SOME FUNCTIONS OF THE HEBREW PARTICLES BETH AND LAMEDH By REV. DR. C. F. WHITLEY, U.

College of North Wales I

OF CERTAIN HEBREW PARTICLES THE INTERCHANGEABILITY has long been recognised by Jewish grammarians. As early as the tenth century A.D. Saadia Ben Joseph commented on the interchange between : and 7z, and this principle of

biblical exegesis was subsequently adopted by such scholars as Jonah Ibn Janah (tith cen.) and Abraham Ibn Ezra (i2th cen.).' David Kimhi (II60-I235 A.D.) againi pointed to instances in which : is used for 7 with the force of 'to'; for example, Hosea xii 7 =Vrniv,*x 'return to thy God', mm ir nn 'Sing praises to Yahweh, and Psalm xxxiii Ir1 Oye righteous'.2 It is accordingly our purpose here to point to further instances in which = and t interchange, and also to note some other respects in which their functions are identical. As examples of phrases in which n and b interchange we
may cite the following: Genesis xxviii 2i z t3ft ":= 'and I will return in peace to my father's house', and i t 'and you will go ' Geniesis xliv I7 up in peace to your father' (so Pesh. re-=I=; and LXX pvr0k in both passages); Deuteronomy xii x5 a&'r-pxOCq T fl. 'only with all the desire of your soul', and I Samuel xxiii o a ns 'anid now with all the desire of your soul.' 3 Jeremiah x 24 Mt?2 'correct me ...
I N. M. Sarna, 'The interchange of the Prepositions BETH and MIN in Biblical Hebrew', J.B.L., 78 (1959), p. 311. 2 William Chomsky, 'The Ambiguity of the Prefixed Prepositions 7, 7, z in the Bible,' J.Q.R., 6i (1970), p. 88. 3 Benjamin Kennicott, Vetus Testamentum Hebraicum: Cum Variis Lectioibus (Oxford 1776), vol. i, ad loc., notes the variant 5=

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in judgment,' and Jeremiah xxx iI

(and xlvi 28) 181.

U%t73' I corrected you in judgment (so Pesh. re.x-n); Jere-

'and they do not consider in their miah v 24 T:-t7 1"It'17 'and they do not heart', and Hosea vii 2 n 'n1 Pesh. _a>Sn ocu'r&cv, say in their heart (so LXX rn xoapaqM P11rhfl Similarly n parallels '7 in Isaiah xlvi 13 7t1f31 n: t 'and I will place in Zion salvation, in Israel my "rW1?
glory' (so Vul. 'in Sion . .. in Israel.'
4

In the light of this usage it is unnecessary to suspect the Hebrew text in other passages where ' is similarly used. 'for him who Thus in Numbers xv 29 we have ;7n t acts in error,' and in verse 24 TT rT 'it is done in error', but many MSS read Iwt as nz=.5 In Genesis ":te 'in the hearing i7nn-.1: xxiii Io we read il"yT-it 1 of the sons of Heth, before all those entering the gate of
V

the city,' and in verse I8 we read -n=715"

11: 5= A! nn-123

of verse IO as t::, ill:; however, BH3 proposes to read t and many MSS and Targum J read tnt for 3nz in verse VI zni"+ 2 i8.1 Again, in Job xxi 30 we have zTi" *=' Anil=p 'that the wicked man is spared in the day of calamity, that he is rescued in the day of wrath,' 7 but BH3 would read Z18: in both instances. Similarly in Jeremiah 'and you will not prosper in ii 37 we find ;1 n1 them,' but one MS and the Peshitta read Iinz. On the basis of this and other conflicting textual evidence, Volz thought that =,* was here 'superfluous,'8 while B.D.B. referred to it as 'peculiar.'9 But in view of the functonal interchange between 7 and 2 there is no reasonto question the Massoretictext.
n "

2 (I780) ad loc., notes the variant 7 Kennicott, vol. i, ad loc.; J. B. de Rossi, Variae Lectiones Veteris Testamenti, vol. 2 (Parmae 1785) ad loc. 6 Noted in BH3. 7 Translated as R.S.V., but for the text of 9*i' MVI=n BH3 suggests (al 721) 7"3 p. I5. 8 Paul Volz, Studien zum Text des Jeremia (Leipzig I920), Dr. Ezra Shereshevesky draws my attention to Kimhi's rendering of (in respect of them). M1I7by 1

