nominal infinitive of naoan dedit; 7 takes a before a monosyllable; yad is the construct form of yād. On the connective vowels of the and 3d pers. be rel. hear art. king accus. object suffixes see 80. (18.) Va Ye hi ki smōağ ham melek he word of man art. God who cried against art. altar in Bethel and 3d pers. -debar ḥīs -hā ḥelōhīm ḥaṣer qūrāḥ jal -ham'mizbēax be bēï0·ḥēl vay · yi · put forth Jeroboam accus. hand his from top art. altar to say hold pl. ḥel -yūdō mē‘jal ham mizbēax lēḥmōr tips·u him and 3d sing. fem. dry hand his which he put forth against 3d sing. and not hú va ibash yadō haser

slax yārābējam

t

salax

3d pers. effect to Hiph. return it to him yā kōl la ha sib ah ḥēl āiv; and it came to pass, when the king heard the saying of the man of God who had cried against the altar in Bethel, that Jeroboam put forth his hand from off the altar, saying, Lay hold on him; and his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up so that he could not pull it in again to him (1 Kings xiii. 4); yehi is third singular imperfect of hāyāh fuit; ki is the particle of correspondence in quality or in time, ke, which becomes ki before sheva; semōag, the infinitive of samag audivit, to which hammelek is nominative (92); debar is construct state of dābār; his is defined by the article with helōhīm (88); yislax is third singular imperfect of salax misit; hemōr is infinitive of hāmar dixit; tip'sū is second plural imperative of tap' as prehendit; tības is third singular feminine of yabas exaruit, agreeing with yad, which is feminine; gal and hel take the suffix like plural nouns; yākōl is third singular imperfect of kalal perficit; hasib is the nominal infinitive Hiphil of sub redire, to cause to return, it is shortened in taking the suffix. multiply 2d sing. art. nation to him made great 2d sing. art. joy

(19.) Hirbi Oa hag

rejoice 3d pl. perf. at face thy samex ū lepanei ka pl. in divide their spoil

goy loḥ higdal tā has simxah

as joy of in art. harvest as which 3d pers. exult ke simxa0 baq qat'ir ka haser ya gīl ·

u bexalleq am salal; thou hast multiplied the nation to him, thou hast made great the joy, they have rejoiced before thee according to the joy in harvest, as how they exult in their dividing spoil (Isa. ix. 2); hirbila and higdaltā are second singular perfect Hiphil of rābāh multus fuit, and gadal magnus fuit; simxa is the construct form of simyah, connected with baqqat'ir as if with a genitive (90); yagilu is third plural imperfect of gil exultavit; xalleq is infinitive Piel of xalaq divisit; a subordinate fact is apt to be governed in the

save

me from mouth of lion and from horns of

infinitive. (20.) Hō sig・ē・nī mi pi haryeh u • miq · garnēi

buffaloes hear 2d sing. me

rēmim janī · Оā nī; save me from the lion's mouth and from horns of buffaloes hear (and deliver) me (Ps. xxii. 22); hōsiaÿ is imperative Hiphil of yāṣağ, which is not used; qarni is the construct form of geranim, plural of qeren horn; ganība is translated by Gesenius as imperative, the prayer being thought in perfect as accomplished; the last clause

nedum dwellers of

(21.) Ḥap sōkenēi

is an example of the constructio prægnans (93). houses of clay who in dust foundation their 3d pl. crush pl. them at face of botter -xomer haṣer be ÿāpār yesōd ・ ām ye · dakkeḥū・m lip'enēi

moth

-jās; much less them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust and whom they crush before the moth (Job iv. 19); sokenei is construct form of sökenim, plural of participle of sakan habitavit; bottei construct of bottim, plural of bayi0; the active third plural is used for passive, are crushed (94); at face of before. and 3d pl. say Naomi to two daughters in law her go pl. fem. (22.) Vat homer najomi li stei kallo · ei hā lēke · nah!! return pl. fem. woman to house of mother her 3d pers. do sōb'e nah hissah le bei

=

with

him mah ya・ gaseh yehōvāh ģimm· 2d pl. masc. kindness as how do 2d pl. masc. with art. dead pl. ā· kem Xesed ka haser gasi · lem jim ham mē⚫im ve with 1st sing. gimmād jimmadi; and Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each to her mother's house; Jehovah deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead and with me (Ruth i. 8); setei is the construct form of setaim, which is feminine of senaim, two; lek is imperative of galak ivit, and sob is imperative of sub redire; yağaseh is third singular imperfect of gasah fecit; gasi@em is second plural perfect of the same, and is masculine though addressed to women, as also is the suffix in jimmāhem (96); mē0 participle agentis of mue mori. (23.) and 3d pers. be because fear pl. art. part. Pi. bring forth pl. accus..art. God and Va yehi ki -yareḥu ha me yalled · 50 hel-ha helohim vay'

3d pers. make for 3d pl. masc. houses

ya jas lā hem bottim; and it came to pass because the midwives feared God that he made for them houses (Exod. i. 21); yağas is third singular jussive of gasah fecit, the suffix in lähem is masculine (96). and 3d pers. come pl. art. shepherds and 3d pers. drive away 3d pl. masc. obj. (24.) Vay · ya · bōḥā hā・rōğʻīm va ye gares and 3d pers. stand

