The ''pluralis excellentiae'' is the name given by early grammarians of Hebrew, such as

Wilhelm Gesenius Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Gesenius (3 February 178623 October 1842) was a German orientalist, lexicographer, Christian Hebraist, Lutheran theologian, Biblical scholar and critic. Biography Gesenius was born at Nordhausen. In 1803 he became ...

, to a perceived anomaly in the grammatical number and syntax in Hebrew. In some cases it bears some similarity to the ' or "royal plural". However the idea of excellence is not necessarily present: Hebrew distinguishes grammatical number by endings in nouns, verbs and adjectives. A grammatical phenomenon occurs with a small number of Hebrew nouns, such as ''

elohim ''Elohim'' (: ), the plural of (), is a Hebrew word meaning "gods". Although the word is plural, in the Hebrew Bible it usually takes a singular verb and refers to a single deity, particularly (but not always) the God of Israel. At other times ...

'' 'great god' and ''

behemoth Behemoth (; he, בְּהֵמוֹת, ''bəhēmōṯ'') is a beast from the biblical Book of Job, and is a form of the primeval chaos-monster created by God at the beginning of creation; he is paired with the other chaos-monster, Leviathan, and ...

'' 'giant beast', whereby a grammatically redundant plural ending (''-im'', usually masculine plural, or ''-oth'', usually feminine plural) is attached to a noun, but the noun nevertheless continues to take singular verbs and adjectives.

Abstract plurals with feminine singular

Abstract plurals with ''-im'' endings such as in words for 'uprightness', 'blessedness', 'sweetness', 'youth', 'strength', etc. take feminine singular verbs and adjectives.

Behemoth—beasts or great beast

Sometimes the normal plural of a noun and the intensive plural are the same. For example ''behem'', 'beast' singular, conjugates with the common feminine plural ''-oth'', and ''behemoth'' + plural verb in, for example, the

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

account of

Noah's Ark Noah's Ark ( he, תיבת נח; Biblical Hebrew: ''Tevat Noaḥ'')The word "ark" in modern English comes from Old English ''aerca'', meaning a chest or box. (See Cresswell 2010, p.22) The Hebrew word for the vessel, ''teva'', occurs twice in ...

indicates 'beasts' plural. But in the

Book of Job The Book of Job (; hbo, אִיּוֹב, ʾIyyōḇ), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), and is the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Scholars a ...

''behemoth'' + singular verb indicates 'giant beast', i.e. the sense of ''

'' in English. ''

Leviathan Leviathan (; he, לִוְיָתָן, ) is a sea serpent noted in theology and mythology. It is referenced in several books of the Hebrew Bible, including Psalms, the Book of Job, the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Amos, and, according to some ...

'' is also intensive: "You crushed the heads of Leviathan. You gave it as food for people, for beasts".

Intensive plurals with masculine or feminine singular

An adjective qualifying a noun in the plural of excellence is more often found in the singular than in the plural. Examples of the singular include * Deuteronomy 5:23 * 1 Samuel 17:26, 36 * 2 Kings 19:4, 16 ''Elohim hay'' 'living God'. * Psalm 7:10 "a just God" * Isaiah 19:4 ''adonim qaseh'' 'a hard master' * Isaiah 37:4, 17 * Jeremiah 10:10, 23:36

Objections

Against this are objections such as that of the Hebrew grammarian and

Messianic Jewish Messianic Judaism ( he, or , ) is a modernist and syncretic movement of Protestant Christianity that incorporates some elements of Judaism and other Jewish traditions into evangelicalism. It emerged in the 1960s and 1970s from the earlier H ...

missionary C. W. H. Pauli (1863) that Gesenius had misunderstood the grammar and perpetuated a hoax. Pauli writes, "Such a ''pluralis excellentiæ'' was, however, a thing unknown to Moses and the prophets. . . . kings throughout ת״ב״ד, (the Law, the Prophets. and the Hagiographa) speak in the singular, and not as modern kings in the plural. They do not say ''we,'' but I, command; as in Gen xli. 41 ; Dan. iii. 29 ; Ezra i. 2, etc., etc."

Other correspondence of number in Hebrew

Singular nouns may also take plural adjectives.

Related grammatical constructs

Distinct from the apparent "plural" of nouns with singular verbs is the "plural of deliberation", for "Let us make man in our own image". Steven L. Bridge; ''Getting the Old Testament: What It Meant to Them'', 2009: "Scholars advance two possibilities. One is that the plural is appropriate given the self-reflective tone of the passage. This grammatical construction is called a 'plural of deliberation.' Similar examples can be found in Gen 11:7–8, Isa 6:8 ...". The plural is usually identified by a -''im, -ot,'' or -''ei'' ending.

References

{{reflist Grammatical number Hebrew grammar de:Pluralis excellentiae