Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, March 28th, 2024
Maundy Thursday
There are 3 days til Easter!
Attention!
We are taking food to Ukrainians still living near the front lines. You can help by getting your church involved.
Click to donate today!

Bible Lexicons

Gesenius Hebrew Grammer

Part 136

§136. The Demonstrative Pronoun.

The demonstrative pronouns are זֶה‎, fem. זֹאת‎, plur. אֵ֫לֶּה‎ (§ 34), hic, haec (hoc), hi, &c., and the personal pronoun הוּא‎, likewise used as a demonstrative, fem. הִיא‎, plur. masc. הֵ֫מָּה‎, fem. הֵ֫נָּה‎ (§32b), is, ea (id), or ille, &c., ii, eae or illi, &c. The distinction between them in usage is that זֶה‎ (like hic, ὅδε) almost always points out a (new) person or thing present, while הוּא‎ (like is, ille, αὐτός, ἐκεῖνος) refers to a person or thing already mentioned or known (see the examples below).[1]

Rem. 1. Compare the instructive examples in Genesis 32:3, Judges 7:4 of whom I say unto thee, this (זֶה‎) shall go with thee, he (הוּא‎) shall go with thee (so afterwards with negatives). Moreover, הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה‎ this day, i.e. the actual day on which one is speaking or writing (Genesis 26:33, &c.), but הַיּוֹם הַהוּא‎ the day or period of which the historian has just been speaking (Genesis 15:18, Genesis 26:32) or of which the prophet has just been foretelling (Isaiah 5:30, Isaiah 7:18, 20 ff.) and of which he continues to speak or foretell. Nevertheless זֶה‎ and אֵ֫לֶּה‎ are also found in certain common combinations where הוּא‎ and הֵ֫מָּה‎ would be expected, and vice versa; thus almost always הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה‎, plur. הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵ֫לֶּה‎, but בַּיָּמִים הָהֵ֫מָּה‎ or בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם‎—With a secondary sense of contempt (like Latin iste) זֶה‎ occurs, e.g. in 1 Samuel 10:27, 1 Samuel 21:16, 1 Kings 22:27, Isaiah 6:10, &c. In the sense of the neuter, this, זֹאת‎ is more common than זֶה‎, as Isaiah 5:25, Isaiah 43:9, &c., but הוּא‎ more common than הִיא‎.

2. Both זֶה‎ and הוּא‎ are sometimes used almost as enclitics to emphasize interrogative words (like the Latin nam in quisnam; cf. also quis tandem); e.g. Job 38:2 מִי זֶה‎ who now (darkeneth, &c.)...? 1 Samuel 17:55 f., Isaiah 63:1, Jeremiah 49:19, Psalms 24:8, Psalms 25:12, &c; מַה־זֶּה‎ what now? 1 Samuel 10:11; how now? Genesis 27:20; why now? Judges 18:24; but before the verb עָשָׂה‎ it is usually מַה־זֹּאת‎ Genesis 3:13, Genesis 12:18, Exodus 14:5, Judges 15:11; לָ֫מָּה־זֶּה‎ wherefore now? Genesis 18:13, Genesis 25:22, 1 Samuel 17:28, 2 Samuel 12:23, &c.—So also מִי־הוּא‎ Isaiah 50:9, Job 4:7 ff.; and still more emphatically מִי הוּא־זֶה‎ Psalms 24:10, Jeremiah 30:21.

3. זֶה‎ is likewise used as an enclitic (see c above): (a) of place, in such passages as Genesis 27:21 הַֽאַתָּה זֶה וגו׳‎ whether thou (that art here) be my son Esau? 2 Samuel 2:20 is it thou? הִנֵּה־זֶה‎ behold, here, 1 Kings 19:5, Isaiah 21:9;[2] cf. also the strengthen- ing of the separate pronoun by הוּא‎ Isaiah 43:25 (אָֽנׄכֹי‎), 1 Samuel 7:28, Isaiah 37:16, Psalms 44:5 (אַתָּה‎), and אֵ֫לֶּה הֵם‎ these are, Genesis 25:16, 1 Samuel 4:8; (b) of time: עַתָּה זֶה‎ now, 1 Kings 17:24; just now, 2 Kings 5:22; and rather frequently before words denoting number, e.g. Genesis 27:36 זֶה פַֽעֲמַ֫יִם‎ twice, now; cf. 31:38, 2 Samuel 14:2, Job 1:12, Job 7:3, Job 19:3; separated from the numeral in Genesis 31:41 זֶה־לִּי‎ elliptically for this, i.e. this present period, is to me, i.e. makes altogether, twenty years, &c. The other examples are similarly elliptical.

Footnotes:
  1. On זֶה‎ and הוּא‎ standing separately as determinate in themselves, see §125i. On the use of determinate demonstratives as adjectives, see §126u.
  2. On the other hand, it is very questionable whether זֶה‎ in Psalms 104:25 (זֶה הַיָּם‎), Isaiah 23:13 (זֶה הָעָם‎), Judges 5:5, Psalms 68:9 (זֶה סִינַי‎) can be taken, according to the common explanation, simply as a prefixed demonstrative particle (the sea yonder, &c.). In Psalms 104:25 הַיָּם‎ may be in apposition to זֶה‎; cf. § 126 aa, on Exodus 32:1, and Zechariah 5:7, where אִשָּׁה אַחַת‎ is in apposition to זֹאת‎ depending on הִנֵּה‎, and also Ezekiel 40:45, where הַלִּשְׁכָּה‎ is in apposition to זֹה‎; otherwise it is most naturally taken as the subject, this is the sea. Isaiah 23:13, Judges 5:5, 1 Kings 14:14, and Psalms 68:9 might also be explained in the same way; but in these passages the text is almost certainly corrupt. In Judges 5:5 in fact זֶה סִינַי‎ is most probably to be regarded with Moore as a very early gloss, which subsequently found its way from this passage into Ps 68.
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile