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First-Person-Plural Cohortative / 1cp Imperfect in Divine Speech (Hebrew)

Definition

The "cohortative" (forma coortativa / volitive yiqtol) is the first-person volitive form of Biblical Hebrew: morphologically a prefix-conjugation (yiqtol / imperfect) with an optional paragogic he suffix (-ָה), carrying self-exhortation, resolve, wish, or (when 1cp) mutual proposal — "let me…" / "let us…". When a 1cp cohortative is placed on YHWH's lips with no visible human addressee, the question of to whom God is speaking becomes a grammatical-theological crux with four interpretive options traditionally surveyed: (1) plural of majesty / deliberation, (2) address to the divine council, (3) intra-Trinitarian dialogue, (4) plural of self-exhortation / self-summons. GKC §124g–n catalogues the relevant "plurals" (majestatis, deliberationis, extensionis, intensitatis); Waltke–O'Connor §7.4.3 discusses the "honorific plural" and self-deliberation; IBHS §34.5.1–2 treats the cohortative proper.

  1. Paragogic-he cohortative (Gen 11:7 נֵרְדָה nērĕdāh, Gen 11:7 וְנָבְלָה wənāblāh) — overt volitive morphology
  2. Unmarked 1cp yiqtol with cohortative force (Gen 1:26 נַעֲשֶׂה naʿăśeh) — the paragogic he is optional, especially on III-he roots where it would fuse with the final he of the lexeme
  3. Non-volitive 1cp pronominal/suffixal echoes in the same contexts (Gen 3:22 מִמֶּ֔נּוּ mimmennû "from us" 1cp; Isa 6:8 לָ֑נוּ lānû "for us" 1cp) — not cohortative but participant in the same referential puzzle

Form Recognition

  • Preformative נ- (nun) = the 1cp prefix on all yiqtol verbs; contrast 1cs א- (aleph)
  • Optional paragogic -āh (-ָה) appended to the 1cp yiqtol: diagnostic of cohortative mood when present, though its absence does not exclude cohortative force
  • III-he roots (עשׂה, היה, רדה) often do not take the paragogic -āh because the root's own final -eh already supplies the vocalic ending; 1cp yiqtol of III-he = naʿăśeh, nihyeh, nirʾeh
  • BHSA / ETCBC tagging note: BHSA does not encode a separate "cohortative" feature. The parser returns Verb.Qal.Impf.1p for both ordinary 1cp imperfect and cohortative. Cohortative force must be read off from (a) paragogic -āh, (b) volitive context, (c) clause-initial position, (d) chained volitives (imperative + weqatal + yiqtol).
  • Parser codes: sp=verb vt=impf ps=p1 nu=pl returns all 1cp prefix-conjugation verbs; no sub-filter for cohortative proper
  • Imperative-anchored clusters (Gen 11:3, 11:4, 11:7): the presence of a paired imperative hābâ "come!" followed by 1cp yiqtol is a strong signal that the yiqtol is cohortative — "come, let us…"

Functions with Examples

All examples parsed with hebrew_parser.py --verse.

1. Divine 1cp Cohortative — naʿăśeh / nērĕdāh

The two canonical cases of YHWH speaking of himself in the 1cp with volitive force:

Reference Hebrew Parsing KJV Translation
Gen 1:26 נַֽעֲשֶׂ֥ה אָדָ֛ם בְּצַלְמֵ֖נוּ כִּדְמוּתֵ֑נוּ עשׂה Qal.Impf.1p + bĕṣalmēnû 1cp.suff + kidmûtēnû 1cp.suff "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness"
Gen 11:7 הָ֚בָה נֵֽרְדָ֔ה וְנָבְלָ֥ה שָׁ֖ם שְׂפָתָ֑ם יהב Qal.Impv.2ms + ירד Qal.Impf.1p (+āh) + בלל Qal.Impf.1p (+āh) "Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language"

Observations from the parse: - Gen 1:26 naʿăśeh carries NO paragogic he, but (a) the III-he root עשׂה would fuse any suffix, and (b) the following 1cp possessive suffixes bĕṣalmēnû / kidmûtēnû confirm the plurality is not merely morphological: God also speaks of "our image" and "our likeness". - Gen 11:7 shows the textbook cohortative chain: imperative hābâ → 1cp yiqtol + -āh → 1cp weyiqtol + -āh — the unambiguous cohortative shape — placed verbatim on YHWH's lips, mirroring the human builders' own hābâ…nilbĕnāh…niśrĕpāh…nibneh…naʿăśeh cluster of Gen 11:3–4 (parser: Gen 11:3 נִלְבְּנָ֣ה, נִשְׂרְפָ֖ה; Gen 11:4 נִבְנֶה, נַֽעֲשֶׂה — all Verb.Qal.Impf.1p). The divine nērĕdāh is thus a grammatically exact counter-cohortative to the Babel-builders' cohortatives.

