly than all the Amorites ...), (2 Kings 21:11) 47) wayyomaer hanniyhuw low iys al-yana asmotayw waymalltuw asmotayw et asmowt hannabiy asaer-ba missomrown And he said, "Let him alone; let no one move his bones." So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came from . (:18) 48) whakkaesaep whazzahab natan yhowyakiym lparoh ... So gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh ... (2 Kings 23:35)

Some of these examples can be explained in terms of syntax. For instance, when the sentence has Object-Verb word order, the object "does not specifically require t" (Jouon-Muraoka, •˜125f). This explanation fits Examples 1, 2

(whaeariym), 17 (4x), 26, 29 (3x), 44 (3x) and 48 (2x) above. et also tends to be absent "when the object designates a part of the body of the subject in an idiomatic collocation" (Jouon-Muraoka, •˜125ia)22. This explains why et is

Vol. XXXVIII 2003 57 absent in Examples 6 (matnaeyka), 8 (3x), 12 (yadow), 15, 19 (matnaeyka), 24, 25, 28, 31 and 41 (2x) above. Muraoka, after reading through Genesis 12-20 and 1 Samuel 1-8, also noted that "among several possibilities for a given noun to be determined, the class of nouns determined by means of the pronominal suffix lacks the particle very frequently (19 times)"23. In our corpus, this class of nouns lacks et 28 times24. Stylistic explanations are possible, too. For instance, GKC states that "the use of this nota accusativi is, however, somewhat rare in poetry"25. Examples 42-45 can be accounted for along this line. Syntactic and stylistic explanations, however, fail to explain many of the examples that I have collected. We need to resort to an alternative approach to explain why et is absent in over half of the verses listed above, i.e. Examples 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 12 (hammsora), 13, 14, 16, 18, 19 (pak hassaemaen), 21, 22 (2x), 23, 30, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 39, 40, 42, 43, and 46. Historical development might be involved here as Muraoka suggested26, but he himself found it "very doubtful that any definite principles were at work for the omission of the particle27." Therefore, I would like to try a fresh approach, an approach that Muraoka did not think of in his 1985 book, i.e. to ascribe the lack of et in the 26 verses above to a dialectal trait of IH. Let us examine this possibility below, based on Rendsburg's methodology28. Opposition: According to Jouon-Muraoka, et is "very common"29 with a direct object which is grammatically definite, but is "seldom necessary."30 This means that the use of et and its omission are not in clear-cut opposition. However, if we set aside the examples above that satisfy one or more syntactic conditions that encourage the lack of et in prose texts, an opposition emerges between the examples in which et is either used or missing for some syntactic reasons as against those in which et is missing for no apparent reason. The former is dominant in the Judahite material of our corpus. Distribution: As shown above, I found in 2 Kings 48 verses where a definite direct object is not preceded by et. Of them, 37 verses occur in the section up to Chapter 17, in which the fall of Samaria is narrated, while 11 are found after that. All the examples but one (Example 31) in this first section occur in the narratives about the northern kingdom of Israel. Example 31 is Judahite material, but can be explained as a case of et missing when the object designates a part of the body of the subject in an idiomatic collocation31. Out of the 11 examples found in the section after Chapter 17, which must have originated in Judah, six can be explained by one of the syntactic conditions mentioned above. Regarding Examples 39, 40, 42, 43 and 46, I would like to

58 ORIENT THREE NOTES ON ISRAELIAN HEBREW SYNTAX

ascribe the omission of et in them to intensive linguistic contact between IH and JH in Judah after the fall of Samaria32. Extra-biblical sources: According to W. R. Garr, the direct object is always unmarked in Old Byblian and Samalian and is usually unmarked in Phoenician, , and Moabite33. This clearly testifies to a geographical continuum from Judah, in which the direct object is commonly marked , towards the north to and , where it is not. IH shows closer affinities to Phoenician, Aramaic, and Moabite than to JH in this respect. Both the distribution within the and the extra-biblical sources point to the same conclusion: the omission of et in 2 Kings can be established as a trait of IH. Whether the same can be established throughout the Bible or not remains to be examined.

