# A pronominal suffix (לך) used in Tehillim 91:11 - כי מלאכיו



## theunderachiever

I was reading Tehillim earlier and turned to one of my favorites. I'm confused by a pronominal suffix used here:

כִּי מַלְאָכָיו יְצַוֶּה-*לָּךְ* לִשְׁמָרְךָ בְּכָל-דְּרָכֶיךָ

Why is לך feminine when לשמרך and דרכיך are masculine?

Thanks a ton.


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## arielipi

Well, there are more examples for this behavior in the bible... Khazal will give you many explanations.

Probably because it is more poetic that way.


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## origumi

לָּךְ is masculine. Either under Aramaic influence or (more likely) a native archaic Biblical Hebrew form.


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## Drink

לָךְ is the pausal form of לְךָ. Pausal forms are usually used with etnachta and with sof pasuk. There are many other changes as well that are found in pausal positions.


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## origumi

Drink said:


> לָךְ is the pausal form of לְךָ.


I suspect the bible in inconsistent in this regard. There are many opposite examples.


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## Drink

origumi said:


> I suspect the bible in inconsistent in this regard. There are many opposite examples.



In my experience, it's pretty consistent. But I would love to see examples.


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## theunderachiever

Drink said:


> לָךְ is the pausal form of לְךָ. Pausal forms are usually used with etnachta and with sof pasuk. There are many other changes as well that are found in pausal positions.



Would you be willing to explain to me what the use of the pausal form was?  I've been searching it, but all I'm finding describes morphology and not much else.  I would guess its function is predominantly phonological and maybe a kind of emphatic device.  But anyway, if it isn't too much trouble, I would like to know why it would've been used and what changes the phonology and/or grammar undergo when realization (or perhaps cessation?) of the phoneme occurs.

I'm really going to have to learn these cantillation marks.  I just learned enough to pronounce new words when I was much younger.


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## Drink

theunderachiever said:


> Would you be willing to explain to me what the use of the pausal form was?  I've been searching it, but all I'm finding describes morphology and not much else.  I would guess its function is predominantly phonological and maybe a kind of emphatic device.



It's pretty simple, before a pause, words were pronounced slightly differently. It's purely phonological and has no grammatical function.



theunderachiever said:


> But anyway, if it isn't too much trouble, I would like to know why it would've been used and what changes the phonology and/or grammar undergo when realization (or perhaps cessation?) of the phoneme occurs.



There isn't a reason why, that's just how words were pronounced. It probably originated as a difference in stress placement, which later affected vowel reduction and lengthening. Just to give you more of an idea of other common examples of pausal forms:

דָּרֶךְ is the pausal form of דֶּרֶךְ
תִּשְׁמֹרוּ is the pausal form of תִּשְׁמְרוּ
עָבָדוּ is the pausal form of עָבְדוּ
בֵּיתֶךָ is the pausal form of בֵּיתְךָ
לָיְלָה is the pausal form of לַיְלָה



theunderachiever said:


> I'm really going to have to learn these cantillation marks.  I just learned enough to pronounce new words when I was much younger.



As far as pausal forms are concerned, you pretty much only need to know etnachta (the one that looks like an upside-down slingshot) and sof pasuk (the one that looks like a colon). Most verses in the Bible are actually divided into two parts. The etnachta ends the first "half" of the verse and the sof pasuk ends the verse (I put "half" in quotes, because it can be a fairly uneven division). Using your verse as an example:

first half: כִּ֣י מַ֭לְאָכָיו יְצַוֶּה־לָּ֑ךְ
second half: לִ֝שְׁמָרְךָ֗ בְּכָל־דְּרָכֶֽיךָ׃


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