One aspect of the instructions that
may point to a preexilic date in the use of the infinitive absolute of the verb
‘mr “say” as a command in verse 23. (Levine notes that the use of the
infinitive absolute as an imperative here is consistent with classical Hebrew
inscriptions [Numbers, 1-20, 227]) The function of the infinitive
absolute is more common in classical biblical Hebrew than later biblical Hebrew
literature. The majority of the uses of the infinitive absolute as a command
appear in the literature of Genesis-Exodus and the Deuteornomistic History, and
the Latter prophets. As noted earlier in this chapter, the use of the
infinitive absolute as a command is particularly evident in the description of
divine commands in the Torah. For instance, Exodus 20:8 stipulates the
observance of the Sabbath through the verb zkr as an infinitive absolute
(zkwr). In a similar manner, Exodus 12:48 employs the infinitive
absolute to convey the divine command that the Hebrew circumcise their male
children (hmwl). In the prophetic literature, infinitive absolutes
appear in several places to convey prophetic commands (2 Sam. 24:12; 2 Kings
3:16; Isa. 14:31).
This contrasts sharply with the
general reduction in the use of the infinitive absolute as a command in the
literature of the book of Chronicles and other biblical texts from the Second
Temple period. The strongest evidence for this argument comes from a comparison
of Samuel-Kings and Chronicles with regard to the use of the infinitive
absolute form to convey a command. In the places where the author of
Samuel-Kings employed an infinitive absolute to convey a command, the authors
of Chronicles used the command form of the same verb. Such a move is
illustrated by the differences in grammar between 2 Samuel 24:12 and 1
Chronicles 21:10:
Go (hlwk) and say to David . . . (2 Sam
24:12)
Go (ilk) and say to David . . .
(1 Chr 21:10)
As the above passages show, the
authors of Chronicles chose to render the command in 2 Samuel 24:12 through the
use of a command form as opposed to an infinitive absolute form. Such a
situation most likely indicates that the use of the infinitive absolute as a
command fell out of use in late biblical Hebrew during the postexilic period.
This argument is strengthened by the observation that the use of the infinitive
absolute as a command in the classical biblical Hebrew texts is matched by a
similar usage for the infinitive in preexilic Hebrew texts is matched by a
similar usage for the infinitive in preexilic Hebrew inscriptions (Arad 2.1).
(Jan Joosten, “The Distinction between Classical and Late Biblical Hebrew as
Reflected in Syntax,” HS 46 [2005]: 336) Such a situation provides some
indication that the use of the infinitive absolute as a command was relatively
common in the preexilic period, but more limited during the Second Temple
Period. (Jeremy D. Smoak, The Priestly Blessing in Inscription and Scripture:
The Early History of Numbers 6:24-26 [Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2016], 86-87)
The note on the
infinitive absolute as a command in the literature of the book of Chronicles
and other biblical texts from the Second Temple period reads thusly:
Robert Polzin, Late Biblical
Hebrew: Toward an Historical Typology of Biblical Hebrew Prose. Missoula,
MT: Scholars, 1965, 43. H[arvard]S[semitic]M[onographs] 12; Bruce K. Waltke and
Michael O’Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, 593-94;
Bruce K. Waltke, “The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Text of the Old Testament.” New
Perspectives on the Old Testament. Ed. J. Barton Payne. Waco, TX: Word,
1970, 215-16. Symposium Series 3. For further on the infinitive absolute in the
legal portions of the biblical literature, see John D. W. Watts, “Infinitive
Absolute as Imperative and the Interpretation of Exodus 20:8,” ZAW 74
(1962): 141-47. (Ibid., 177 n. 105)