4 Kennicott, op. cit., vol.

5

9 P. 5I4b.

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BETH AND LAMEDH-WHITLEY

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The meaning 'in' for b is again to be discerned in such JW r1!773277t7 passages as the following: Isaiah xxxii i V T 3V Uttt7 1ntV 'behold a king will reign in righteousness,
and indeed rulers will rule in judgment' '0 (so Pesh. re n-av= .); Psalm vii 6 'mt57 "ti=1 'and lay my soul :9 - Job vii "zt in the dust' (so Pesh. 'for now I shall lie in the dust' (so Pesh. reiz. A=..);Isaiah, 1II 'in sorrow you will lie down (so LXX zv IT=)MI . i Io O131 ..l c .i:);Ecclesiastes XunB Pesh. 'already it was in the age which was before us' Vul. 'in seculis'). (so LXX iv oxqoatW6m,
T T '

Moreover, it would seem that the interchange of the particles M and 5 is not confined to the meaning 'in'. It is now recognised that, as in other Semitic languages, the Hebrew particle b has an emphatic force. For example: 12 1Mn. Kings xix 2 5 ;n I i7. ',. i nT*7 -T Im9nk"n' l 'surely thou hast heard, yea from the remote past I did it, yea from the days of old I planned it, now I nl;9n 1 bring it to pass'; Psalm lxxxix i9 18Pb1 8,7 R 'for indeed Yahweh is our shield, and indeed the Holy One of Israel our king'; Ecclesiastes ix 4 7 non .-1n 3il 'n, 'for indeed a living dog is better than a dead lion.' 11But it is probable that we are also to recognise an emphatic element in the particle 1. This would explain
Tn T *

the Z before n17'1,and the aetiological name nrinn itself, in , I Chronicles vii 23 ir n in& ,-rm

'and he called his name Beriah, for indeed evil had befallen his house.' Similarly in the passage VT55 t3i"-": fl=P= (I Chron.ix 33) 1 prefixed to flmg% seems to emphasise that word: 12 'for day and night service was indeed (laid)
5

10 The 7 before 1'"')W is probably to be regarded as Emphatic; see below ibid. 11 See further, I. Eitan, 'La Particle emphatique ,,La" dans la Bible,' R.E.J., 74 (I922), pp. i-i6; F. N6tscher, 'Zum emphatischen

Lamed,'

V.T., 3 (I953), pp. 372-380; C. H. Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook

(Rome I965), p. 76 (sec. 9:I6). 12 BH3 would read the article fl instead of :1.

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upon them.' So Ezra iii 3, ni"MP : > rm n ", in, must be construed emphatically: 'for the E before ;'itI indeed terror was upon them because of the peoples of the lands.' II It is, again, likely that it is this emphatic function of n which characterises what is commonly called the Beth Essentiae. W. Gesenius referred to this Beth as occurring 'after ideas of appearing, manifesting oneself, representing, being in the sense of as, in the capacity of... consisting of. . .' 13 This is, however, a wide definition of the functionl of what is known as Beth Essentiae, and many of the examples mentioned by Gesenius could be rendered by 'with,' a normal meaning of t. Such are: 7i12P(Is. xxviii I6) 'in Zion'; ttT (Is. lxvi I5) 'in fire'; '1TT2(Ps. xxxi 2) 'in a city'; 17T jt (Ps. xxxvii 2o) 'in smoke they vanish.' So I of "Itw bX= (Exod. vi 3) may be similarly rendered: 'I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob in (or through)El ShadHowever, the phrase is textually uncertain. Elsewhere we find " ' (Gen. xvii I; xxviii 3; xxxv ii),14 and dai.
.'.

the : could accordinglybe due to a dittograhy of the preceding nlRgt Gesenius also mentions PTfl; in Isaiah xl io.15 It is true that the Massoretic pointing is jPrI; but the Versions take the word as a noun, gh(n), and the Dead Sea Scroll similarly reads r?tM(=). This would corresponds with the parallel nominal term ivit in the following stich, and would be more suitable to the context as a whole: 'Yahweh comes might and his arm rules for him.' zwith L. M. Manrossagain conceives of the Beth Essentiae as the copulative of a nominal sentence, and concludes that 'we
13 Hebrew Grammar, ed. E. Kautzsch, 2nd Eng. edn., by A. E. Cowley (Oxford I9IO), sec. II9 i (p. 379). 14 The LXX reads 'being their God' in Exod. vi 3, 'thy God' in Gen. xvii i and xxxv ii, and 'my God' in Gen. xxviii 3, but these renderings are probably only theological interpretations of the Hebrew
li-ytV 5t'

15

Ibid.