2. Divine 1cp Pronoun / Suffix without Cohortative Verb

These are not cohortatives (no 1cp yiqtol) but feed the same interpretive debate because the plurality-of-YHWH is carried by a pronominal element:

Reference Hebrew Parsing KJV Translation
Gen 3:22 הֵן הָאָדָם הָיָה כְּאַחַד מִמֶּנּוּ היה Qal.Perf.3ms + mimmennû מן + 1cp.suff "Behold, the man is become as one of us"
Isa 6:8 אֶת־מִי אֶשְׁלַח וּמִי יֵלֶךְ־לָנוּ שׁלח Qal.Impf.1s + הלך Qal.Impf.3ms + lānû ל + 1cp.suff "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"

Observations: - Gen 3:22 uses a 3ms Qal perfect of היה with the construct phrase כְּאַחַד kĕʾaḥad "as one" + the 1cp ablative pronoun mimmennû ("from us"). No cohortative; the plurality is pronominal-suffixal only, matched to the 1cp possessive suffixes of 1:26. - Isa 6:8 is grammatically striking: the main verb shifts from 1cs to 3ms within a single clause — אֶשְׁלַח "shall I send" (Qal.Impf.1s, אליapreformative) immediately paralleled by יֵלֶךְ "will go" (Qal.Impf.3ms) complemented by לָנוּ "for us" (1cp suffix on ל). The grammatical number of the subject shifts between the two interrogatives, while the indirect object commits to 1cp. No cohortative, but the 1cs→1cp oscillation is the same pattern in compressed form.

3. Non-Divine 1cp Cohortatives (Baseline Usage)

For contrast, the same morphology is everywhere in human speech — it is not intrinsically theological:

Reference Hebrew Parsing KJV Translation
Gen 11:3 נִלְבְּנָה לְבֵנִים וְנִשְׂרְפָה לִשְׂרֵפָה לבן Qal.Impf.1p (+āh) + שׂרף Qal.Impf.1p (+āh) "Let us make brick, and burn them throughly"
Gen 11:4 נִבְנֶה־לָּנוּ עִיר וּמִגְדָּל … וְנַעֲשֶׂה־לָּנוּ שֵׁם בנה Qal.Impf.1p + עשׂה Qal.Impf.1p "Let us build us a city and a tower … and let us make us a name"
Gen 19:2 נָלִין לין Qal.Impf.1p "we will abide" (hospitality volitive)
Gen 22:5 נֵלְכָה עַד־כֹּה וְנִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה הלך Qal.Impf.1p (+āh) + חוה hsht.Impf.1p "we will go yonder and worship"

This baseline shows the form carries mutual proposal / shared resolve among humans; its theological force in Gen 1:26, 11:7, 3:22, Isa 6:8 derives not from morphology but from the fact that the speaker is YHWH and the addressee is not overtly identified.

The Four Interpretive Options

Standard grammars (GKC §124g–n "Plural of Majesty, Deliberation, Intensity"; Waltke–O'Connor §7.4.3 "Honorific Plurals"; IBHS §34.5.1 cohortative; Joüon–Muraoka §114e, §136d–e) systematically canvass four options. Each is compatible with the morphology; none is excluded by it. This reference documents them without adjudication.

Option 1 — Plural of Majesty / Plural of Deliberation (pluralis majestatis / pluralis deliberationis)

Claim: A royal or divine self-reference plural, analogous to the "royal we" of monarchs; related to the morphologically plural noun אֱלֹהִים used with singular verbs (Gen 1:1 בָּרָא bārāʾ 3ms + אֱלֹהִים) and to the "plural of intensification" in Hebrew common nouns (חַיִּים ḥayyîm "life," דָּמִים dāmîm "bloodshed").

Grammatical support: Hebrew does use morphologically plural forms for intensive/honorific reference to single entities (GKC §124g: pluralis extensionis, pluralis majestatis, pluralis excellentiae). The pairing of plural אֱלֹהִים with singular verbs throughout Genesis 1 (bārāʾ, wayyōmer, wayyarʾ, wayyiqrāʾ — all Qal.Wayq.3ms) is often cited as a parallel.

