B-Hebrew: The Biblical Hebrew Forum

(9) Thus shall ye say unto the king, ‘Send thou not messengers unto me saying, “Pray for us to the Lord, for we are as (the) sheep upon whom (‘which... upon them’) the beasts of the wilderness have fallen”, for behold in the morning the Lord will cause a great sound to be heard and the enemy will return to his land’.

Hi Jason,
Maybe I don't understand the English text right, but didn't he meant התנפלו when he wrote "fallen"?

And I think he also meant (and it is better) - כצאן

I didn't see the word "as"!

Was התנפל a biblical form? I know that ליפול עליהם was a biblical expression for attacking (at least, I think I remember reading that).

Looking up the root, I see that it does indeed appear in the hitpael. The only reference giving in CHALOT for "fall on, attack" is Genesis 43:18. It also says that נפל is used for "attack" with the object governed by the preposition ב. I'm going to leave it as-is, since the text specifically says "upon them."

Hi Jason,

I understand you, but the combination of נפל+על is used for being attacked beaten (and not to do the attack).
so when you write נפלו עליהם it is like that the beasts were fallen and defeated.

When he wrote "fall+upon" I think he pointed to the usage of התנפל על