B-Hebrew: The Biblical Hebrew Forum

Following on from a comment I made in the Daniel 8:11 thread regarding the gender of the noun צבא, and KWR's correct response in that it is a feminine and not a masculine noun, I have since noticed quite a few things up with what I've usually taken for granted when looking at things in lexicons such as BDB.

Let's take the noun שם/name for example. According to BDB this is a masculine noun, yet in Hebrew it constantly has the feminine suffixes. Just how on earth then can BDB state that it's a masculine noun, when it quite clearly isn't? (The same is true for צבא, which BDB lists as a masculine noun.)

Now I would've presumed that Brown, Driver, and Briggs, knew Hebrew well enough in order to sort out a Lexicon in their name (even if based on someone elses work), but now I really am not so sure.

Does anyone possibly have a list of places where BDB has the incorrect gender specified for nouns? Or even just a general list of Hebrew nouns and genders?

Either way, I won't be relying on BDB for quick references to genders anymore!

(If no one has a list, I may look at sorting one out myself. Depending on how industrious I feel )

I looked up the first reference I could find where שם is the subject of a verb. Gen 35:10 reads וַיֹּֽאמֶר־ לֹ֥ו אֱלֹהִ֖ים שִׁמְךָ֣ יַעֲקֹ֑ב לֹֽא־ יִקָּרֵא֩ שִׁמְךָ֨ עֹ֜וד יַעֲקֹ֗ב כִּ֤י אִם־ יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ יִהְיֶ֣ה שְׁמֶ֔ךָ וַיִּקְרָ֥א אֶת־ שְׁמֹ֖ו יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃. Notice the verb in the second clause, יִהְיֶ֣ה, is masculine singular. So שם is by default a masc which has its plural in the fem. ending, like abh/abhot. This is why KWR and I looked for a phrase where we could coordinate the gender of צבא with a masculine verb. All we found was Psalm 68:12(11), " אֲדֹנָ֥י יִתֶּן־ אֹ֑מֶר הַֽ֝מְבַשְּׂרֹ֗ות צָבָ֥א רָֽב׃" Where the adjective rab is masc. KWR wrote, "Even Psalm 68:12 can be read in such a way that רב is not an adjective to צבא."

Btw, Karl, it just hit me that צבא is in fact masculine. Look at the following examples where it is in construct with a possessive suffix:
צְבָאוֺ his host Numbers 2:4
suffix צְבָאִי Job 14:14
צְבָאֲךָ Judges 8:9; Judges 9:29

In construct the feminine would take a tav.

So BDB are correct in giving it a default masculine with two or three "maybe" feminine uses.

Jonathan Mohler

Interesting.

I guess my question should be then: there a list of masculine nouns that have the feminine plural suffixes, and vice versa? Plus even those that have evidence of both masc./fem. plural endings?

צבאות = צבא-הוא-את is 'armies, hosts', צבאים = צבי-הם is 'deer'.
1Ch. 12:9(8)
וּפְנֵי אַרְיֵה פְּנֵיהֶם וְכִצְבָאיִם עַל הֶהָרִים לְמַהֵר
NIV: "Their faces were the faces of lions, and they were as swift as gazelles in the mountains."
In Song 2:7 it is צבאות
בִּצְבָאוֹת, אוֹ בְּאַיְלוֹת הַשָּׂדֶה
NIV: "by the gazelles and by the does of the field"
possibly by the influence of אילות.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

Jemoh66 wrote:I looked up the first reference I could find where שם is the subject of a verb. Gen 35:10 reads וַיֹּֽאמֶר־ לֹ֥ו אֱלֹהִ֖ים שִׁמְךָ֣ יַעֲקֹ֑ב לֹֽא־ יִקָּרֵא֩ שִׁמְךָ֨ עֹ֜וד יַעֲקֹ֗ב כִּ֤י אִם־ יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ יִהְיֶ֣ה שְׁמֶ֔ךָ וַיִּקְרָ֥א אֶת־ שְׁמֹ֖ו יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃. Notice the verb in the second clause, יִהְיֶ֣ה, is masculine singular. So שם is by default a masc which has its plural in the fem. ending, like abh/abhot. This is why KWR and I looked for a phrase where we could coordinate the gender of צבא with a masculine verb. All we found was Psalm 68:12(11), " אֲדֹנָ֥י יִתֶּן־ אֹ֑מֶר הַֽ֝מְבַשְּׂרֹ֗ות צָבָ֥א רָֽב׃" Where the adjective rab is masc. KWR wrote, "Even Psalm 68:12 can be read in such a way that רב is not an adjective to צבא."

Btw, Karl, it just hit me that צבא is in fact masculine. Look at the following examples where it is in construct with a possessive suffix:
צְבָאוֺ his host Numbers 2:4
suffix צְבָאִי Job 14:14
צְבָאֲךָ Judges 8:9; Judges 9:29

In construct the feminine would take a tav.

Not necessarily. For example, עיר is a feminine noun (e.g. Genesis 10:12, 19:20) that takes a masculine plural, and it doesn’t take a tau in construct with a possessive suffix (e.g. Genesis 23:10, 18).

Another example of a feminine noun that doesn’t add a tau when adding suffixes, this time one that takes a feminine plural, is ארץ.

There are zero clearcut examples showing that צבא is a masculine noun, only one questionable one, and a few that indicate that it is feminine.

My impression, unless shown otherwise through examples, is that שם meaning “name” is in fact a masculine noun.

Karl W. Randolph.

Any theories then on why שם takes the feminine suffixes?

S_Walch wrote:Any theories then on why שם takes the feminine suffixes?

My answer is that in all languages there are some words that just don’t follow the rules, in other words, irregular verbs and nouns. I just take this as an example of an irregular noun.

Karl W. Randolph.

The fact that a given noun takes a feminine suffix... means that this noun is not masculine in gender but rather feminine?

If we think of asking for "your name?" when addressing a woman... how would we say this in biblical Hebrew?

Pere Porta

מה שמך

This is the same as addressing a man - the pronominal suffix -ך, second person singular to indicate "to you" or "your" (so essentially the above is "What name to you?" = "What is your name?"), regardless of gender.

The Masorites gave a pronunciation difference: -ך is -k for a female, and -ka for a male. This is also the pronunciation in Modern Hebrew.