Niccacci is right on this (thanks James!). The pronoun הוא is acting as 
predicate of the pronoun אתה: "you are he/it". The noun האלהים is then 
functioning appositionally: "you are he, the God". This sounds very clunky in 
English, but the sense can be conveyed with something like "You are it, O God!" 
or "You are it: you are God!" or "YOU are God!" or even "God, you're the one!"


GEORGE ATHAS
Dean of Research,
Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au)
Sydney, Australia


From: James Spinti <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Date: Friday, 16 November 2012 1:00 AM
To: Michael Abernathy 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Cc: B-Hebrew <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] הוּא after pronouns

Mike,

This is discussed in "The Verbless Clause in Biblical Hebrew," pages 227-230, 
in the article by Alviero Niccacci, Types and Functions of the Nominal 
Sentence. He specifically mentions and translates 2 Sam 7:28 in footnote 50:
50. Literally, ‘It is you that are he, namely the (only) God’.

HTH,
James
________________________________
James Spinti
E-mail marketing, Book Sales Division
Eisenbrauns, Good books for more than 35 years
Specializing in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies
jspinti at eisenbrauns dot com
Web: http://www.eisenbrauns.com
Phone: 260-445-3118
Fax: 574-269-6788

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