-
Recent Articles
- Woven with Wonder: Syntax and Embodied Imagery in Job 10:11
- The Wink and the Wound: Syntax, Parallelism, and Irony in Proverbs 10:10
- The Grammar of Surprise: The Wayyiqtol Chain and Temporal Progression in Joshua 10:9
- The Birth of Power: The Grammar of Beginning and Becoming in Genesis 10:8
- Genealogical Syntax and the Grammar of Nations in Genesis 10:7
- Do Not Mourn as Others Do: Restraint and Reverence in the Aftermath of Fire
- The Blast and the Camp: Exploring Hebrew Commands and Movement in Numbers 10:5
- If You Refuse: The Threat of the Locusts in Translation
- Trumpet Blasts and Assembly Syntax in Numbers 10:3
- Right and Left: A Beginner’s Guide to Hebrew Word Order in Ecclesiastes 10:2
- A Call to Listen: A Beginner’s Guide to Hebrew Grammar in Jeremiah 10:1
- “Even If I Wash with Snow”: Job’s Cry of Purity and Futility in Hebrew
Categories
Archives
Tag Archives: Exodus 5:12
Scattered in Strain — Purpose Infinitives and the Language of Forced Labor
וַיָּ֥פֶץ הָעָ֖ם בְּכָל־אֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם לְקֹשֵׁ֥שׁ קַ֖שׁ לַתֶּֽבֶן׃
Opening the Scattering
Exodus 5:12 follows Pharaoh’s harsh decree that the Israelites must produce bricks without straw. No longer supplied with raw material, the people now disperse across Egypt. The verse captures this moment with only one finite verb and one infinitive — yet through this simplicity, it reveals a core Biblical Hebrew device: the infinitive of purpose. The structure compresses oppression into grammar — people scattered, motive suspended in a single infinitive. Here, syntax shows how tyranny fragments community, turns action into compulsion, and fuses movement with toil.… Learn Hebrew
Posted in Grammar
Tagged Exodus 5:12
Comments Off on Scattered in Strain — Purpose Infinitives and the Language of Forced Labor