i.e. the command of*) according to; בִּגְלַל (in the concern of) on account of; לְמַ֫עַן (for the purpose of) on account of.
[c] 2. Substantives used adverbially very frequently become prepositions in this way, e.g. בְּלִי, בִּבְלִי, מִבְּלִי, בִּלְתִּי, בְּאֵין, בְּאֶ֫פֶס (with cessation) without, בְּעוֹד (in the duration of) during; בְּדֵי, כְּדֵי (according to the requirement of) for, according to.
[a] 1. Of the words mentioned in § 101, מִן־ from, out of, frequently occurs as a prefix (§ 99 c), with its Nûn assimilated to the following consonant (by means of Dageš forte), e.g. מִיַּ֫עַר out of a forest.
[b] Rem. The separate מִן־ (always with a following Maqqeph) is usual (but not necessary, cf. Ju 20 with verse 15, Ez 43, &c.) only before the article, e.g. מִן־הָאָ֫רֶץ, and sometimes occurs before the softer consonants, e.g. מִן־אָז Jer 44, מִן־בְּנֵי Jo 1, 1 Ch 5; cf. Ex 18, Lv 1, 14, Ju 7, 10, 19, ψ 104 (2 K 23 before ר; also before ק in ψ 18), and elsewhere in the later books (as in Aramaic)[1]; there is besides a poetic by-form מִנִּי (cf. § 90 m) and מִנֵּי Is 30. Its form is most commonly מִ· with a following Dageš, which may, however, be omitted in letters which have Šewâ (cf. § 20 m). With a following י the מִ is, as a rule, contracted to מִי, e.g. מִידֵי=מִיְּדֵי or מִֽיְדֵי (but cf. מִיְּשֵׁנֵי Dn 12; מִיְּרֻשָּֽׁתְךָ 2 Ch 20); before gutturals it becomes מֵ (according to § 22 c), e.g. מֵֽאָדָם, מֵעָם; before ח the מִ occurs with the guttural virtually sharpened in מִחוּץ on the outside, and in מִחוּט Gn 14; before ה in מִֽהְיוֹת (cf. § 28 b and § 63 q. The closed syllable here is inconsistent with the required virtual sharpening of the ה; probably מִֽהְיוֹת is merely due to the analogy of לִֽהְיוֹת); similarly Is 14 before ר; but in 1 S 23, 2 S 18 מִרְּדֹף is to be read, according to § 22 s.
[c] 2. There are also three other particles, the most commonly used prepositions and the particle of comparison, which have been reduced by abbreviation (§ 99 c) to a single prefixed consonant with Šewâ (but see below, and § 103 e), viz.:
בְּ [poet. בְּמוֹ] in, at, with.
לְ [poet. לְמוֹ] towards, (belonging) to, for, Lat. ad.
כְּ [poet. כְּמוֹ] like, as, according to (no doubt the remnant of a substantive with the meaning of matter, kind, instar).
[d] With regard to the pointing it is to be observed that—
(a) The Šewâ mobile, with which the above prefixes are usually pronounced, has resulted from the weakening of a short vowel (an original ă, according to f)[2]; the short vowel is regularly retained before Šewâ: before Šewâ simplex
- ↑ König, Einleitung ins A.T., p. 393 (cf. also the almost exhaustive statistics in his Lehrgebäude, ii. 292 ff.), enumerates eight instances of מִן before a word without the article in 2 Samuel and Kings, and forty-five in Chronicles.
- ↑ Jerome (see Siegfried, ZAW. iv. 79) almost always represents בְּ by ba.
