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Bible Lexicons

Gesenius Hebrew Grammer

Part 167

§167. Aposiopesis, Anacoluthon, Involved Series of Sentences..

1. Aposiopesis is the concealment or suppression of entire sentences or clauses, which are of themselves necessary to complete the sense,[1] and therefore must be supplied from the context. This is especially frequent after conditional clauses; besides the examples already given in §159dd, cf. also Exodus 32:32 (the LXX and Samaritan supply שָׂא‎); Numbers 5:20, Judges 9:16 (in verse 19, after a long parenthesis, an imperative follows as the apodosis to this conditional clause); 1 Samuel 12:14 f., 2 Samuel 5:8 (where indeed the text is probably very corrupt; cf. the addition in 1 Chronicles 11:6); 2 Samuel 23:17, Psalms 27:13, 1 Chronicles 4:10. For other examples of various kinds, see §117l, and especially §147; in Aramaic, Daniel 3:15.—On Genesis 3:22, cf. §152w at the end.

2. Anacoluthon is the change from a construction which has been already begun to one of a different kind. It is found especially after long parentheses, because the speaker has either lost sight of the beginning of his sentence, or for the sake of clearness purposely makes a new beginning; thus Genesis 20:13, Genesis 31:52 and Ezekiel 34:10 (cf. §149 at the end); Numbers 14:21, Numbers 32:20, Deuteronomy 17:2, Deuteronomy 24:1, Deuteronomy 29:21, Judges 10:11 (where, after a series of intermediate sentences, the predicate I saved you is suppressed; but the text can hardly be correct); perhaps also Isaiah 66:18 (cf., however, Delitzsch on the passage, which is certainly corrupt).[2] On Genesis 23:13 (לוּ‎ with the imperative), see §110e.

3. We may mention as instructive examples of involved series of sentences Genesis 24:14 and v. 42 ff., and Genesis 28:6

Footnotes:
  1. But those cases are not to be regarded as examples of aposiopesis, in which the answer, being closely connected with the question, is given simply in the infinitive with לְ‎; cf. §147a, note 1.
  2. On the other hand, from the Semitic point of view the various kinds of compound sentences are not to be regarded as instances of anacoluthon, e.g. Genesis 17:14-17, nor even Genesis 31:40 (cf. §143).
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