A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew: Revised English Edition

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“Hebrew, like other cognate languages, makes an extensive use of pseudo-prepositions; these are a combination of one of the prepositions mentioned earlier—notably ב‎, כ‎, ל‎, מן‎, על—and a substantive, often lexemes denoting parts of body such as יָד‎, פָּנִים‎, עֵינַ֫יִם‎, פֶּה‎, רֶ֫גֶל in the status constructus. Such nouns are mostly not used in their primary, but in their figurative sense: e.g., Gn 41.42 וַיִּתֵּן אֹתָהּ עַל־יַד יוסף‎ and he put it on Joseph’s hand as against Ex 2.5 נַעֲרֹתֶ֫יהָ הֹלְכֹת עַל־יַד הַיְאֹר‎ the maidens were strolling along the Nile. Other examples are: בְּיַד‎, כְּיַד‎, לְיַד‎, מִיַּד‎, עַל־יַד‎; בְּפִי‎, כְּפִי‎, לְפִי‎, מִפִּי‎, עַל פִּי‎; בִּפְנֵי‎, לִפְנֵי‎, מִפְּנֵי‎, מִלִּפְנֵי‎, עַל פְּנֵי‎; לְרֶ֫גֶל. A description of their lexical meanings belongs to dictionaries.” (Page 319)

“The most advanced stage of post-exilic Hebrew is represented by the language of Ecclesiastes, Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles(²).” (Page 10)

“tend to point to a continuous, if not straight and linear, development from Late Biblical Hebrew onwards.” (Page 10)

“Differences in language must have existed, for instance, between the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. But the data at our disposal hardly enable us to pinpoint those differences sufficiently to speak of a northern dialect and a southern dialect.” (Page 10)

“But how arbitrary the BH orthography can be in this regard may be illustrated by” (Page 46)