Feminine nouns/verbs/etc sometimes masculine?

[WelshJesusFreak]

Do texts sometimes use masc. forms when it refers to all women? for example in Ruth 1:11 לכם ? I've noticed a few examples as I've been going through Ruth, and having seen the amount of irregularities in Hebrew it wouldn't surprise me

 

[yonah_mishael]

Sorry I didn't get to this before. I saw your question and wanted to give you an answer, but I stepped away and forgot.

Yes, there are some gender irregularities throughout the Hebrew text. For example, the word נַעַר is used for both boys and girls in the Torah. The Massoretes added a kamats after the resh to indicate that it was feminine, but the original probably would have been the same (just נַעַר instead of נַעֲר&#1464. In this regard, it probably resembled the Greek παῖς, which is used both for a boy (ὁ παῖ&#962 and for a girl (ἡ παῖ&#962.

Regarding pronoun reflection, another irregularity you see is that the singular can jump to the plural or the plural to the singular without any apparent sense. This occurs in the text of the Shema, for example.

Ruth 1:11 reads וַתֹּ֤אמֶר נָֽעֳמִי֙ שֹׁ֣בְנָה בְנֹתַ֔י לָ֥מָּה תֵלַ֖כְנָה עִמִּ֑י הַעֽוֹד־לִ֤י בָנִים֙ בְּֽמֵעַ֔י וְהָי֥וּ לָכֶ֖ם לַֽאֲנָשִֽׁים׃. It would be strange if the same simplification principle alive in modern Hebrew even had effects in that time. Normally, Ruth is a great book to begin with, since it offers so many feminine forms to get used to. In this case, it's an exception. I literally hear people in Israel say, "מה אתם רוצות", which makes me cringe. Have you found other examples like this in the text of Ruth?

I'm often surprised by ungrammatical (non-agreeing) pronouns and verbs in the Bible. Didn't they have editors back then?

 

[yonah_mishael]

According to A Workbook for Intermediate Hebrew (Robert B. Chisholm, Jr.), this isn't really a masculine plural but the remnants of an archaic common dual form. You see the same types of endings in verse 8, where it says:

וַתֹּ֤אמֶר נָֽעֳמִי֙ לִשְׁתֵּ֣י כַלֹּתֶ֔יהָ לֵ֣כְנָה שֹּׁ֔בְנָה אִשָּׁ֖ה לְבֵ֣ית אִמָּ֑הּ יעשה (יַ֣עַש&#1474 ה׳ עִמָּכֶם֙ חֶ֔סֶד כַּֽאֲשֶׁ֧ר עֲשִׂיתֶ֛ם עִם־הַמֵּתִ֖ים וְעִמָּדִֽי׃

Remember that in its older form, Hebrew had a more common use of the dual. Apparently, it was similar to what came to be masculine singular. I doubt they were originally exactly the same. However, you will notice that dual endings are the same for masculine and feminine.

 

[WelshJesusFreak]

Ah thanks. I've noticed quite a few irregularities. Would you recommend that book? I think an intermediate text would be good for me to move up a level.

Thanks!

 

[yonah_mishael]

Yeah, it's a great book. It's more of a workbook than a textbook. You work directly through the texts of Jonah and Ruth, looking at the irregularities and translating it. There are notes throughout the book to reference grammars in order to see what's happening in the strange points.

I can give you the rest of the publication details, if you're interested.