THE SYNTAX OF MASORETIC ACCENTS IN THE HEBREW BIBLE (Second edition, revised and corrected) by James D. Price, Ph.D. Temple Baptist Seminary Copyright 1990, 2010 James D. Price All rights reserved. ii DEDICATION This work is dedicated to my friend and colleague, Dr. Hermann J. Austel, Academic Dean and Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages at Northwest Baptist Seminary, Tacoma, Washington. He has been a lifelong exam- ple of academic and spiritual excellence. iii iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION ....................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................ v LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................. xi PREFACE ............................................................................................................. xv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................. xvii INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 Hebrew's Non-Vowel Marks .............................................................................. 1 Textual Problems ............................................................................................ 1 Masoretic Notes .............................................................................................. 2 Phonetic Union................................................................................................ 2 Accent Marks .................................................................................................. 2 The Study of the Accents .................................................................................... 4 Antiquity of the Accents ..................................................................................... 8 Four Purposes of Primary Accents ..................................................................... 9 Marking Stress ................................................................................................ 9 Marking Syntactic Relationship ...................................................................... 9 Musical Cantillation ...................................................................................... 10 Poetic Structure ............................................................................................. 12 Two Systems of Accentuation .......................................................................... 14 PART I .................................................................................................................. 15 THE SYNTAX OF THE HEBREW ACCENTS.................................................. 15 USED IN THE PENTATEUCH ........................................................................... 15 CHAPTER 1 ......................................................................................................... 17 The Prose Accents Marks ..................................................................................... 17 List of Prose Accents ........................................................................................ 17 Disjunctive Accents ...................................................................................... 18 Conjunctive Accents ..................................................................................... 19 v Table of Contents CHAPTER 2 ......................................................................................................... 23 The Prose Laws of Accentuation .......................................................................... 23 The Laws of Hierarchic Governance ................................................................ 23 The Law of Substitution................................................................................ 27 The Law of Conjunctives .............................................................................. 28 The Law of Transformation .............................................................................. 31 The Law of Continuous Dichotomy ................................................................. 32 Unnatural Binary Restraint ........................................................................... 35 Obscure Near Segment ................................................................................. 35 Criteria of Division ....................................................................................... 38 Complexity .................................................................................................... 40 CHAPTER 3 ......................................................................................................... 41 The Prose Accent in Hierarchy I ........................................................................... 41 CHAPTER 4 ......................................................................................................... 45 The Prose Accents in Hierarchy II ........................................................................ 45 Silluq ................................................................................................................. 45 Athnach ............................................................................................................. 49 CHAPTER 5 ......................................................................................................... 55 The Prose Accents in Hierarchy III ...................................................................... 55 Tiphcha ............................................................................................................. 56 Little Zaqeph ..................................................................................................... 61 Great Zaqeph ..................................................................................................... 66 Segolta............................................................................................................... 67 Shalsheleth ........................................................................................................ 71 CHAPTER 6 ......................................................................................................... 73 The Prose Accents in Hierarchy IV ...................................................................... 73 Tebir .................................................................................................................. 74 Pashta ................................................................................................................ 78 Yethib ................................................................................................................ 83 Zarqa ................................................................................................................. 84 vi Table of Contents ` Rebia ................................................................................................................. 88 CHAPTER 7 ......................................................................................................... 93 The Prose Accents in Hierarchy V........................................................................ 93 Geresh ............................................................................................................... 93 Garshaim ........................................................................................................... 96 Pazer .................................................................................................................. 97 Great Telisha ..................................................................................................... 98 Great Pazer ........................................................................................................ 99 Legarmeh ........................................................................................................ 101 Paseq ............................................................................................................... 102 Pseudo-Legarmeh ........................................................................................... 103 CHAPTER 8 ....................................................................................................... 107 The Prose Conjunctive Accents .......................................................................... 107 Munach ........................................................................................................... 107 Mahpak ........................................................................................................... 109 Mereka ............................................................................................................ 111 Double Mereka................................................................................................ 112 Darga ............................................................................................................... 113 Azla ................................................................................................................. 113 Little Telisha ................................................................................................... 115 Galgal .............................................................................................................. 116 Mayela............................................................................................................. 117