22,653; 35,428; 57,873; 97,534; 121,678; 358,239; 579,242; 826,735; 1,569,488.

§ 36. THE ORDINAL NUMBERS.

Only the numbers from 1 to 10 have distinct forms for the ordinals,

The other ordinals are expressed by the corresponding cardinals.

E. THE VERB.

§ 37. GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE VERB. 1. One of the simplest forms of the regular Hebrew verb is the third person masculine of the singular in the past tense. It consists of no more than the three radical consonants, which form two syllables (comp. § 18. 1). The first of these syllables has invariably the vowel kamets, while the second is provided either with pathach or tsere or cholem, representing the three chief classes of the Hebrew vowels (§ 3); e.g. he has bound, he has been clean, he has been able. These three kinds of verbs are, for the sake of brevity, distinguished as verba medii pathach, medii tsere, and medii cholem. Nearly all the verbs medii tsere and medii cholem have intransitive signification, and denote a quality or a state of the mind.

a

2. In one respect at least, the Hebrew verb possesses a remarkable richness of inflection; for it is capable of expressing, by change of vowels and addition of consonants, not only the passive, but various

a For greater convenience, the He

brew root is, in English, generally

rendered by the infinitive, as to bind, to be clean.

The simple

other modifications of the action implied in the root. form, which consists merely of the root, without any additions except those indicating the persons, tenses, and moods, is called KAL (P), that is, the light form; and the most usual of the other modifications are: NIPHAL, PIEL, PUAL, HIPHIL, HOPHAL, and HITHPAEL.

3. The meaning of the modifications may, broadly, be thus described: Kal is the simple active; Niphal, either the reflective or the passive of Kal; Piel, the intensive or repeated action of Kal; Pual, the passive of Piel; Hiphil, the causative of Kal; Hophal, the passive of Hiphil; and Hithpael, the reflective of Kal.

Hence the third person singular of the past of the verb to bind, would denote in the different modifications:

1. Kal, he has bound; 2. Niphal, he has bound himself or he has been bound; 3. Piel, he has bound strongly or often; 4. Pual, he has been bound strongly or often; 5. Hiphil, he has caused to bind; 6. Hophal, he has been caused or induced to bind; and 7. Hithpael, he has bound himself.

However, all these modifications are not often employed together in the same verb; nor is their meaning always so distinct and so clearly defined as has been stated, but must in each case be ascertained by a careful examination of the Hebrew usage.

Besides the seven modifications mentioned, there exist not a few others, which are, however, of rarer occurrence (see § 48).

4. Every modification has separate forms for the indicative of the past and future, also an infinitive, a participle, and-except the passives Pual and Hophal—an imperative. The present is expressed by means of the participle (§ 42), while the other moods and tenses are conveyed by expedients of which the Syntax will give an account. 5. The Verbs may be divided into the following classes: I. Regular verbs, that is, such as have neither a guttural in the root, nor the second and third letter alike, nor or as first, or 'as 1 second, or as third letter; e.g. ip to rule.

II. Verbs with a guttural as one of the three letters of the root, as third radical causes no irregularity; e.g. P to divide;

though

to redeem; to rejoice; but

III. Verbs with the second and third

to bind is regular.

letter alike; e.g. DD.

IV. Verbs with as first letter; e.g. to pour out.

.

V. Verbs with as first letter; e.g. 2 to bring forth.

VI. Verbs with or as second letter; e.g. or to judge.

VII. Verbs with N as third letter; e.g.

VIII. Verbs with as third letter; e.g.

to find.

to number.

IX. Verbs combining the peculiarities of two or more of the classes II. to VIII.; e.g. to meditate; i to come; X to sin: NY!

.to be הָיָה ; to see רָאָה ; to move נָדַד ; to lead נָחָה ; to go out

The verbs of the third and fourth class are irregular, because two equal letters succeeding each other, and the liquid, are capable of contractions and assimilations, whence they are described as imperfect verbs (DD); but the verbs of the following classes deviate from the regular conjugation, because they contain weak letters, which frequently rest in the preceding vowels, whence they are called quiescent verbs(D']). 6. The ancient Hebrew grammarians, up to Moses Kimchi (about A. C. 1170), following the, example of Arabic writers, commonly used as paradigm the verb to do. Therefore, the first of the

three radical letters of any verb is called the the Y, and the third the ; and verbs with termed verbs

oras third, verbs

of the root, the second
or as first letter are、

or "; with or as second, verbs y or "y; with 1 or ; and, with the second and third From the verb are, moreover, derived the names of the modifications Niphal (), Piel, (), Pual

letter alike, verbs yy.