3. Imperative with the Suffix -ah in Kings34

Masc. Sing. forms of the imperative sometimes take the suffix -ah35 , which is often called the paragogic -ah. There is no consensus among scholars as to the difference between the forms with -ah and those without. Some say that there is

no semantic difference36, others think that the forms with -ah are archaic37 , and still others assume that the forms with -ah involve politeness38 or emphasis39 . Recently, S. E. Fassberg shed new light on this issue by proposing that the forms with -ah signify action toward or for the benefit of the speaker40. It is worth noting here that these theories are not necessarily incompatible . For instance, if the form with -ah is archaic, and the -ah was dropped , there is no reason to assume any semantic difference between the two forms. In that case, it is also possible to assume that the archaic form sounded more formal to the speakers of BH, and was therefore used as an honorific expression . Let us examine these theories41 against all the 17 occurrences of the imperative with in the : 1) waydabber hammaelaek ael-iys haaelohiym boah-ittiy habbaytah uws adah waettnah lka mattat Then the king said to the man of God, "Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward." (1 Kings 13:7) 2) briyt beyniy uwbeynaeka beyn abiy uwbeyn abiyka hinneh salahtiy lka sohad kaesaep wzahab lek haperah aet-briytka aet-basa maelaek-yisrael wyaalaeh mealay "Let there be a treaty between you and me, as there was between my father and your father. See, I have sent you a present of silver and gold . Come and break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me." (1 Kings 15:19)

Vol. XXXVIII 2003 59 3) waydabber ahabael-nabowt lemor tnah-lliyaet-karmka wiyhiy-liy lgan- yarak ... So Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, "Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden ..." (1 Kings 21:2) 4) waydabber elaeyha kiy-adabber ael-nabowt hayyizreliy waomar low tnah- lliyaet-karmka bkaesaep ... He said to her, "Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite, and said to him,' Give me your vineyard for money ..." (1 Kings 21:6) 5) wayyikra maelaekyisrael ael-sariys aehad wayyomaer maharah miykayhuw baen-yimlah Then the king of Israel called an officer and said, "Bring Micaiah the son of Imlah quickly!" (1 Kings 22:9) 6) ... iys haaelohiym hammaelaek dibbaer redah ... "Man of God , the king has said, 'Come down!' " (:9) 7) ... iys haaelohiym koh-amar hammaelaek mherah redah ... "Man of God , thus has the king said, 'Come down quickly!' " (2 Kings 1:11) 8) wayhiy kimlot hakkeliym wattomaer ael-bnah haggiysah elay owd kaeliy ... Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, "Bring me another vessel ." ... (2 Kings 4:6) 9) wattikra ael-iysah wattomaer silhah liy aehad min-hannrariym w'ahat ha'atonowt ... Then she called to her husband, and said, "Please send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys ..." (2 Kings 4:22) 10) wayyomaer salowm adoniy slahaniy lemor hinneh attah zaeh bauw elay sney-nariym mehar aeprayim mibbney hannbiyiym tnah-nna lahaem kikkar-kaesaep uwstey halipowt bgadiym And he said, "All is well. My master has sent me, saying, 'Indeed, just now two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from the mountains of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of garments.' " (2 Kings 5:22) 11) wayhiy maelaek yisrael ober al-hahomah wissah saakah elayw lemor howsiyah adoniy hammaelaek Then, as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, "Help, my lord, O king!" (2 Kings 6:26) 12) whammaelaek mdabber ael-gehaziy naar iys-haaelohiym lemor sapprah- nna liy et kal-haggdolowt asaer-asah aeliysa Then the king talked with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, "Tell me , please, all the great things has done." (2 Kings 8:4) 13) wayyelaek missam wayyimsa aet-yhownadab baen-rekab likratow waybarkehuw wayyomaer elayw hayes, aet-lbabkd yasar kaasaer lbabiy im- lbabaeka wayyomaer yhownadab yes wages tnah aet-yadaeka ...

