[d] The ending îm is also common in Phoenician, e.g. צדנם Sidonii; Assyrian has âni (acc. to P. Haupt originally âmi, cf. § 88 d); Aramaic has în; Arabic ûna (nominative) and îna (in the oblique cases, but in vulgar Arabic în is also used for the nominative); Ethiopic ân. Cf. also the verbal ending וּן in the 3rd plur. perf. (§ 44 l) and in the 3rd and 2nd plur. impf. (§ 47 m).[1]
[e] Less frequent, or only apparent terminations of the plur. masc. are—
(a) ־ִין, as in Aramaic,[2] found almost exclusively in the later books of the O.T. (apart from the poetical use in some of the older and even the oldest portions), viz. מְלָכִין kings, Pr 31, צִֽדֹנִין 1 K 11, רָצִין the guard, 2 K 11, חִטִּין wheat, Ez 4; defectively אִיִּן islands, Ez 26; יָמִין days, Dn 12. Cf. also מִדִּין carpets, Ju 5, in the North-Palestinian song of Deborah, which also has other linguistic peculiarities; עִיִּין heaps, Mi 3 (before ת; cf. § 44 k); מִלִּין words (from the really Aram. מִלָּה), Jb 4, and twelve other places in Job (beside מִלִּים, ten times in Job); further, חַיִּין Jb 24, אֲחֵרִין 31, and שׁוֹמֵמִין La 1, תַּנִּין 4.—The following forms are doubtful:
[f] (b) ־ִי (with the ם rejected, as, according to some, in the dual יָדַי for יָדַ֫יִם Ez 13, cf. § 88 c), e.g. מִנִּי stringed instruments, ψ 45 for מִנִּים (unless it is to be so written)[3]; עַמִּי peoples, ψ 144, and, probably, also La 3 (in 2 S 22 it may be taken as עַמִּי my people; cf. in the parallel passage ψ 18 עָם; also in Ct 8 the î of רִמֹּנִי is better regarded as a suffix); see also 2 S 23 as compared with 1 Ch 11, and on the whole question Gesenius, Lehrgebäude, p. 524 ff. More doubtful still is—
[g] (c) ־ַי (like the constr. state in Syriac), which is supposed to appear in e.g. שָׂרַי princes, Ju 5 (perhaps my princes is intended: read either the constr. st. שָׂרֵי, which also has good authority, or with LXX שָׁרִים); for חַלּוֹנָ֔י וס׳ Jer 22 (according to others dual, see § 88 c, or a loan word, cf. ZA. iii. 93) read חַלּוֹנָיו סָפוֹן. On גּוֹבַי and חוֹרַי, which have also been so explained, see above, § 86 i.—חֲשׂוּפַי Is 20 (where the right reading is certainly חֲשׂוּפֵי) must be intended by the Masora either as a singular with the formative syllable ־ַי =bareness or, more probably, as a constr. st. with the original termination ay (cf. § 89 d) to avoid the harsh combination hasûfê šēt[4]; in אֲדֹנָי the Lord (prop. my lord, from the plur. majestatis, אֲדֹנִים lord), the ay was originally a suffix, § 135 q.
[h] (d) ־ָם a supposed plural ending in כִּנָּם=כִּנִּים gnats (or lice), and סֻלָּם ladder (supposed by some to be a plur. like our stairs); but cf. on the former, § 85 t.
[i] 2. The plural termination of the feminine gender is generally indicated by the termination וֹת (often written defectively ־תֹ, e.g. תְּהִלָּה song of praise, psalm, plur. תְּהִלּוֹת (only in post-biblical Hebrew
- ↑ On the connexion between all these endings see Dietrich’s Abhandl. zur hebr. Gramm., Leipzig, 1846, p. 51 ff.; Halévy, REJ. 1888, p. 138 ff. [cf. also Driver, Tenses, § 6, Obs. 2].
- ↑ So also always in the Mêša‛ inscription, e.g. line 2 שלשן thirty; line 4 מלכן kings; line 5 ימן רבן many days, &c.
- ↑ According to some this î is simply due to a neglect of the point (§ 5 m), which in MSS. and elsewhere marked the abbreviation of the plur. ending.
- ↑ Prätorius, ZDMG. 1903, p. 525, regards הֲשׂוּפַי as an instance of the affix of endearment (cf. אֲחוּמַי, כְּלוּבַי) transferred to an appellative, but such an explanation is rendered unlikely by the meaning of this isolated instance.
