Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar/105. Interjections

by Wilhelm Gesenius

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§105. Interjections.

a 1. Among the interjections some (as in all languages) are simply natural sounds, or, as it were, vocal gestures, called forth involuntarily by certain impressions or sensations, e.g. אֲהָהּ (Ez 30 הָהּ), אָח ah! הֶאָח aha! (cf. this אָח also in אַחְלַי and אַֽחֲלֵי utinam!), אָֽנָּ֫א Ex 32, &c. (Gn 50 אָ֣נָּ֫א) ah! (from אָהּ and נָא), otherwise written אָֽנָּ֫ה 2 K 20, Jn 1, ψ 116; also הַס (in pause הָס, even in the plural הַ֫סּוּ hold your peace! Neh 8) hush! הוֹי (Am 5 הוֹ־הוֹ) ha! woe! אוֹי, א֫וֹיָה (ψ 120), אִי (in אִילוֹ Ec 4; אִי־לָךְ 10) woe!

b 2. Others, however, originally expressed independent ideas, and become interjections only by rapid pronunciation and by usage, e.g. (הֵא) הֵן or הִנֵּה behold! (prop. here); רְאֵה behold! (prop. imperative); הָ֫בָה, plur. הָבוּ (prop. give, imperative of יָהַב; as to the tone, cf. § 69 o), come, the Latin age, agite! לְכָה (also לְךָ), לְכוּ (prop. go, imperative of הָלַךְ) with the same meaning^[1]; חָלִ֫ילָה far be it! (prop. ad profanum!) בִּי (see the Lexicon) I beseech, hear me! נָא pray!^[2] used to emphasize a demand, warning, or entreaty, and always placed after the expression to which it belongs.^[3]

1. רְאֵה (Dt 1), הָ֫בָה and לְכָה are also used in connexion with the feminine and the plural, which proves that they have become quite stereotyped as interjections.
2. נָא serves to express the most various shades of expression, which are discussed in the various parts of the syntax. It is used especially (a) after the imperative, either in commands or entreaty, see § 110 d; (b) with the imperfect, either in the cohortative (§ 108 b) or jussive (§ 109 b); (c) once with perfect, Gn 40; (d) after various particles: הִנֵּה־נָא behold now; particularly after the conjunctions אַל and אִם: אַל־נָא ne quaeso and אִם־נָא if now, εἴπερ, εἴποτε if, in a deprecatory sense, expressive of politeness or modesty. In Nu 12 נָא stands after a noun; but we ought certainly to read אַל־נָא.—In polite language this particle is used constantly in all these ways, Gn 18, 19, and 50.
3. Against the usual view which regards נָא as a hortatory particle (=up! come! analogous to the original imperatives הָ֫בָה and לְכָה and the Ethiopic năʿâ, properly hither, also come!), P. Haupt, in the Johns Hopkins University Circulars, xiii, no. 114, p. 109, justly observes that we should then expect the particle to be prefixed to the imperative, &c. He proposes to describe נָא as an emphatic particle. Haupt’s suggested identification of this נָא with the Assyrian, Arabic, and Ethiopic particle mā (which is also an enclitic of emphasis), and ultimately with the interrogative mā, we shall not discuss here.