23.3 Word Order

Normal Hebrew word order is Verb - Subject - Object. We can abbreviate this V-S-O (of course, in Hebrew, this goes from right-to-left).

• וַיִּזְכֹּר אֱלֹהִים אֶת־נֹחַ
  • And God Remembered Noah (Gen 8:1)
• וַיַּחֲלֹם יוֹסֵף חֲלוֹם
  • And (Then) Joseph dreamed a dream (Gen 37:5)
• וַיִּקְרָא מֹשֶׁה אֶל־כָּל־יִשְׂרָאֵל
  • Then (and) Moses summoned all Israel (Deut 5:1)

Since we say that V-S-O is the “normal” word order, whenever we encounter a clause that is NOT V-S-O, we want to take note as to what is going on. Below is an example of S-V-O used to emphasize the subject, Adonai.

• יְהוָה יִמְלֹךְ לְעֹלָם וָעֶד
  • Adonai shall reign forever and ever (Ex 15:18)

Hebrew also can have O-V-S, particularly in poetry.

English standard word order is S-V-O, so this is the way we would translate regardless of the Hebrew word order.