Grammatical difficulty: GKC §124g itself notes caution. No other ANE deity uses 1cp self-reference, and the royal "we" is poorly attested for Hebrew kings — David, Solomon, etc. speak as 1cs. Genuine "deliberative" 1cp (pluralis deliberationis) is well attested for humans in council, but the single-speaker royal-we is hard to document in Hebrew prose.

Variant — Plural of Deliberation / Self-Encouragement: GKC §124g-N4 allows a "plural of self-deliberation" where a single speaker uses 1cp while deliberating internally (cf. 2 Sam 24:14). On this reading the divine 1cp is deliberative, not plural in reference.

Option 2 — Address to the Divine Council (sôd YHWH)

Claim: YHWH speaks in the 1cp because he is addressing the assembled heavenly beings (בְּנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים / קְדֹשִׁים / the sôd), including them in the deliberation even though the executive act remains his alone.

Grammatical support: The divine council is explicitly present in: - 1 Kings 22:19–22 (YHWH enthroned, כָּל־צְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם standing before him; cohortative-like exchange: מִי יְפַתֶּה mî yĕpatteh "who will entice?") - Job 1:6; 2:1 (בְּנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים come to present themselves) - Psa 82:1 (אֱלֹהִים נִצָּב בַּעֲדַת־אֵל "God stands in the council of El") - Psa 89:6–8 (סוֹד־קְדֹשִׁים "council of holy ones") - Isa 6:1–8 — the nearest contextual parallel to the 1cp pronoun in question: Isaiah sees YHWH enthroned, surrounded by seraphim, and then hears YHWH say "whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" — the 1cp לָנוּ plausibly indexes the already-visible council.

Grammatical fit: The Isa 6:8 pattern (1cs אֶשְׁלַח "I will send" + 1cp לָנוּ "for us") is exactly the shape predicted if the council is the referent of 1cp: the sending decision is YHWH's (1cs) but the mission is undertaken on behalf of the whole assembly (1cp).

Grammatical difficulty: In Gen 1:26 and 11:7 no council is narratively present in the immediate context; the reader must import it from the wider canon.

Option 3 — Intra-Trinitarian / Intra-Divine Dialogue

Claim: The 1cp signals internal plurality within the one God — persons within the Godhead in conversation with one another. Classical Christian reading since Justin, Irenaeus, Augustine; medieval Jewish counter-reading that the speaker is God + his šĕkînāh / wisdom / angels.

Grammatical support: - Gen 1:26 / 1:27 alternation: 1:26 naʿăśeh (1cp cohortative) + bĕṣalmēnû / kidmûtēnû (1cp possessive suffixes ×2) is immediately followed in 1:27 by wayyibrāʾ (Qal.Wayq.3ms) + bĕṣalmô (3ms suffix) + bĕṣelem ʾĕlōhîm bārāʾ ʾōtô — the number shift from 1cp deliberation to 3ms execution within two verses is the key data point. One speaker, plural reference; one executor, singular verb. - Gen 3:22 kĕʾaḥad mimmennû "as one of us" — the construct ʾaḥad + min + 1cp grammatically requires a group that includes the speaker; "one of us" is not reducible to a royal-we without loss. - Gen 11:7 nērĕdāh matches the builders' nibneh / naʿăśeh in grammatical shape, setting up a counter-cohortative between one plural subject (Babel) and another (the divine speaker).

Grammatical difficulty: The explicit NT Trinitarian categories are not in the Hebrew text; the inference is theological, not morphological. Most modern Hebrew grammarians (GKC, Joüon–Muraoka, Waltke–O'Connor) list this option as a later Christian reading rather than a primary grammatical analysis.

Option 4 — Plural of Self-Exhortation / Self-Summons (reflexive volitive)

Claim: The cohortative 1cp is a rhetorical device of self-summons, functionally equivalent to 1cs self-exhortation, and the "us" is not referential at all — it is the speaker stirring himself to action. Cf. 2 Sam 24:14 nippĕlāh-nāʾ bĕyad-YHWH "let us fall into YHWH's hand" (David speaking), which some read as self-deliberation.

Grammatical support: The cohortative proper (yiqtol + -āh) is a volitive, and the 1cp form is well attested in human speech where the "us" is genuinely plural (Gen 11:3–4 builders). But where a single speaker uses 1cp in internal deliberation, the "us" can collapse to a rhetorical device.

Grammatical difficulty: The 1cp pronominal suffixes of Gen 1:26 (bĕṣalmēnû / kidmûtēnû), Gen 3:22 (mimmennû), and Isa 6:8 (lānû) go beyond the volitive verb — they commit the grammar to a genuinely plural referent of "us," which is harder to reduce to a purely rhetorical self-summons.