.

um

and 3d pers. save 3d pl. fem. obj. and 3d pers. water accus.

ray・ yā・ qom Moseh vay y ōsiğ ān vay y asqe hel

flock 3d pl. masc. tōḥnām; and the shepherds came and drove them away, and Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock (Exod. ii. 17); the verbs are all imperfect, yābōḥū third plural from boh venire, yegaresu third plural Piel from garas pepulit, yaqom third singular jussive of qum surgere, yōsiag third singular Hiphil of yasağ not used, yaşge third singular jussive Hiphil from saqah bibit; the suffixes -um and -ām refer to the daughters of Reuel mentioned in the preceding verse, and spoken of throughout it in the feminine gender; -un thinks them as feminine because helped by Moses as weak (96). (25.) go near thou and hear accus. all that 3d pers. say God our and Qrab hatah u ṣṣmağ ḥē kōl haṣer y homar yehovah ḥelōhērnu ve thou fem. 2d speak_to 1st pl. accus. all that hat te dabbērķēl ēi · nū to 2d sing. and hear 1st pl. perf.

heo kol -haser ye'dabber yehovah ḥelohērnu and do 1st pl. perf.

hel ei kā ve samağ・ nū ve ÿāsī nu; go thou near and hear all that Jehovah our God shall say, and speak thou unto us all that Jehovah our God shall speak unto thee, and we will hear it and do it (Deut. v. 24); talabber is second singular imperfect Piel of dabar locutus est, hat feminine, though addressed to Moses perhaps as in contrast to Jehovah (96); the perfects are future completions. (26.) and 3d pl. fem. demon. came pl. into middle of art. house takers of wheat and Ve hen nah baḥ u gad -tök habbayi lögexei xittim vay

3d pers. smite him at art. fifth and

y

and

brother his Niph. escape akku hu ḥel -ha xomes verēkāb ū‘bağanāḥ ḥāxi • v ni・ mlāt ·

3d pl. perf.

ū; and they came into the midst of the house (as if) fetching wheat, and they smote him at the fifth (rib), and Rekab and Baanah his brother escaped (2 Sam. iv. 6); yakku is third plural imperfect Hiphil of nakah not used; hennah, they there, is feminine, perhaps because they are thought as coming in with fear and caution (96).

SYRIAC.

99. Syriac, called also Aramaic, was the language of Syria or Aram, the highland country to the north-east of Palestine, as far as the Euphrates; and was spoken there until the Mahommedan conquest caused it to be supplanted by Arabic. It is still represented by some Neo Syriac dialects in the neighbourhood of Lake Urumiyah;1 and is preserved as a liturgical language by the Maronites and Jacobites, though the knowledge of it is said to be dying out.2 It was a sisterlanguage to Hebrew. And though it is known to us principally in Christian writings, in which it was subject to a strong Greek influence, from the New Testament and the Greek Fathers of the Church, it is not affected in its essential character by this influence. "The Christian influence," says Fürst, "shows itself in the adoption of Grecisms or entire Greek words or phrases; and in the modification of the existing materials of the language into an accordance with Christian ideas, distinguishing a spiritual meaning from the natural meaning, and forming many abstracts with religious signification. But all this has not made the Syriac an idiom distinguished by peculiarity of structure from the other Aramaic," 3 which was exempt from this influence. Similarly Renan remarks: "On comparing the Chaldee of the fragments of Esdras, which represent to us the Aramean of the fifth century before the Christian era, with the Syriac which is still written in our day, we can hardly discover between texts composed at so long an interval any essential differences. A slight tendency to analysis, the more frequent employment of prepositions, a richer system of particles, a great number of Greek words introduced into the language, such are the only points on which innovations are to be observed. One might say that the Aramean language between the two limits which have been indicated has varied no more than the language of Cicero from that of Ennius."4

100. The Syriac alphabet is the same as the Hebrew, though the characters differ. But the utterance was stronger in Syriac both in respect of muscular tension and of pressure of breath from the chest, so that it used the harder and more guttural consonants more than Hebrew, and sounded the vowels more fully. Thus very frequently q in Syriac corresponds to k in Hebrew, and sometimes k in Syriac to

5

1 Sayce, Introduction to the Science of Language, vol. ii. p. 171.

2 Renan, Hist. des Langues Semitiques, p. 277.

3 Lehrgebäude der Aramaischen Idiome, p. 6.

Renan, pp. 277, 278.

5 Fürst, sect. 32.

g in Hebrew. Often q in Syriac corresponds to g in Hebrew,2 t in Syriac tot in Hebrew, t in Syriac to d in Hebrew,3 p in Syriac to b in Hebrew, s in Syriac to the weak s or sin in Hebrew,5 t or g' in Syriac to fin Hebrew, t in Syriac to s in Hebrew, d or s in Syriac to z in Hebrew.6 In Syriac the t- utterance prevails over the s- utterance, in Hebrew the latter over the former.7 There is no distinction in writing made as in Hebrew between the hard state of b, g, d, k, p, t, and their soft state after a vowel. N occurs in Syriac for Hebrew m, lorr for n, r for 7.8

In Syriac also a corresponds to Hebrew ō, i or i to Hebrew ě, u or u to Hebrew Ŏ;9 and, unlike Hebrew (75), Syriac has diphthongs; 10 but sometimes two vowels represent a long vowel intermediate between the two.11

The guttural spirants or aspirates have an affinity for a.11 In Syriac g was uttered so softly as to be often treated like h,12 owing probably to foreign speakers.

