Am 6 גּוֹי; ψ 77 בִּזְרֹעַ; Pr 21 צַדִּיק, if with Delitzsch it is to be referred to God; Jb 8 מִלִּים meaning important words, but in 15:13 מִלִּין reproachful words. Cf. on this point, § 117 q, note 3, and Delitzsch, Psalmen, ed. 4, p. 79.
[d] 2. Real proper nouns, as being the names of things (or persons) only once met with, are sufficiently determinate in themselves. Such names, therefore, as יהוה, דָּוִד, יַֽעֲקֹב, כְּנַ֫עַן, סְדֹם do not admit of the article,[1] nor can they be in the construct state. On the other hand, not only gentilic names (as denoting the various individuals belonging to the same class), but also all those proper names, of which the appellative sense is still sufficiently evident to the mind, or at least has been handed down from an earlier period of the language, frequently (often even as a rule) take the article (according to § 126 e), and may even be followed by a genitive.
[e] Examples. Like the above-mentioned proper names of individuals, countries, and cities, so also national names, which are identical in form with the name of the founder of the race (e.g. יִשְׂרָאֵל, אֱדֹם, מוֹאָב), are always determinate in themselves. Of gentilic names (e.g. הָֽעִבְרִי the Hebrew, הָֽעִבְרִים the Hebrews, Gn 40; הַכְּנַֽעֲנִי the Canaanite) the plural פְּלִשְׁתִּים, even when meaning the Philistines, is generally used without the article (but in 1 S 4, &c., הַפְּ׳); so always כַּפְתֹּרִים.—Evident appellatives (like such modern names as the Hague, le Havre) are הַגִּבְעָה the hill, in the construct state גִּבְעַת שָׁאוּל, i.e. the Gibeah named after Saul to distinguish it from others; הָֽרָמָה the height; הָעַי the heap; הַלְּבָנוֹן (prop. the white mountain) the Lebanon; הַיְאֹר (prop. the river) the Nile, cf. Am 8 כִּיאוֹר מִצְרָֽיִם like the river of Egypt; הַיַּרְדֵּן the Jordan (according to Seybold, Mittheil. und Nachr. des DPV., 1896, p. 11, probably the drinking-place [ירד, Arab. warada, meaning orig. to go down to drink]).
[f] Rem. 1. In a few instances original appellatives have completely assumed the character of real proper names, and are therefore used without the article; thus אֱלֹהִים God, to denote the one true God (as elsewhere יהוה) Gn 1 and so generally in this document of the Pentateuch up to Ex 6, elsewhere sometimes הָֽאֱלֹהִים ὁ θεός (cf. § 126 e); also the sing. אֱלוֹהַּ God, עֶלְיוֹן the Most High, and שַׁדַּי the Almighty never take the article.—Moreover, אָדָם Adam from Gn 5 onwards (previously in 2:7, &c., הָֽאָדָם the first man); שָׁטָן Satan, 1 Ch 21 (but Zc 3, Jb 1, &c., הַשָּׂטָן the adversary); cf. אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד the tent of revelation (i.e. the tabernacle), always without the article.
[g] To the class of nouns originally appellative, which the language regards
- ↑ Consequently, הַֽמְנַשֶּׁח Dt 3, Jos 1, &c. (in the Deuteronomist) in the combination שֵׁבֶט הַֽמְנַשֶּׁה (for which elsewhere שֵׁבֶט מְנַשֶּׁה) is to be regarded not as a proper name but as a gentilic name (= the tribe of the Manassites), for which in Dt 29 שׁ׳ הַֽמְנַשִּׁי is used, as in 10:8 שׁ׳ הַלֵּוִי the tribe of the Levites, and in Ju 18 שּׁ׳ הַדָּנִי the tribe of the Danites.—In Jos 13 הַֽמְנַשֶּׁה (like gentilic names in ־ִי) is even used adjectivally.