.(הִתְפַּעֵל) and Hithpael ,(הָפְעַל) Hophal ,(הִפְעִיל) Hiphil ,(פְּעַל)

EXERCISE XXVI.

State the meaning of the modifications, in the third person singular of the past, of the following verbs, in accordance with No. 3. To touch; to praise; to see; to torment; to redeem; to forsake; to help; to crown; to call; to protect; to purify.

2. The past tense of Kal is conjugated by appending to the root certain terminations called afformatives or affixes (§ 18. 3), most of which will be easily recognised as abbreviated personal pronouns ;

and קשר-קָשַׁרְתְּ ; אַתָּה and קשר is evidently the root קָשַׁרְתָּ thus קְשַׁרְתָּם; (אֲנַחְנוּ me, identical with) אֲנוּ and קשר-קְשַׁרְנוּ; אַתְּ (קָשַׁרְתִּי in) תִּי The afformative .אַתֶּן אַתֶּם and קשׁר קְשַׁרְתֶּן

seems

to combine the characteristic letters of and N, and leads to ♫ as an old form of the first person singular of the personal pronoun; while (in) is the usual termination of the feminine in the noun also, and points to the pronoun she. There remains, therefore, only the ending (in ), which cannot easily be explained from the current forms of the personal pronoun.

3. Considering this origin of the afformatives, it will be understood why the second person masculine of the singular is frequently written with a quiescent at the end (); why the verb has distinct forms for the feminine in the same persons, on the whole, as

and why the verb has ; (קְשַׁרְתֶּן קָשְׁרָה קָשַׁרְתְּ) the personal pronoun

no dual like the noun.

4. The endings D and are heavy, all the others light affixes (comp. §19. ii.7); the former always take the tone, and hence cause the pure kamets in the first syllable of the root to be converted into sh’va mobile (p, p, § 17. ii. 2); while the latter leave the accent

with which ,(קָשַׁרְנוּ קָשַׁרְתָּ קָשַׁרְתִּי) on the last syllable of the root

they are, in some instances, blended into one syllable (,,

If, however, a tone-syllable follows immediately after any of the forms which have the accent on the ultima, the tone is either removed to the penultima, or both words are joined by makkeph (§ 11. 5); e.g.

The forms of the past tense are in pausa: 'AWD, AWP, AWR,

:AT

5. The verbs medii tsere are conjugated like the verbs medii pathach, with this exception, however, that when standing in pausa, they have tsere in the feminine of the third person singular and in

TA" T

,חָפַצְתִּי but ;חָפְצוּ חָפֵצָה to desire חָפֵץ .the third person plural; e.g .etc ,חָפָצְתָּ חָפָצְתִּי חָפַצְתָּ

:AT

6. The verbs medii cholem generally retain the vowel o throughout

the past of Kal, having cholem when the second syllable keeps the tone, and kamets chatuph when it loses the accent and the syllable with o thus becomes both closed and toneless (§ 11. 4. d); e.g. to be afraid — '', Ai, i, etc.; but Da), 157a,

~

זןז:

, etc. (comp. Exod. xviii. 23 ; Ps. xiii. 5).

EXERCISE XXVII.

I. Write the past tense of Kal of the following verbs:

.to gather לָקַט ; to learn לָמַד ;to lade טָמַן ; to support סָמַךְ ; to rest שָׁקֵט

§ 39. INFINITIVE AND IMPERATIVE OF KAL.

1. The INFINITIVE of Kal has two forms, a longer and a shorter one-p and p-called respectively the absolute and the construct state. The former is employed before or after the finite verb, to strengthen or otherwise to modify its sense, and in a few cases besides, which will be explained in the Syntax; while the construct state is chiefly used in connection with prepositions or, with nouns standing to it in the relation of the genitive; e.g. to bind (for iph, § 4. 6. a), ip in binding, the binding of a knot (see

§ 97, 98). If followed by makkeph and thus losing the tone, the construct state changes the cholem into kamets chatuph (§ 11. 4. d); ́ e.g. pp; 17? the reigning of a king. Sometimes, however, it has pathach instead of cholem,, especially if the verb has intransitive lie—; low.

שְׁפַל-to be low שָׁפַל שְׁכַב to lie שָׁכַב meaning, as

2. The IMPERATIVE has distinct forms only in the second person both numbers, namely:

Sing. m.

of

p bind, coinciding with the construct infinitive, and

קְשָׁר therefore before makkeph also

,קְטְרוּ in pausa ,קְשְׁרוּ .Plur. m

f., in pausa, the original cholem returning (§ 13.1).

دو