ABSTRACT
In Ezekiel chapters 16 and 23 the author continues the search for breakdowns in the separation of the vehicle of the marriage metaphorand the tenor. He shall apply to Ezekiel, as he did to Hosea in the last chapter, the anti-schema originally designed for Jeremiah. Greenberg sees purpose in the gender patterning: The alternation in gender of the pronominal suffixes in this verse anticipates the transition from metaphor to plain speech from vs 24 on. Greenberg and Zimmerli have exchanged their usual positions with regard to the significance of mfor f forms. Greenberg's speculations elsewhere that they may signify an intrusion of the referent into the metaphor are entirely absent in his remarks on chapter 37. Instead he maintains a strict view of them here as an arbitrary linguistic trait: Most pronominal elements referring to bone's throughout the passage are masculine, such a preference for masculine forms being present throughout the book, and characteristic of late Biblical Hebrew.
