[l] Rem. 1. (a) Coherent substances, &c., are mostly regarded as single, and are, accordingly, almost always represented by nouns in the singular, cf. אָבָק fine dust, אֵ֫פֶר ashes, בַּד linen, בְּדִיל lead, זָהָב gold, כֶּ֫סֶף silver, נְח֫שֶׁת brass, חָלָב milk, יַ֫יִן wine, עָפָר dust, the ground, עֵץ wood. Plurals are, however, formed from some of these words expressing materials in order to denote separate portions taken from the whole in manufacture (plurals of the result) or parts otherwise detached from it; thus, בַּדִּים linen garments; כְּסָפִים silver pieces, Gn 42, 35; נְחֻשְׁתַּ֫יִם (dual) fetters of brass; עֵצִים ligna (timber for building or sticks for burning); also in a wider sense, בְּדִילִים particles of alloy to be separated by smelting, Is 1; עֲפָרוֹת fragments of earth, Pr 8, cf. Jb 28 עַפְרֹת זָהָב dust of gold.
[m] (b) To the class of plurals of the result belong also a few names of natural products, when represented in an artificial condition; thus, חִטִּים wheat in grain (threshed wheat), as distinguished from חִטָּה wheat (used collectively) in the ear; cf. the same distinction between כֻּסְּמִים and כֻּסֶּ֫מֶת spelt; עֲדָשִׁים and עֲדָשָׁה (the singular preserved only in the Mishna) lentils; שְׂעֹרִים and שְׂעֹרָה barley; also פִּשְׁתִּים linen, פֵּ֫שֶׁת (to be inferred from פִּשְׁתִּי) flax.
[n] (c) Finally, the distinction between דָּם blood and דָּמִים requires to be specially noticed. The singular is always used when the blood is regarded as an organic unity, hence also of menstrual blood, and the blood of sacrifices (collected in the basin and then sprinkled), and in Nu 23 of the blood gushing from wounds. On the other hand, דָּמִים as a sort of plural of the result and at the same time of local extension, denotes blood which is shed, when it appears as blood-stains (Is 1) or as blood-marks (so evidently in Is 9). But since blood-stains or blood-marks, as a rule, suggest blood shed in murder (although דָּמִים also denotes the blood which flows at child-birth or in circumcision), דָּמִים acquired (even in very early passages) simply the sense of a bloody deed, and especially of bloodguiltiness, Ex 22 f., &c.
[o] In some few cases the plural is used to denote an indefinite singular; certainly so in Dt 17 אֶל־שְׁעָרֶ֫יךָ unto one of thy gates; Zc 9 בֶּן־אֲתֹנוֹת (cf. Ct 2); Ex 21 יְלָדֶ֫יהָ (where evidently only one child is thought of, certainly though in connexion with a contingency which may be repeated); cf. also Ec 4 (if one of them fall).—So probably also Gn 8, 1 S 17, Dn 2, Neh 3, 6; but not Gn 19, since the same document (Gn 13) makes Lot dwell in the cities of the Jordan valley; in Gn 21 בָּנִים denotes the class with which the action is concerned. In Ju 12 instead of the unusual בְּעָרֵי גִלְעָד in the cities of Gilead (formerly explained here as in one of the cities of Gilead) we should most probably read, with Moore (SBOT. Judges, p. 52), בְּעִירוֹ בְּמִצְפֵּה גִלְעָד in his city, in Mizpeh (in) Gilead.
[p] 2. When a substantive is followed by a genitive, and the compound idea thus formed is to be expressed in the plural, this is done—
(a) Most naturally by using the plural of the nomen regens, e.g. גִּבּוֹרֵי חַ֫יִל mighty men of valour (prop. heroes of strength), 1 Ch 7, 9; so also in compounds, e.g. בְּנֵי יְמִינִי 1 S 22, as the plur. of בֶּן־יְמִינִי Benjamite; but also
[q] (b) By using the plural of both nouns,[1] e.g. גִּבּוֹרֵי חֲיָלִים 1 Ch 7;
- ↑ Cf. König, Lehrgebäude, ii. 438 f., according to whom the plural of the principal word exercises an influence on the determining genitive.
