Don't kiss אֶת־ someone




I'm embarrassed about this mistake, to be honest... always check

The mistake I made: 

In AwB lesson 60 when I taught the verb נָשַׁק 'to kiss,' I included a number of examples, all using אֶת־ for the object, such as:

הַיֶּלֶד נָשַׁק אֶת־אָחִיו - the boy kissed his brother

הָאִשָּׁה נָשְׁקָה אֶת־בְּנָהּ - the woman kissed her son

אַבְרָם נָשַׁק אֹתִי - Avram kissed me


What I should have done: 

הַיֶּלֶד נָשַׁק לְאָחִיו - the boy kissed his brother

הָאִשָּׁה נָשְׁקָה לִבְנָהּ - the woman kissed her son

אַבְרָם נָשַׁק לִי - Avram kissed me

The object of the verb נָשַׁק takes the lamed preposition, not אֶת־.


The evidence:

וַיִּשַּׁ֥ק יַעֲקֹ֖ב לְרָחֵ֑ל  - Jacob kissed Rachel (Gen.29:11)

וַיִּשַּׁ֥ק לָהֶ֖ם - and he kissed them (Gen.48:10)

וַתִּשַּׁ֤ק עָרְפָּה֙ לַחֲמֹותָ֔הּ - Orpah kissed her mother-in-law (Rut.1:14)

אֶשְּׁקָה־נָּא֙ לְאָבִ֣י וּלְאִמִּ֔י - Let me kiss my father and my mother (1 Ki.19:20)

And there are many more examples; the lamed preposition is by far the most common with this verb.


Thankfully, there are a very few counterexamples to vindicate my poor use of אֶת־:

וַֽיִּשְּׁק֣וּ׀ אִ֣ישׁ אֶת־רֵעֵ֗הוּ - and they kissed each other (1 Sam.20:41)

וַיִּשָּׁקֵ֑הוּ - and he kissed him (1 Sam.10:1, Gen.33:4)

But these are the only counterexamples I could find, so I definitely recommend using lamed with נָשַׁק.


To find evidence: search on lemma נשׁק

Comments

  1. Ryan BlackwelderJune 29, 2022 at 10:45 PM

    I didn't know off hand either. Prepositions can be tricky as they sometimes differ from English.

    ReplyDelete

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