Cheryl Schatz

Lin,

In the Hebrew phrases are together that consist of many words. We don’t really have this in English except for things like “can’t”. The word can’t is actually a two word phrase which is made up of can and not. The word “can” and the word “not” are not changed just because they are contracted into one phrase/word.

In the same way in Hebrew f we are to compare the part of the phrase that is the conjunction we don’t compare that “part” with the “part” of another word that is a noun.

For example in Genesis 3:16 what is translated as “I will greatly multiply” comes out looking like one word but it is actually one phrase and it must be broken down into its parts so that we know what the grammar is of each of the words.

Another word phrase is “to the woman”. The definite “the” is part of what looks like one word but it’s meaning is not changed because it is part of the phrase.

In Genesis 3:16 God says to Eve I will greatly multiply “your pain” in childbirth. Then in Genesis 3:17 He says to Adam “in toil” you will eat from it. But the word “pain” and “toil” that is part of each phrase is exactly the same word. What God says to Eve about her toil is exactly what God says to Adam about his toil. Do we say that the words are now different because they are in a different phrase? We can’t. We can’t say that they are different because the phrase for the woman is “your toil” and for the man it is “in toil”. The context must include the words within the phrase and it is not different.

The same thing for the conjunction in the phrase that has “yet” and “and” (Genesis 3:16). The conjunction is exactly the same for both phrases therefore they can be compared. If we do not compare the conjunction in each phrase and distance the conjunction as if the items it joins have no relevance, then we are ignoring the context.