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need not hesitate to translate' it 'as "is".'16 But to translate

this Beth as 'is' would in many cases be pleonastic, since the verb 'to be' is already supplied. Mauross mentions Psalm l but here the phrase already has lv I9, "In 'l . the verb TIM, and therefore the 2 prefixed to trin must be regarded as stressing that word: 'for indeed they are many against me.' So in Jephtah's words n61ilr r""M 1Xl in Judges xi 35 we have not only a verb but a personal pronoun: 17 'and thou art indeed my trouble.' The extent of Jephtah's '11 ;77T trouble may be seen from his previous remark VIP.D ".3528 'Ah, my daughter, thou hast indeed brought me llow.' '1 Again, in Exodus xxxii 22, : =6il 1s77 ne
>

R8n,

we have the verb XIt as well as the M prefixed to 5rn:

'You know the people that it is indeed evil.' This emphasis by Aaron on the evil of the people is an appropriate answer to Moses' question, 'What did this people do to you that you have brought a great sin upon them?' (vs. 2I). We may further mention Nahum iii 9, tat where lt the n prefixed to Innt5 is immediately preceded by lt;1: 'Put and the Libyans were indeed thy help.' 19The verb ;117 similarly precedes 2 in Proverbs iii 26, JIP? Thl 'for Yahweh is indeedthy confidence.' But even where this prefixed = appears in passages which have not an explicitly expressed verb, it has more significance than that of a mere predicate. Thus in Exodus xviii 4 the
,BETH ESSENTIAE,' J.B.L., 73 (I954), pp. 238-239. A personal pronoun may, of course, be used with a verb in an emphatic capacity, but it can also constitute the subject of a nominal clause in which there is no copula; e.g., 7#1:) 1; (Gen. xiv i8), :2 t=tl 1In (Is. XXXi 2). Compare Gesenius '. . . the syntactical relation existing between the subject and predicate of a noun-clause is as a rule expressed by simple juxtaposition, without a copula of any kind,' op. cit., sec. I4I f (p. 453). 18 The question of whether we should read the verb '= for V:: here (see, e.g., G. F. Moore, Judges, I.C.C., Edinburgh I903, p. 303, and C. F. Burney, The Book of Judges, London 1920, p. 322) is immaterial to our discussion. 19 Cf. BH3 for the reading ;l?n7n (her help) instead of 11lt52.
17 16

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name Eliezer is explained in terms of the divine intervention 'for " against Pharaoh: Mtlt) n 3 the God of my father was my help, and he delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.' In Hosea xiii 9 we similarly find 'It. 12'M. Some doubt attaches to the text IT= of the line,20but there is no reason to question the authen-

by which the prophet emphasizes ticity of the term 1rTY7

that Yahweh alone is the source of Israel's help: 'I have destroyed thee, 0 Israel, though in me is your help.' Like"It " I, wise in Psalm cxviii 7 we read 1X&4MWIN lIp' Existence is here implicit in the term ',?, but it is the wish of the Psalmist to stress that, because Yahweh is his help, he can defy his enemies; hence we may translate, 'Yahweh is indeed my help, and I shall triumphantly look on those who hate me.' Another instance of a prefixed : is to be found
in Psalm cxlvi 5
I"ViT8

VVT?2

i'l.t

illy=:

"V?

BH3, probably on grounds of dittography, suggests that we delete the : before Int5, and the word would then correspond to rlntuin the second half the line. Yet we may retain the Massoretic text if we recognise that it is in a context which * I"ew contrasts the divine help with that of man ;#x79tn 'in whom there is no help' (vs. 3). Accordingly we would render, 'Happy is the man whose help is indeed the God of Jacob, whose hope is in Yahweh his God.' Manross would
again translate it7 ;6Tnof Psalm lxviii 5, *bi ...
T-

X5

t1142

as 'Yahweh is his name.21How:b ... n:.l 11 (Jer. xxxiii 2) is translated by 'Yahweh ever, i (Is. xlviii 2) by 'Yahweh Sebaoth is his name,' i ntfl
20 On the basis of the Greek and Syriac BH3 reconstructs as 'In l'ltW, but while lJIWttV (I destroyed thee) should plobably '18-17X7 be read for the Massoretic 111t, the rest of the line is quite intelligible. 21 Loc. cit., p. 239. Cf. too N.E.B., note, 'In the Lord is his name.' M. Dahood comments that WntL T'1Z'makes no sense as it stands,' and would read the MT 1?ntas ?emn, Qal masculine plural imperative of a root ysm which is found in Ugaritic. He renders as 'Delight,' but even so regards it as 'a doubtful translation,' Psalms II (The Anchor Bible), New York I968, p. 136.