60 ORIENT THREE NOTES ON ISRAELIAN HEBREW SYNTAX Now when he departed from there, he met Jehonadab the son of Rechab, coming to meet him; and he greeted him and said to him, "Is your heart right, as my heart is toward your heart?" And Jehonadab answered, "It is." Jehu said, "If it is, give me your hand." ... (2 Kings 10:15) 14) wayyomaer lkah uwreh bkindtiy lYHWH Then he said, "Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD." ... (2 Kings 10:16) 15) az salah amasyah malakiym ael-yhowas baen-yhowahaz baen-yehuw maelaekyisrael lemor lkah nitra aeh paniym Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, "Come, let us face one another in battle." (:8) 16) wayyislah yhowas maelaek-yisrael- ael-amasyahuw maelaek-yhuwdah lemor hahowah asaer ballbanown salah aeraez asaer ballbanown lemor tnah-aet-bittka libniy lissah And Jehoash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, "The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, `Give your daughter to my son as wife'; ... (2 Kings 14:9) The first theory, the synonymy theory, can only be properly evaluated after all the possible semantic differences have been exhausted, yet we can safely assume the following: if forms with and without -ah can be juxtaposed freely, they probably have no major semantic difference. We have three possible cases of such juxtaposition: lek haperah ... "come and break ..." (Example 2), lkah ittiy uwreh ... "come with me, and see ..." (Example 14), and lkah nitraaeh paniym ... "come , let us face one another in battle" (Example 15). Since lek in Example 2 is used in the sense "come on," and does not seem to have the lexical meaning "to go ," however, it is not certain whether lek and haperah are actually juxtaposed or not. The other two examples involve III-h verbs (reh and nitraaeh), which cannot take the -ah ending by definition. This is to say that in Kings we have no sure example in which a form with -ah and one without it are juxtaposed intentionally. The archaism theory may explain why the imperative with -ail occurs in pause (Examples 1, 6 and 7). However, it does not offer any explanation for the other examples, none of which are found in pause or poetry. The politeness theory proves to be more successful. The imperatives with - ah are addressed to a religious figure (the man of God, his servant, or Jehonadab) in Examples 1, 6, 7, 12, 13 and 14, to a king in Examples 2, 11, 15 and 16 (by another king in 2, 15 and 16), and by a wife to her husband in Example 9. The imperative with -ah in the other examples are not addressed to a superior, but it should be noted that some of them occur in a sentence asking for a favor

Vol. XXXVIII 2003 61 (Examples 3, 4, 10) and that some of them are followed by na, which designates a polite command. On the other hand, this theory does not apply to Examples 5 (king to his eunuch) and 8 (mother to her son). Fassberg's proposal is even more successful. The ending -ah in 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14 and 15 designates action toward the speaker. The benefit for the sake of speaker is conveyed by -ah in 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 16. This theory explains all the examples in our corpus. While I have found Fassberg's theory convincing, I would like to propose still another hypothesis. Because all the forms above with -ah occur in direct speech, and the speakers are all inhabitants of northern Israel, except for Examples 2 and 15, it seems likely that the form in question was a feature of IH. Let us test this possibility using Rendsburg's methodology below. Opposition: Masculine singular forms of the imperative, except for those of the III-h verbs, may or may not take the suffix -ah. In the Books of Kings, we find 192 examples without the suffix and 17 examples with the suffix. Distribution: All the verses but Examples 2, 15, and 16 above are found in Israelian material. They constitute over 80% of the examples that I have collected, and thus make my hypothesis highly likely. Furthermore, I believe my hypothesis can account for the three exceptions, too. Examples 15 and 16 constitute a part of a narrative about Amaziah, king of Judah (2 Kings 14:1-22). A portion of it (14:8-15) describes a battle between him and Jehoash, king of Israel, and these examples belong to that part. Because the battle ended in the crushing defeat of Judah by Israel, and because verse 15 refers to "the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel," this portion was most probably written in northern Israel. Even if it was not, Example 16 is actually the words of Jehoash, who would be expected to speak IH. lkah in Example 15 was uttered by Amaziah, who must have talked JH, but the speech was addressed to Jehoash. In such a case, code-switching may take place42. Perhaps the same applies to Example 2, which reports the words of Asa, king of Judah, addressed to Hezion, king of Aram. Asa may have used IH-like code, which is closer to Aramaic in many respects, when he addressed Hezion. Extra-Biblical sources: Hebrew, Phoenician, and Aramaic inscriptions do not attest to the imperative with the ending -ah. Therefore, we cannot establish a contemporary geographical continuum regarding the imperative formation with and without the ending -ah among NWS (Northwest Semitic) languages. The ending is preserved in earlier NWS languages: e.g. qr a [qaraa] "Call out!" (KTU 1.161, 11. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)43, Canaano-Akkadian ku-na "Be ready!" (Tyre, EA 147:36)44.

62 ORIENT THREE NOTES ON ISRAELIAN HEBREW SYNTAX

In sum, despite the lack of contemporary extra-Biblical sources, the distribution of the imperative with -ah strongly supports the possibility that it is a trait of IH. How this conclusion integrates with Fassberg's theory is an intriguing question to be explored in the future45.

