Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar/36. The Relative Pronoun

by Wilhelm Gesenius

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§36. The Relative Pronoun.

The relative pronoun (cf. § 138) is usually the indeclinable אֲשֶׁר (who, which, &c.), originally a demonstrative pronoun; see further § 138 and 155. In the later books, especially Eccles. and the late Psalms, also Lam. (4 times), Jon. (1), Chron. (twice), Ezra (once),—and always in the Canticle (cf. also Ju 7, 8, 2 K 6), שֶׁ‌ּ is used instead; more rarely שַׁ‌ּ Ju 5, Ct 1 (Jb 19?); once שָׁ before א Ju 6 (elsewhere שֶׁ before a guttural), before ה even שְׁ Ec 3, and according to some (e.g. Qimḥi) also in Ec 2.^[1] [See Lexicon, s. v.]

1. The full form אשר does not occur in Phoenician, but only אש (=אֲשֶׁ‌ּ?), pronounced asse, esse (also as, es, is, ys, us), or—especially in the later Punic and in the Poenulus of Plautus—ש (sa, si, sy, su). Also in New Hebrew שֶׁ‌ּ has become the common form. Cf. Schröder, Phön. Sprache, p. 162 ff. and below, § 155; also Bergsträsser, ‘Das hebr. Präfix ש,’ in ZAW. 1909, p. 40 ff.