The peculiar feature of the Syro-Arabian languages is the opening of the root and the incorporation in it of the vowels which denote the process of the being or doing. In consequence of this mode of expression it is contrary to the general habit of these languages that a syllable should begin with two consonants. And when at the beginning of a word two consonants are not separated by an intervening vowel, a syllable is apt to be prefixed which takes up the first of them as its final consonant. Syriac, however, admits two consonants at the beginning of a syllable, never at the end. But to foreign words beginning with two consonants it often prefixes a syllable beginning with h, sometimes with h or s, or even with x or . Syriac carries this habit of prothesis farther than Hebrew or Arabic, for it sometimes prefixes a prosthetic syllable to a word beginning with a single mute, and this sometimes has the effect of doubling the initial mute.13

The object of this in the latter case seems to be to give more energy to the utterance of the initial by making it stop the voice, for it cannot be regarded as a softening of the initial when in fact it often hardens it by doubling it. It is an effort to utter that consonant with more fulness by strengthening the beginning of it, and corresponds to a tendency to utter with force so as to give both tension and fulness to all the elements. Such superior energy of expression would account for the consonants having more tension and the vowels more fulness in Syriac than in Hebrew. But this is accompanied also by a tendency to save the consonants from being impaired by compression. The latter effort led Syriac to avoid doubled mute consonants, though they sometimes arose from the strengthening of an initial mute by a prosthetic syllable or from assimilation, as hettaqtal from hetḥaqtal, by assimilation of h. The first of the two was mostly replaced by a nasal, usually n, or a vibratile, usually r, or by the lengthening of the pre

1 Fürst, sect. 33. 2 Ibid. sect. 34. 3 Ibid. sect. 35. 4 Ibid. sect. 36. 5 Ibid. sect. 38. 6 Ibid. sect. 39; Cowper, Syriac Gram., sect. 24. 7 Fürst, sect. 40. 8 Cowper, sect. 24. 9 Fürst, sect. 84. 10 Cowper, Syriac Gram., sect. 15; Fürst, sect. 86. 11 Fürst, sect. 87. 12 Cowper, sect. 38. 13 Fürst, sects. 56-58, 60; Cowper, sect. 52.

ceding vowel. The same effort led to that transposition and assimilation of consonants which is a feature in Syriac,2 and by means of which collisions are avoided and the consonants interfere less with each other's utterance. Such an effort would be the natural effect of that compression of the roots which is a distinguishing characteristic of this language; and while, on the one hand, the habit spread of facilitating the utterance of the consonants by such euphonic changes, on the other hand, weak consonants would be liable to be lost in the habitual compression. There seems also to have been in Syriac a decay of affixes by reason of the weakness with which they came to be thought.

101. The personal pronouns and affixes are given in 51. The demonstrative pronouns are hon, honō, masculine singular; honun, masculine plural; hode, feminine singular; honen, feminine plural; holen, hailen, common plural.5

The interrogative pronouns used also for indefinites are man, who? mō, mon, mono, what? haino masculine, haido feminine, are sometimes used for who?

The usual relative is d, sometimes de for both genders and numbers." 102. The primitive verbal stem, so long as it has only three consonants, is always monosyllabic, the first two consonants having only sheva between them. But there are verbal stems formed from nouns and particles for which this does not hold."

The vowel between the second and third consonants of the triliteral verbal stem is generally a, but may be u or e; the e is more frequent in intransitive verbs; u is less frequent than e, and not clearly distinguished from it in significance.9

There are many derived forms to be met with, but the principal are two, the intensive (Heb. Piel) and the causative (Heb. Hiphil); and these, as well as the ground form, have each a reflexive. Peal (Kal) qtal, reflexive hetqtel, the vowel of the root being changed to e, which corresponds to reduced movement of the action as passing from the subject (54); Pael (Piel) qațel, reflexive hetgatal, the last vowel in qatel being reduced to e as in Hebrew, and that of the reflexives of Pael and Aphel corresponding to what it is in Hebrew Pual and Hophal (79), the other vowels being broader than in Hebrew (100); Aphel (Hiphil), haqtel, reflexive hettaqtal; sometimes h remains instead of the second t. There is also a form called Shaphel, causative like Aphel, viz., sagtel, reflexive hestaqtal, but in most grammars and lexicons it is treated as a quadriliteral stem.10 For there are quadriliteral and pluriliteral formations analogous to the triliteral.11 The verb has a perfect and imperfect like Hebrew, an imperative, infinitive, and participle. It expresses a present active and passive by using the personal pronouns in their full form after the participle agentis qotel and the participle patientis qtēl. The perfect of the verb to be, after the participle