Joel 2:11
חיל - Outer bulwark, Perimeter defense
And He Is has given the voice of himself, in front of the faces of the fortified perimeter of himself, for the encampment of himself is exceedingly abundant for he has made powerful the word of himself, for mega is the day of He Is and he who is feared greatly! And who is prevailing against us?2Footnote:
| Joe. 2:11 | The verb form יכילנו (yəḵilen-nū) is derived from the root כּוּל (K-V-L), meaning “to contain” or “to hold.” It appears in the Hiphil imperfect 3rd masculine singular conjugation with a pronominal suffix attached. The suffix -נוּ (nū) corresponds to the 1st person plural pronoun “us,” thus rendering the meaning “he will contain us” or “he is containing us.” For the third-person masculine singular object “him,” the pronominal suffix is -הוּ (hū). Accordingly, the equivalent form “he will contain him” or “he is containing him” is יכילהוּ (yəḵilēhū). This form is constructed by attaching the suffix -הוּ to the Hiphil imperfect base. Morphologists and scholars skewed it toward the 3rd person masculine suffix, because of the context. But the grammar is what it is. Hence:
Cf. השמים לא יכלכלהו in 2 Chronicles 2:6 "the dual heavenly ones cannot contain-contain himself" This distinction in pronominal suffixes is critical for understanding subject-object relationships encoded morphologically in Biblical Hebrew verb forms. |