rs always as going forth from God, in relation
to the world only. But although the "time of old and the days of
eternity" should be considered as the place of the going forth, yet the
plural cannot be explained, as is done by _Caspari_, from the
circumstance that "a person is always descended from several;" for the
transferring of such a _usus loquendi_ to a relation, to which in
itself it is not applicable, could be admitted only when it could be
demonstrated to be altogether common and firmly established. But the
plural might indeed, although only with some difficulty, be vindicated
and accounted for from the circumstance, that two points of going forth
are mentioned, which, as it were, suppose a twofold act. 2. But even if
the singular were used, the explanation of the act of going forth would
not be admissible. It is contrary to the idea of nouns with [Hebrew:
m], that they could be used as _nomina actionis_. It is only with
writers living at a time when the language was dying out, that a few
instances of this erroneous use can be found. [Hebrew: m] denotes the
place where, the instrument wherewith, the time wherein, and perhaps
the way and manner whereby, something is done, or is. _Further_--It may
signify also the thing itself which is done, or is; but, in no writer
of the living and flourishing language, does it ever denote the action
itself. _Caspari_, indeed, attempts to prove that "there occurs in the
older books a number, by no means inconsiderable, of nouns with
[Hebrew: m], which undeniably denote an action;" but what he has
advanced on this point requires still to be minutely sifted, and to be
more closely examined; compare, _e.g._, on Num. x. 2, my pamphlet on
"_The Day of the Lord_," S. 32. But we are quite satisfied with what is
granted by _Caspari_ himself (compare _Ewald's Lehrbuch d. Hebr. Spr._
Sec. 160), that it is against the nature and common use of this form to
denote the action. Even by this concession, a presumption is raised
against the correctness of an interpretation which would ascribe to
[Hebrew: mvca], here, and in other passages, the signification of going
forth, viewed as an action. The passages quoted by _Winer_ in favour of
the signification, _egressus_, [Pg 489] are the following: 1. Hos. vi.
3, where it is said of the Lord [Hebrew: kwHr nkvN mvcav], "firm like
the morning-dawn is His going forth." But [Hebrew: mvca] is there, not
the action, but the place and the time of the going fo