Bible Lexicons

Gesenius Hebrew Grammer

Part 36

§36. The Relative Pronoun.

The relative pronoun (cf. § 138) is usually the indeclinable אֲשֶׁר‎ (who, which, &c.), originally a demonstrative pronoun; see further §138 and §155. In the later books, especially Eccles. and the late Psalms, also Lam. (4 times), Jon. (Jonah 1:7), Chron. (twice), Ezra (once),—and always in the Canticle (cf. also Judges 7:12, Judges 8:26, 2 Kings 6:11), שֶׁ‌ּ‎ is used instead; more rarely שַׁ‌ּ‎ Judges 5:7, Song of Solomon 1:7 (Job 19:29?); once שָׁ‎ before א‎ Judges 6:17 (elsewhere שֶׁ‎ before a guttural), before ה‎ even שְׁ‎ Ecclesiastes 3:18, and according to some (e.g. Qimḥi) also in Ecclesiastes 2:22.^[1] [See Lexicon, s. v.]

Footnotes:

↑ The full form אשר‎ does not occur in Phoenician, but only אש‎ (=אֲשֶׁ‌ּ‎?), pronounced asse, esse (also as, es, is, ys, us), or—especially in the later Punic and in the Poenulus of Plautus—ש‎ (sa, si, sy, su). Also in New Hebrew שֶׁ‌ּ‎ has become the common form. Cf. Schröder, Phön. Sprache, p. 162 ff. and below, § 155; also Bergsträsser, ‘Das hebr. Präfix ש‎,’ in ZAW. 1909, p. 40 ff.