the verb (intransitive) construed with בְּ has a greater independence, and consequently more emphasis than the verb construed with a direct accusative; the latter conveys a sort of necessary specification of the action, while the noun introduced by בְּ is used rather as a merely adverbial complement. An instructive example of this is נָתַן קוֹל vocem emittere, to utter a voice, also to thunder, while in נָתַן בְּקוֹלוֹ ψ 46 (68:34, Jer 12), נָתַן has an independent sense = he thundered with his voice (i.e. mightily).
[r] (c) לְ[1] to, a very general expression of direction towards anything, is used to represent the most varied relations of an action or state with regard to a person or thing. On the use of לְ as a periphrasis for the genetivus poseessoris or auctoris (the idea of belonging to), see § 129; on לְ with the passive, to introduce the author or the cause, see § 121 f; on לְ in a purely local sense (e.g. לִימִֽינְךָ at thy right hand, prop. towards thy right hand), or temporal (e.g. לָעֶ֫רֶב at evening, &c.) or distributive, see the Lexicon
The following uses of לְ properly belong to the government of the verb:
[s] (1) As a nota dativi[2] to introduce the remoter object; also
(2) To introduce the dativus commodi. This dativus commodi (or incommodi, e.g. Ez 37) is used—especially in colloquial language and in later style—in the form of a pronoun with לְ, as an apparently pleonastic dativus ethicus, with many verbs, in order to give emphasis to the significance of the occurrence in question for a particular subject. In this construction the person of the pronoun must always agree with that of the verbal form.[3] By far the most frequent use of this לְ is with the pronoun of the 2nd person after imperatives, e.g. לֶךְ־לְךָ go, got thee away, Gn 12, 22, Dt 2 (also in the feminine, Ct 2, 13); נְטֵה לְךָ turn thee aside, 2 S 2; סְעוּ לָכֶם take your journey, Dt 1; עִבְדוּ לָכֶם pass ye over; בְּדַח־לְךָ flee (to save thyself), Gn 27; עֲלִי־לָךְ get thee up, Is 40; פְּנוּ לָכֶם turn you, Dt 1; שׁוּבוּ לָכֶם return ye, Dt 5; ק֫וּמִי לָךְ rise up, Ct 2; שְׁבוּ לָכֶם abide ye, Gn 22; חֲדַל לְךָ forbear thee, 2 Ch 35 (in the plural, Is 2); הָ֫בוּ לָכֶם take you, Dt 1, Jos 18, Ju 20, 2 S 16, and so almost regularly הִשָּׁ֫מֶד לְךָ (see above, § 51 n) cave tibi! and הִשָּֽׁמְלוּ לָכֶם take heed to yourselves; דְמֵה רְךָ be thou like, Ct 2 (cf. verse 9), 8:14, is remarkable; after a perfect consecutive, 1 K 17, 1 S 22; after an imperfect consecutive, e.g. Is 36 וַתִּבְטַח לְךָ and puttest thy trust.—In the 3rd person, e.g. וַתֵּ֫שֶׁב לָהּ and sat her down, Gn 21, cf. 22:5, Ex 18, ψ 120, 123, Jb 6; even after a participle, Ho 8.—In the 1st person plural, Ez 37.
[t] (3) To introduce the result after verbs of making, forming, changing, appointing to something, esteeming as something; in short, in all those cases in which, according to § 117 ii, a second accusative may also be used.
[u] (4) In loose connexion with some verbal idea in the sense of in reference to, with regard to... (§ 143 e); so after a verbum dicendi, Gn 20; 1 K 10, cf.
- ↑ Cf. Giesebrecht, Die hebr. Präpos. Lamed, Halle, 1876.
- ↑ Just as in the Romance languages the Latin preposition ad (Italian a, before vowels ad>, French à, Spanish á) and in English to are used as a periphrasis for the dative.—On the introduction of the nearer object by לְ, cf. § 117 n.
- ↑ Such expressions as the analogous English he plucked me ope his doublet, but me no buts, and the like, are accordingly inadmissible in Hebrew.
