Does אמר require a content clause as a complement?

[David Knoll]

I am looking at Exod 19:25 and I see ויאמר אלהם without any complement. Is there a way to search for similar examples?

[Gedalya]

The info pane on Ex. 19:25 brought up the following results:

 

[Torah Modern Commentary]

19:25] And spoke to them. The word וַיֹּאמֶר is usually followed by what is said, but occasionally this is omitted, as here and in Gen. 4:8.

[p. 476]

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19:25. said to them. We expect direct speech to follow. Thus, at least in the composite text, 20:1 could be taken as Moses’ words, not the narrator’s (see SOURCE ANALYSIS, p. 145). Alternatively, we may take “said” (wayyō[ʾ]mer) in the sense of “spoke” or “talked,” or as bearing a tacit object (Friedman 2003: 152). Dillmann (1880: 199) thinks that Moses reports Yahweh’s commands from vv 21–24.

William H.C. Propp, EXODUS 19–40 (The Anchor Yale Bible; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974), 166.

Exod 19:25 is strange: “So Moses descended to the people and said to them.” What did he say? Should one suppose that here “said (wayyō[ʾ]mer)” is equivalent to “spoke (*waydabbēr)”? Friedman (2003: 152) similarly translates “said it,” assuming, as often in biblical Hebrew, a tacit pronominal object. But almost always wayyō[ʾ]mer introduces a direct quotation (other possible exceptions are Gen 4:8 [MT]; Judg 17:2; 2 Chr 32:24.)

Seemingly just as implausible would be the notion that what Moses says is “And Deity spoke,” followed by the Decalog as an embedded quote-within-a-quote. Admittedly, Deuteronomy 5 describes Moses as transmitting the Ten Words to Israel, who in their fear stand too distant to distinguish Yahweh’s words, and hear only the sound of his voice. Still, if Moses were reciting the Decalog in Exod 20:1, he would surely begin “Thus said Yahweh,” not “And Deity spoke.” That sounds like a narrator. Either some text acidentally fell out of 19:25, or else the interpolator of the Decalog, at the price of considerable awkwardness, grafted an account of the Decalog, preceded by “And Deity spoke all these words, saying,” onto an older narrative, in order to create the impression that Moses mediated the Ten Words as in Deuteronomy.

William H.C. Propp, EXODUS 19–40 (The Anchor Yale Bible; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974), 145.

“and he said to them,” often taken as a reference to Moses’ report of what Yahweh has just said (so RSV, “and told them”; cf. Cassuto, 234), is taken by Davies (157–58) as referring instead to “the instructions of chaps. 22f.” Some translators (NEB, “and spoke to them.”; JB, “and spoke to them. . .”) understandably leave the matter as vague as the text does. BDB (56) notes: “in all cases usually sq. dir. obj. of words said, Ex 19:25 Ju 17:2 being singular.” Noth (160) calls this verse “a fragment.” Klopfer(ZAW 18 [1898] 230) connects it with vv 21 and 22. What is likely is that at least a summary of Moses’ words to the people followed this verb and its indir obj. In the compilation of Exodus, that summary, or even a longer speech, was dropped.

John I Durham, Exodus (WBC 3; Accordance/Thomas Nelson electronic ed. Waco: Word Books, 1992), 267-268.

Edited January 1, 2015 by Gordon

[Robert Holmstedt]

There *are* other examples. But I'm hitting a similar search bug that I hit the last time we searched for the absence of something. I'm sorting it out.

[Gedalya]

Gen 4:8 [MT]; Judg 17:2; 2 Chr 32:24

These are the examples brought in the commentaries in my previous posting

[David Knoll]

Thank you! I am aware of the Gen and 2 Chr examples (as well as an additional example in 2 Chr and one in Esther), I don't know how Judges 17:2 serves to demonstrate anything.

However I want to be able to search the Syntax Database and get the results. Isn't that why I paid for it?

Prof. Holmstedt how long do you think it would take for this to get fixed (I know you are not the one fixing it)?

If you find other examples before this is fixed, could you send them to me or post them here?

 

many thanks,

 

David

[Robert Holmstedt]

David,

 

You're correct -- I have no more programming knowledge than the pencil on my desk. So, as much as I and my collaborator, Dr. Abegg push, it's up to the programmer. And not only is the syntax highly complex, it's also not by far his only (or most important) programming task. Thus, I'm not sure when these issues will be fixed, but we have submitted the problem.

 

Sadly, your particular question is not one that I could easily search in the underlying tagged database, either. If I find a way to uncover more examples, I'll post them here.

 

RDH

[Peter Bekins]

Here is something of a work around:

 

1. Search for אמר (qal). Use a Hebrew Construct to specify you only want hits within independent clauses in order to eliminate relative clauses with null complements of the form הדבר אשר אמר אליו.

 

2. Search within these results using [CONTENTS] and add the qualifier <AND><NOT><BeginSpeech>. This will eliminate every verse with an embedded speech clause.

 

I get 143 results. You will have to manually eliminate verses in which the speech content is indirect or null due to the fact that it is recoverable from the previous context. There are also a few examples in which the direct speech is actually in the following verse.

 

A number of verse in the Psalms and Amos seem to lack the BeginSpeech element even though they include embedded direct speech. I am not sure if this is an issue with the tagging or if these cases are slightly different due to the poetry.

 

A quick scan suggests maybe we can add 2 Sam 21:2, Jonah 2:11, and Job 33:8. There is an interesting construction אמר ויבא 'He spoke. [A swarm of flies] came.' (Psalm 105:31 and 34, and various other places). I am not sure if you want to count these or not.

 

Pete

[David Knoll]

Thank you!