Notes 1 This is an updated version of the paper that I read at the International Workshop on Israelian Hebrew held on July 31 and August 1, 2002, at the University of Tsukuba. I thank Prof. Gary A. Rendsburg, Prof. Shlomo Izre'el, and Prof. David T. Tsumura for the invaluable comments that they offered at the workshop. I have adopted the transliteration system that Prof. Izre'el used in his article, with a single modification: I indicate matres lectionis in superscript, while he does not indicate them at all. Although matres lectionis are indeed a purely graphic device and have no phonemic value, I believe that an ideal transliteration system must be a reversible one, i.e. a system from which one could restore the original spelling. For this reason, I have decided to indicate matres lectionis in superscript to enable restoration of the Hebrew script and at the same time to show that matres lectionis are not to be pronounced. Translation of the Biblical citations follows New (1982) unless stated otherwise. 2 Rendsburg first discussed this phenomenon as a grammatical feature of IH in 1991 . In this article he used the term "finite verb" instead of "narrative tense." I did not know of this article at that time. 3 The New Revised Standard Version (1989) . It is also possible to translate the infinitive absolute as imperative, i.e. "Make this valley full of ditches" as the does. In either case, the form asoh is modal. 4 See Dubois (1973) , under the entry "recit." 5 See Comrie (1985) , 28. 6 See Hatav (1997) , 10f. 7 I did not count Rendsburg's LBH examples , as he did not give the exact references for them. 8 See Rendsburg's footnote no . 14 on p. 33 in this issue. 9 The translation of the New Revised Standard Version "As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a penknife ..." may reflect this line of thinking. Because it would naturally take a while to read three or four columns, the iterative interpretation makes sense contextually. 10 Rainey (1986) , 10. Rainey summarizes here M. Lambert's findings. 11 See Rendsburg (2002) , 20. 12 Isaiah 37:19 in Rendsburg's list of pre -exilic JH examples can be explained as follows . Rendsburg mentions the "refugee from Israel" in relation to the Siloam Inscription (oral communication). There is no doubt that many Israelians fled to Judah after the fall of Samaria. The archaeological evidence shows that the size of Judean towns enlarged drastically during this period. It seems reasonable that this is due, at least in part, to the number of refugees from northern Israel. I assume that there must have been intensive linguistic contact between IH and JH during this period in Judah, and so the "reunion" (p. 7-8 above) of the dialects probably started in pre-exilic Judah. 13 Comrie (1985) explains tense neutralization as follows: "In several languages , there is a rule whereby within what would otherwise be a sequence of like tenses within a sentence, only the first verb shows the expected tense, while all subsequent verbs are in a single tense category, irrespective of the tense of the first verb." (p. 102) 14 See Hatav (1997) , 10f.

Vol. XXXVIII 2003 63 15 I admit that the infinitive absolute used independently (e.g. asoh in Example 1) without forming a sequence with a verb with overt TMA marking requires a different explanation. It is interesting to note in this regard that the neutralized form in Japanese (-te form) renders a command when used independently. 16 This section is an updated version of Ikeda (2000a) . 17 Split marking of the direct object is not a phenomenon unique to Hebrew , according to Hopper and Thompson (1980). In Russian, for instance, a definite direct object is marked by the accusative ending, while an indefinite direct object is marked by the genitive ending. Persian and Turkish restrict their marking of direct objects to referential noun phrases, and Spanish, to human or human-like and referential noun phrases. 18 Jouon-Muraoka , •˜125h. 19 Jouon-Muraoka , •˜•˜125f, 125ia. "Rather strangely," to the best of Muraoka's knowledge in 1985, "no grammar offers an explanation for ... those examples where the particle is not prefixed to a determined object" (Muraoka 1985, p. 150). With this thought in mind, he read through Genesis 12-20 and 1 Samuel 1-8, and made some insightful observations. 20 Jouon -Muraoka , •˜125j. 21 Q stands for krey. 22 I thank Prof . Rendsburg (2002, p. 155) for calling my attention to these explanations. 23 Muraoka (1985) , p. 150, n. 125. He also notes that there are cases where articular nouns and nouns in the status constructus with the determined nomen rectum lack 'et, six and five times respectively. However, I did not take them into account here, because their frequencies are not high enough. 24 Many of these examples involve body part terms . 25 GKC , •˜117a-b. 26 "The historical development is fairly manifest ." (Muraoka 1985, p. 150) 27 Ibid . 28 For details of Rendsburg's methodology , see pp. 5-10 in this issue. 29 Jouon-Muraoka , •˜ 125f. 30 Ibid . Rendsburg (2002, p. 155) further notes that "the use of 'et is inconsistent in the Bible, even in prose texts, so an occasional omission is nothing special." 31 As the subject of the verb in question is Hazael king of Aram , addressee-switching may also be at work here. For addressee-switching, see pp. 7-8 in this issue. 32 See n . 12 above. 33 Garr (1985) , 191-4. 34 This section is an updated version of Ikeda 2002 . 35 III-h verbs do not take this ending . 36 Waltke and O'Connor (1990) , 571. Lambdin (1971), 114. Tsevat (1955). 37 GKC , •˜48i. Cf. Rainey (1996), vol. 2, p. 266. 38 According to Jouon-Muraoka (•˜49d) , the imperative with -ah is often addressed to God (Psalms 5:2), fathers (Genesis 27:19), prophets (Numbers 22:6), or priests (1 Samuel 14:18), and is sometimes reinforced by na (Genesis 27:19). Cf. Kaufman (1991), 198. 39 Meyer (1969) , Bd.2, S.101. 40 Fassberg (1999) . 41 Since "emphasis" is a notoriously ill-defined term , we exclude the emphasis theory from our discussion. For the concept of "emphasis," see Muraoka (1985), Introduction. 42 Switching between linguistic varieties by bi- or multilingual speakers in a particular communicative situation is a well established phenomenon in sociolinguistics. For code- switching in IH, see Rendsburg (1992), 72. 43 See Sivan (1997) , 120. 44 See Rainey 1996, vol.2, p. 265-6. Ugaritic and Canaano-Akkadian examples confirm that the final h of the of the ending is not consonantal but a . Loss of the a vowel seems to be an innovation which took place in Judah, but to reconstruct the

