ducky wrote:וּמָצָאתָ אֶת־לְבָבוֹ נֶאֱמָן לְפָנֶ֫יךָ וְכָרוֹת עִמּוֹ הַבְּרִית
the absolute כרות is used as a verb, and it is one of his "roles".
Basically, when it comes after a verb, it continues his form
וכרות = וכרתָּ
Are there other examples (outside of Nehemiah)? It looks like it's being used here instead of a vav-consecutive [
וַתִּכְרֹת].
ducky wrote:וּמָצָאתָ אֶת־לְבָבוֹ נֶאֱמָן לְפָנֶ֫יךָ וְכָרוֹת עִמּוֹ הַבְּרִית
The word הברית is with a definite article
I don't see any problem with that.
Also, if I'm not mistaken, almost always (or always) after an absolute of a root that bears an object, the object is with a definite article.
Technically, I don't see a problem either - except... this is a recounting of the history of the people of Israel. I think it would make better sense for the first mention of a covenant to be indefinite. If it had already been mentioned before, it's sensible that it would be definite here.
ducky wrote:וְכָרוֹת עִמּוֹ הַבְּרִית לָתֵת אֶת־אֶ֫רֶץ הַכְּנַעֲנִי הַחִתִּי הָאֱמֹרִי וְהַפְּרִזִּי וְהַיְבוּסִי וְהַגִּרְגָּשִׁי לָתֵת לְזַרְעוֹ
The repetition of the verb is probably, that is what I think, because of the long object in the sentence, and it is more of a natural thing and not grammatical of a syntactic rule.
Since it's a composition and not an
ad hoc speech event, I would expect it to be cleaned up. A real-time speech might have something like this, but it is very unnatural for written composition. I'm just saying that it feels really strange.
ducky wrote:וְעַל הַר־סִינַי יָרַ֫דְתָּ וְדַבֵּר עִמָּהֶם מִשָּׁמָ֫יִם
As the first case, ודבר = ודברת
Same thing as you said above, that the infinitive absolute can be used instead of a consecutive finite verb. I'd really like to see this somewhere else in the biblical corpus.
ducky wrote:לֹא עֲזַבְתָּם בַּמִּדְבָּר אֶת־עַמּוּד הֶעָנָן לֹא־סָר מֵעֲלֵיהֶם בְּיוֹמָם
The word את usually comes before a definite object.
Sometimes, it comes before the subject, and for not one reason.
it can happen when the subject is an "illusion" as the object (I guess this is the case here).
And also, and I don't know if I'm right, it reminds me of the form of שב את שבותם which appear a few times. and as if the stative verb שב acts as an action verb (as if it was השיב).
(So maybe this is a similar case, but I checked on some books, and didn't find anyone point to that for some reason).
There were actually a few more instances of it in the same chapter. It's weird because I can imagine using it in spoken Hebrew upon occasion, but (again) we're dealing with a written text.
ducky wrote:לְהַנְחֹתָם בְּהַדֶּרֶךְ
this expansion (actually the "true" form) is really an exception and I saw also בהשמים in Psalms.
It reminds me of the appearance of the otherwise "theoretical" heh in the word יְהוֹשִׁיעַ that appears instead of יוֹשִׁיעַ in Psalm 116:6 and 1 Samuel 17:47.
ducky wrote:וּבְאֶ֨רֶץ הָֽרְחָבָ֧ה וְהַשְּׁמֵנָ֛ה
This case, of which the noun is not voweled and its modifier is, appears in other places in the bible
יום הששי
שער העליון
חצר האחרת
And it is found also in the Mishnaic as:
יצר הרע
עולם הבא
כנסת הגדולה
and more.
Interestingly, I was reading about this today quite by accident. I was going to update in that regard. I came across it in
Gesenius §126w. There is mentioned
כְּנֶ֫סֶת הַגְּדוֹלָה also, which used to drive me nuts when I read
אַנְשֵׁי כְּנֶ֫סֶת הַגְּדוֹלָה.