Distribution Summary

Drawing the full list of 1cp yiqtol forms from hebrew_parser.py --search "sp=verb vt=impf ps=p1 nu=pl":

  • Overwhelming majority = human speakers (Gen 11:3–4 builders; Gen 19:2 Lot's hospitality; Gen 22:5 Abraham to servants; Gen 19:5, 32 Sodomites and Lot's daughters; etc.).
  • Divine speaker = 3 passages: Gen 1:26 (creation of mankind), Gen 11:7 (descent to Babel), and (by pronominal extension without 1cp verb) Gen 3:22 (expulsion from Eden) + Isa 6:8 (prophetic commissioning).
  • Clustering: All three Genesis cases (1:26, 3:22, 11:7) fall within the primeval history (Gen 1–11), which is programmatically the canonically-framed section where divine-human boundaries are being established/contested. Isa 6:8 is the only non-Genesis attestation and occurs at the inaugural prophetic throne-vision where the sôd is explicitly present.
Form Parsing Function Example
1cs yiqtol (no -āh) Verb.Qal.Impf.1s ordinary "I will…" Isa 6:8 אֶשְׁלַח "whom shall I send"
1cs cohortative (+ -āh) Verb.Qal.Impf.1s "let me…" / "I resolve to…" Psa 78:2 אֶפְתְּחָה בְמָשָׁל פִּי "let me open my mouth in a parable"
1cp yiqtol (unmarked) Verb.Qal.Impf.1p "we will…" / "let us…" (III-he default) Gen 1:26 נַעֲשֶׂה
1cp cohortative (+ -āh) Verb.Qal.Impf.1p "let us…" (overtly volitive) Gen 11:7 נֵרְדָה / נָבְלָה
3ms jussive (apocopated) Verb.Qal.Impf.3ms "let him/it…" Gen 1:3 יְהִי
3ms wayyiqtol (narrative) Verb.Qal.Wayq.3ms "and he did…" Gen 1:27 וַיִּבְרָא (executed what 1:26 proposed)
Plural noun + singular verb Noun.mp.Abs + Verb.3ms honorific/intensive plural Gen 1:1 בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים

The number-shift across Gen 1:26 → 1:27 (1cp cohortative proposal → 3ms wayyiqtol execution) is the signature: deliberation in the plural, action in the singular.

See also: - ehyeh-1cs-imperfect — 1cs Qal imperfect of היה and its morphological proximity to the Tetragrammaton; parallel 1cs↔3ms rotation at Exo 3:14–15 - qal-imperfect — general Qal imperfect semantics and cohortative-overlap note - niphal-imperfect-divine-denial — another formulaic divine-speech construction

Grammar-Reference Citations

  • GKC §124g–n — "Plurals indicating comprehension, extension, amplification, and majesty"; §124g notes divine 1cp at Gen 1:26, 3:22, 11:7, Isa 6:8 and cautions the pluralis majestatis reading; §124g-N4 offers pluralis deliberationis
  • Waltke–O'Connor (IBHS) §7.4.3 — "Honorific plurals" and singular-verb-with-plural-noun as grammatical background; IBHS §34.5.1–2 treats the cohortative as a volitive yiqtol with paragogic -āh
  • Joüon–Muraoka §114e, §136d–e — the cohortative proper (mood of resolve / self-exhortation); §136d distinguishes "real plural" from "plural of extension" and "plural of majesty"
  • GKC §145h — the phenomenon of plural אֱלֹהִים with singular predicate as the governing data-point in the background
  • Cassuto (Genesis I), Westermann (Genesis 1–11), Sarna (JPS Genesis) — standard exegetical surveys of the four-option debate

Inventory Note

The form's rarity in divine speech is itself diagnostic: across the full Hebrew Bible, YHWH speaks in 1cs thousands of times (see ehyeh-1cs-imperfect for one form alone). The 1cp occurs in Gen 1:26, Gen 3:22, Gen 11:7, Isa 6:8 — and, by some counts, the ambiguous לָנוּ of Isa 6:8 and the enigmatic plural address at Song 1:11 naʿăśeh-llāk (though Song 1:11 is speaker-contested). The cluster is small enough to be treated as a discrete phenomenon rather than a productive grammatical pattern.

Generated from: hebrew_parser.py --verse "Gen 1:26", "Gen 11:7", "Gen 3:22", "Isa 6:8"; --search "sp=verb vt=impf ps=p1 nu=pl" --limit 20; --lemma "עשׂה". Context-neutral: all four interpretive options (majesty/deliberation, divine council, Trinity, self-exhortation) documented with their grammatical support and difficulties without adjudication.