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Recent Articles
- Differences Between Synonyms in Biblical Hebrew (e.g., יָדָע vs. בָּרַךְ for “Bless”)
- Morphology in Biblical Hebrew: Word Formation & Inflection
- Proverbs and Their Grammatical Structure
- Descending into Night: Time Expressions and Poetic Parallelism in Biblical Hebrew
- The Tiberian Vowel System
- When God Speaks: The Syntax of Divine Speech Frames in Biblical Hebrew
- The Role of Gutturals (א, ה, ח, ע) in Verb Conjugation
- “Into the Ark Together”: Order, Gender, and Cause in the LXX Rendering of Noah’s Entry
- Burning Beneath the Pot: Simile Syntax and Semantic Force in Ecclesiastes 7:6
- Gutturals in Biblical Hebrew
- Guarded by Grammar: Purpose Clauses and Verbal Suffixes in Proverbs 7:5
- And They Fled Before the Men of ʿAi”: A Hebrew Battle Surprise
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Monthly Archives: March 2012
Hebrew Verbs Occuring 500 – 5000 Times
The chief difficulty to overcome in the mastery of Hebrew language is the acquisition of a vocabulary. Out of the 7,000 vocables in the Hebrew language, about 1,000 occur over 25 times. The following are the list of verbs which occur most frequently in the Hebrew Bible.
(1) אָכַל (Eat)
(2) אָמַר (Say)
(3) בּוֹא (Go in)
(4) דָּבַר (Speak)
(5) הָיָה (Be)
(6) הָלַךְ (Walk)
(7) ידַָע (Know)
(8) יָלַד (Bring forth)
(9) יָצָא (Go out)
(1o) יָשַׁב (Sit, dwell)
(11) לָקַח (Take)
(12) מוּת (Die)
(13) נָשָׂא (Lift up)
(14) נָתַן (Give)
(15) עָבַר (Pass over)
(16) עָלָה (Go up)
(17) עָשָׂה (Do, make)
(18) צָוָה (Command)
(19) קֹום (Rise, stand)
(20) קָרָא (Call, meet)… Learn Hebrew
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Syntax of Vengeance: Parallelism and Curse in Psalm 83:12
שִׁיתֵ֣מֹו נְ֭דִיבֵמֹו כְּעֹרֵ֣ב וְכִזְאֵ֑ב וּֽכְזֶ֥בַח וּ֝כְצַלְמֻנָּ֗ע כָּל־נְסִיכֵֽמֹו׃ (Psalm 83:12)
Contextual Overview: A Poetic Petition for Justice
Psalm 83 is a national lament and imprecatory psalm, calling for YHWH’s judgment on Israel’s enemies. Verse 12 offers a vivid poetic request to strike down enemy leaders, invoking historical figures associated with divine judgment. The syntax here is not only poetic—it is strategically structured to reinforce emotional impact and theological memory.
Clause Structure: Imperative with Coordinated Similes
The verse opens with a 3rd person masculine plural jussive (volitional) verb:
– שִׁיתֵמֹו – “Make them [like]…”
This is followed by the direct object נְדִיבֵמֹו (“their nobles”), and a series of coordinated comparative similes introduced by the preposition כְּ־ (“like”):
1.… Learn Hebrew
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