64 ORIENT THREE NOTES ON ISRAELIAN HEBREW SYNTAX development of imperative formation in NWS is beyond the scope of this paper. 45 Fassberg remarks in his conclusion (1999 , p. 13) that "the form and function of the final morpheme in the lengthened imperative brings to mind the use of the ventive morpheme - a(m) in Akkadian." Rainey (1996, vol. 2, p. 266) points out the difficulty of discerning between the Akkadian ventive and the Canaanite modal ending -a in EA texts.

References Comrie, B. 1985: Tense, Cambridge. Dubois, J., et al. (eds.) 1973: Dictionnaire de linguistique, Paris. Fassberg, S.E. 1999: "The Lengthened Imperative katlah in ," Hebrew Studies 40, 7-13. GKC: E. Kautsch, Gesenius's Hebrew Grammar, translated by A. E. Cowley, 2nd. edition, Oxford, 1910. Garr, R. W. 1985: Dialect Geography of Syria-Palestine, 1000-586 B.C.E., Philadelphia. Hatav, G. 1997: The Semantics of Aspect and Modality: Evidence from English and Biblical Hebrew, Amsterdam/Philadelphia. Hopper, P. J., and Thompson, S. A. 1980: "Transitivity in Grammar and Discourse," Language 56, 251-99. Ikeda, J. 2000a: "Linguistic Varieties in Biblical Hebrew: An Overview and a Case Study," Bulletin of the International Institute for Linguistic Sciences, Kyoto Sangyo University 21, 179-204 (in Japanese). Ikeda, J. 2000b: "Regional Dialects in Biblical Hebrew," Studies in Language and Literature, Institute of Literature and Linguistics, University of Tsukuba: Language 38, 1-15 (in Japanese). Ikeda, J. 2002: "Judah and Israel: Regional Linguistic Varieties Found in the Book of Kings," Seishogaku Ronshu 38, 1-21 (in Japanese). Jouon-Muraoka: P. Jouon, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew, translated by T. Muraoka, Roma, 1993 (Reprint of First Edition, 1991, with Corrections). Kaufman, S. A. 1991: "An Emphatic Plea for Please," Maarav 7, 195-198. Lambdin, T. O. 1971: Introduction to Biblical Hebrew, New York. Meyer, R. 1969: Hebraische Grammatik, 3. Auflage, Berlin. Muraoka, T. 1985: Emphatic Words and Structures in Biblical Hebrew, Jerusalem. Rainey, A. F. 1986: "The Ancient Hebrew Prefix Conjugation in the Light of Amarnah Canaanite," Hebrew Studies 27, 4-19. Rainey, A. F. 1996: Canaanite in the Amarna Tablets: A Linguistic Analysis of the Mixed Dialect Used by the Scribes from Canaan, 4 volumes, Leiden. Rendsburg, G. A. 1991: "The Northern Origin of Nehemiah 9," Biblica 72, 348-66. Rendsburg, G. A. 1992: "Morphological Evidence for Regional Dialects in Ancient Hebrew," in: W. R. Bodine (ed.), Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew, Winona Lake , 65-88. Rendsburg, G. A. 2002: Israelian Hebrew in the Book of Kings, Bethesda, Maryland. Sivan, D. 1997: A Grammar of the Ugaritic Language, Leiden. Tsevat, M. 1955: A Study of the Language of the Biblical Psalms, Philadelphia. Waltke, B. K., and O'Connor, M. 1990: An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, Winona Lake.

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