Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/396

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On a second object with verba sentiendi (as יָדַע to know something to be something, Ec 725; רָאָה to see, find to be, Gn 71; חָשַׁב to esteem one to be something, Is 534, elsewhere always construed with לְ or כְּ‍), cf. h.

 [kk Rem. At first sight some of the examples given above appear to be identical in character with those treated under hh; thus it is possible, e.g. in 1 K 1832, by a translation which equally suits the sense, he built from the stones an altar, to explain מִזְבֵּחַ as the nearer object and אֶת־הָֽאֲבָנִים as an accusative of the material, and the construction would then be exactly the same as in Dt 276. In reality, however, the fundamental idea is by no means the same. Not that in the living language an accusative of the material in the one case, and in the other an accusative of the product were consciously distinguished. As Driver (Tenses, § 195) rightly observes, the remoter accusative in both cases is, strictly speaking, in apposition to the nearer. This is especially evident in such examples as Ex 2025 (the stones of the altar) גָּזִית as hewn stones, cf. also Gn 127. The main point is, which of the two accusatives, as being primarily affected (or aimed at) by the action, is to be made the more prominent; and on this point neither the position of the words (the nearer object, mostly determinate, as a rule follows immediately after the verb), nor even the context admits of much doubt. Thus in 1 K 1832 the treatment of the stones is the primary object in view, the erection of the altar for which they were intended is the secondary; in Dt 276 the case is reversed.

 [ll (d) Finally, the second accusative sometimes more closely determines the nearer object by indicating the part or member specially affected by the action,[1] e.g. ψ 38 for thou hast smitten all mine enemies לֶ֫תִי (as to) the cheek bone, equivalent to upon the cheek bone; cf. Gn 3721 נֶ֫פֶשׁ in the life, i.e. let us not kill him; Dt 2226, 2 S 327; also with שׁוּף Gn 315; with רָעָה Jer 216; in poetry the object specially concerned is, by a bold construction, even placed first, Dt 3311 (with מָחַץ).

§118. The Looser Subordination of the Accusative to the Verb.

 [a 1. The various forms of the looser subordination of a noun to the verb are distinguished from the different kinds of the accusative of the object (§ 117) by their specifying not the persons or things directly affected by the action, but some more immediate circumstance under which an action or an event takes place. Of such circumstances the most common are those of place, time, measure, cause, and finally the manner of performing the action. These nearer definitions are, as a rule, placed after the verb; they may, however, also precede it.

 [b Rem. That the cases thus loosely subordinated to the verb are to be regarded as accusatives is seen first from the fact that in certain instances the nota accusativi (את) is prefixed; secondly from the fact that in one form of

  1. Analogous to this is the σχῆμα καθ᾽ ὅλον καὶ κατὰ μέρος in Greek epic poetry, e.g. ποῖόν σε ἔπος φύγε ἕρκος ὀδόντων.