Seller, goods, buyer, price · Hebrew marking · working claim, revisable
The seller is the subject. A spelled subject is a noun or a pronoun in front of the verb: Nehemiah 13:16 וְהַצֹּרִים with the participle וּמֹכְרִים, Leviticus 25:16 הוּא מֹכֵר, Exodus 21:7 יִמְכֹּר אִישׁ as the Brown-Driver-Briggs occurrence line prints it, Milog הוּא מָכַר. Several printed lines show the seller only in the verb: Genesis 37:28 וַיִּמְכְּרוּ is third person plural. The nouns in these lines take no case ending. Hebrew has no ergative on these clauses.
מָכַר · makhar · paʿal, root מ־כ־ר. Pealim’s table for לִמְכֹּר labels the binyan paʿal and the root מ - כ - ר, and glosses the verb “to sell.” The past third-person masculine is מָכַר machar in Pealim’s romanization, “he / it sold.” The infinitive is לִמְכֹּר ~ למכור limkor. English Wiktionary’s headword is מָכַר makhár, Modern Israeli /maˈχaʁ/, paʿal, glossed “to sell,” with passive counterpart נִמְכַּר and antonym קָנָה. The infinitive there is למכור / לִמְכֹּר. The action noun is מְכִירָה. The passive participle is מָכוּר. That entry prints no clause. Hebrew Wiktionary files מָכַר as פָּעַל (קַל), root מ־כ־ר, gzarat ha-shlemim, and glosses sense 1 as exchanging something one owns for money or its equivalent, החליף דבר־מה שבבעלותו לאחר בתמורה לכסף או שווה־כסף. בתמורה there is the wording of the definition. Milog’s headword מָכַר is a verb, root מכ"ר, binyan פעל. Sense 1 is העביר לרשות אחר תמורת תשלום, “transferred into another’s possession in return for a payment.” תמורת there is the wording of the definition. Milog prints no clause for sense 1. The Academy of the Hebrew Language’s 2019 legal term list equates the nouns מֶכֶר and מְכִירָה with sale. That page prints no verb and no clause. Even-Shoshan was not opened. Morfix returned no entry text. Klein’s מכר page on Sefaria returned the title and no body. No gloss from those three is cited.
The goods are the direct object. BibleHub’s morphology labels אֶת as the direct-object marker on the lines that print it. Genesis 37:28 is וַיִּמְכְּרוּ אֶת־יוֹסֵף לַיִּשְׁמְעֵאלִים בְּעֶשְׂרִים כָּסֶף. אֶת־יוֹסֵף is Joseph, the person sold. לַיִּשְׁמְעֵאלִים is the buyer, לְ־ plus the Ishmaelites. בְּעֶשְׂרִים כָּסֶף is the price, בְּ־ plus twenty of silver. Genesis 25:31 is מִכְרָה כַיּוֹם אֶת־בְּכֹרָתְךָ לִי. The birthright is definite, with אֶת. לִי is the buyer. כַיּוֹם is “this day.” It is not a price. Exodus 21:35, which Hebrew Wiktionary quotes, is וּמָכְרוּ אֶת־הַשּׁוֹר הַחַי. The live ox is the goods, with אֶת. The clause prints no buyer and no price. The silver in that verse is the object of וְחָצוּ, “and they shall divide its money.” 2 Kings 4:7 is מִכְרִי אֶת־הַשֶּׁמֶן, “sell the oil,” with אֶת, and no buyer and no price. Nehemiah 5:8 prints תִּמְכְּרוּ אֶת־אֲחֵיכֶם, “you sell your brothers,” with אֶת. Proverbs 31:24, as Hebrew Wiktionary prints it, is סָדִין עָשְׂתָה וַתִּמְכֹּר. The linen is indefinite. That sell clause prints no אֶת, no buyer, and no price.
A definite object is not אֶת in every line opened here. Joel 4:3, which English editions number 3:3, is וְהַיַּלְדָּה מָכְרוּ בַיַּיִן. The girl is definite and fronted. The line prints no אֶת. בַיַּיִן is the price, בְּ־ plus the wine. Psalm 44:13, which English editions number 44:12, and which Brown-Driver-Briggs cites as 44:13, is תִּמְכֹּר־עַמְּךָ בְלֹא־הוֹן. The people are definite, a noun with a suffix. The line prints no אֶת. בְלֹא־הוֹן is בְּ־ plus “no wealth.” Brown-Driver-Briggs states the price formula as “sell (with בְּ pret. Amos 2:6; Joel 4:3; Psalm 44:13) followed by accusative.” Amos 2:6 is the infinitive מִכְרָם בַּכֶּסֶף צַדִּיק וְאֶבְיוֹן בַּעֲבוּר נַעֲלָיִם. בַּכֶּסֶף is בְּ־ plus the silver. בַּעֲבוּר נַעֲלָיִם is “for a pair of sandals.” בַּעֲבוּר is not the same preposition as בְּ־. The righteous and the poor are the objects of the infinitive. Neither takes אֶת in that line. Deuteronomy 21:14, which Hebrew Wiktionary quotes, is וּמָכֹר לֹא־תִמְכְּרֶנָּה בַּכָּסֶף. מָכֹר is the infinitive absolute beside the finite verb. The suffix ־נָּה is the woman sold. It is not the buyer. בַּכָּסֶף is the price. The line prints no buyer.
