Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar/167. Aposiopesis, Anacoluthon, Involved Series of Sentences

by Wilhelm Gesenius, edited and enlarged by Emil Kautzsch

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

a 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 § 159 dd, cf. also Ex 32³² (the LXX and Samaritan supply שָׂא); Nu 5²⁰, Ju 9¹⁶ (in verse 19, after a long parenthesis, an imperative follows as the apodosis to this conditional clause); 1 S 12¹⁴ f., 2 S 5⁸ (where indeed the text is probably very corrupt; cf. the addition in 1 Ch 11⁶); 2 S 23¹⁷, ψ 27¹³, 1 Ch 4¹⁰. For other examples of various kinds, see § 117 l, and especially § 147; in Aramaic, Dn 3¹⁵.—On Gn 3²², cf. § 152 w at the end.

b 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 Gn 20¹³, 31⁵² and Ez 34¹⁰ (cf. § 149 at the end); Nu 14^{21 ff.}, 32^{20 ff.}, Dt 17^{2 ff.}, 24^{1 ff.}, 29^{21 ff.}, Ju 10¹¹ (where, after a series of intermediate sentences, the predicate I saved you is suppressed; but the text can hardly be correct); perhaps also Is 66¹⁸ (cf., however, Delitzsch on the passage, which is certainly corrupt).^[2] On Gn 23¹³ (לוּ with the imperative), see § 110 e.

c 3. We may mention as instructive examples of involved series of sentences Gn 24¹⁴ and v.^{42 ff.}, and Gn 28^{6 ff.}

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. § 147 a, 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. Gn 17^14.17, nor even Gn 31⁴⁰ (cf. § 143).