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is his name,' and i1Tt.? iZ (I Sam. i 1) by 'his name was Elkanah.' 22 That is to say, the copula is not expressed, but is implied in the juxtaposition of the terms concerned. So here in Psalm lxviii 5 I is not necessary as a copula, and is rather to be taken in an emphatic sense: 'Sing to God... extol him who rides over the clouds,23 yea, Yahweh is his
name.. tr?ir7
.'. h18

1;

1 flt1 In Isaiah xxvi 4 we likewise find mV6 r " 7-7, and Manross would translate

the second stich by 'For Yahweh is the Lord, an eternal rock.' 24 BH3 suggests that ;r= should be deleted. But mmltr would then appear in both parts of the line. It is therefore likely that br= is original to the second part, and that mml1; was inserted after it by an editor wishing to identify Yahweh with Yah. What was then probably the original Hebrew line may be translated: 'Trust in Yahweh for ever, for indeed Yah is an eternal rock.' III The functions of = and ' further coincide in that both particles can mean 'from.' That : has this meaning in biblical Hebrew is clearly attested. For example :201 (pointing
WISP=

=61T

'and

Jeroboam

returned

from

Egypt'

(I Kgs. xii 2); compare the parallel passage (2 Chron. x 2) ` *?=f ~ =i I 7 ltt 1M 'and trspnx T; In nothing ohn will he take from his work which he may carry in his hand' (Eccles. v 14)25 But b too has this meaning 'from' in Ugaritic, Proto-Sinaitic and Hebrew. As Ugaritic examples, we may cite rd Imlk amlk ldrktkatbnn, 'descend from the sovereignty
T ..* ITT T T; . *.. T+p

-_

T.

22 Cf. too I= 'my " IT 'this is my name' (Exod. iii I5); I= name is Yahweh' (Jer. xvi 2i); 5W'V WVj 1J8O 'thy redeemer is the Holy One of Israel' (Is. xli 14). 23 The Hebrew V:s17:2:1: is probably to be equated with Ugaritic rkb 'rpt (rider of the clouds) which often appears as an epithet of Baal; see C. H. Gordon Ugaritic Textbook, p. 46ib, and Dahood, ibid., who refers to the many instances of non-phonemic interchange between b and p in Northwest Semitic. 24 Ibid. 25 See further S. M. Sarna, loc. cit., who also notes that b is similarly used in other Semitic languages.

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that I may rule, from thy dominion that I may sit thereon', and l.tpnil dpid yrd Iksi ytb lhdm wi hdm ytb lars, 'Ltpn, god of mercy, descends from his throne, sits on the footstool, and from the footstool sits on the ground.' 26 Similarly in Proto-Sinaitic we find mtt' Itt lb['t(m), 'Thou who didst save (me) from two lio [nesses . .1"27 and 'nt Tin dk-m l-'bb .... 'Thou, 0 Shapan, collect from 'Ababa...' 28 So in Hebrew we have lRtx lrtn 'from morning to morning' (I Chron. niv-mvl 9; 'He will not withhold good ix 27); t"nnT '':1 from (so Pesh. ; those who walk in perfection' (Ps. lxxxiv I2); compare Proverbs iii 27 i i 'Do not withhold good from those who produce it'; 29 fljjQ 1V , x 4IN ... 'The silver which was taken from you ... n17I I took it' (Jud. xvii 2); compare 2 Kings ii io M1R.1? '-Mif n you see me taken from you'; IXV:W18+DM IIn t3il7 'and their camels shall be taken away from them'
(Jer. xlix 29); j 'of a truth women are kept from (LXX &oi yuva!Lxoq) us' (I Sam. xxi 6). In this

last instance we note that the rendering 'from' agrees with ,7Sun. M"TVN7tntsl-W 'if the young men are kept from women' in the previous verse, and we may compare too Itt l -112S7 'detained from before Saul' in I Chronicles is usedwith 3 xii I, wherethe preposition 7?z
T

Gordon, op. cit., pp. g8f., sec. io:ii. F. Albright, The Proto-Sinaitic Inscriptions and Their Development (Harvard Theological Studies, XXII, I966), p. 2I, text No. 352. 28 Albright, op. cit., p. 23, text No. 357. We may note that in Phoenician 7 has also the force of 'from' when used in conjunction with the preposition D (tl-t) or with the combination ?n+ Z See Johannes Friedrich, PhInizisch-Punische Grammatik (Rome I95I), sec. 253 (pp. ii6 f.). 29 Taking 5Vl in the sense of 'to work' as in Ugaritic (Gordon, op. cit., No. 494, p. 375) and pointing T7. 30 E. F. Sutcliffe ('A Note on 'YL, Le, and FROM,' V.T., V, I955, pp. 436-439) has expressed the opinion that 7 does not mean 'from' (p. 439). In the instances he mentiones (e.g., Gen. i 6, 2 Sam. xi 7) 7 may possibly be rendered by 'in relation to' or 'concerning,' but this rendering would not adequately express the force of the particle 7 in the passages discussed above.
26 27 W.

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