The buyer, when a commercial line prints one, is לְ־. Genesis 37:28 has לַיִּשְׁמְעֵאלִים. Genesis 25:31 has לִי. Leviticus 25:14 is תִמְכְּרוּ מִמְכָּר לַעֲמִיתֶךָ, a cognate object מִמְכָּר and the buyer לַעֲמִיתֶךָ. Leviticus 25:15–16, as the Brown-Driver-Briggs occurrence list prints them, are יִמְכָּר־לָךְ and הוּא מֹכֵר לָךְ. Leviticus 25:27 in that list is מָכַר־לוֹ, “to whom he sold it.” Nehemiah 13:16 is וּמֹכְרִים בַּשַּׁבָּת לִבְנֵי יְהוּדָה. לִבְנֵי יְהוּדָה is the buyer. בַּשַּׁבָּת is the sabbath, the time. It is not the price. Hebrew Wiktionary prints those Tyrian words and labels them Nehemiah 5:8. The words are Nehemiah 13:16. Nehemiah 5:8 is a different verse. No line opened here puts the buyer in a second direct object, and no line puts the buyer in אֶת. The accusative, אֶת or a suffix on the verb, is the thing or the person sold.
נִמְכַּר · nimkar · nifʿal. English Wiktionary names it the passive counterpart and prints no clause. Hebrew Wiktionary’s root table gives the past נִמְכַּר, the participle נִמְכָּר, the future יִמָּכֵר, the imperative הִמָּכֵר, and the infinitive לְהִמָּכֵר. Brown-Driver-Briggs glosses the nifʿal as “be sold.” Leviticus 25:23 is וְהָאָרֶץ לֹא תִמָּכֵר לִצְמִתֻת. The land is the subject. It is the goods. לִצְמִתֻת is “in perpetuity.” It is not a buyer, and it is not a price. Nehemiah 5:8 is הַנִּמְכָּרִים לַגּוֹיִם and וְנִמְכְּרוּ־לָנוּ. The people sold are the subject. לַגּוֹיִם and לָנוּ are the buyers. Leviticus 25:39, as that occurrence list prints it, is וְנִמְכַּר־לָךְ. Brown-Driver-Briggs glosses it as selling himself to you. No nifʿal line opened here makes the buyer the subject. The English page’s Wasn’t Chris sold a lawnmower has no Hebrew pair in these entries.
Where this frame diverges from English sell X to Y for Z. The English page prints Pat sold a lawnmower to Chris and Pat sold Chris a lawnmower for twenty dollars. The goods are an object. The buyer is to plus a noun, or a bare first object. The price is for plus the sum. מָכַר puts the goods in the direct object, as English puts them in an object. A definite one of those objects takes אֶת on the lines that print it: אֶת־יוֹסֵף, אֶת־בְּכֹרָתְךָ, אֶת־הַשּׁוֹר, אֶת־הַשֶּׁמֶן. Joel’s הַיַּלְדָּה and the psalm’s עַמְּךָ are definite and print no אֶת. The buyer is לְ־, לִי and לַיִּשְׁמְעֵאלִים and לַעֲמִיתֶךָ, not a bare first object and not English to. The price, where Genesis 37:28, Deuteronomy 21:14, Amos 2:6, Joel 4:3, or Psalm 44:13 prints one, is בְּ־, בְּעֶשְׂרִים כָּסֶף and בַּכָּסֶף and בַיַּיִן, not for. Amos also prints בַּעֲבוּר on the sandals. תְּמוּרַת and בִּתְמוּרָה are the wording of Milog’s and Hebrew Wiktionary’s definitions. No finite clause opened here puts the price in תְּמוּרַת. A bare buyer beside the goods is unprinted. English sold Chris a lawnmower has no Hebrew pair in these entries. Nifʿal נִמְכַּר makes the goods the subject. English Chris was sold a lawnmower makes the buyer the subject.