Bible Lexicons

The demonstrative pronouns are זֶה‎, fem. זֹאת‎, plur. אֵ֫לֶּה‎ (§ 34), hic, haec (hoc), hi, &c., and the personal pronoun הוּא‎, likewise used as a demonstrative, fem. הִיא‎, plur. masc. הֵ֫מָּה‎, fem. הֵ֫נָּה‎ (§32b), is, ea (id), or ille, &c., ii, eae or illi, &c. The distinction between them in usage is that זֶה‎ (like hic, ὅδε) almost always points out a (new) person or thing present, while הוּא‎ (like is, ille, αὐτός, ἐκεῖνος) refers to a person or thing already mentioned or known (see the examples below).^[1]

Rem. 1. Compare the instructive examples in Genesis 32:3, Judges 7:4 of whom I say unto thee, this (זֶה‎) shall go with thee, he (הוּא‎) shall go with thee (so afterwards with negatives). Moreover, הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה‎ this day, i.e. the actual day on which one is speaking or writing (Genesis 26:33, &c.), but הַיּוֹם הַהוּא‎ the day or period of which the historian has just been speaking (Genesis 15:18, Genesis 26:32) or of which the prophet has just been foretelling (Isaiah 5:30, Isaiah 7:18, 20 ff.) and of which he continues to speak or foretell. Nevertheless זֶה‎ and אֵ֫לֶּה‎ are also found in certain common combinations where הוּא‎ and הֵ֫מָּה‎ would be expected, and vice versa; thus almost always הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה‎, plur. הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵ֫לֶּה‎, but בַּיָּמִים הָהֵ֫מָּה‎ or בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם‎—With a secondary sense of contempt (like Latin iste) זֶה‎ occurs, e.g. in 1 Samuel 10:27, 1 Samuel 21:16, 1 Kings 22:27, Isaiah 6:10, &c. In the sense of the neuter, this, זֹאת‎ is more common than זֶה‎, as Isaiah 5:25, Isaiah 43:9, &c., but הוּא‎ more common than הִיא‎.

2. Both זֶה‎ and הוּא‎ are sometimes used almost as enclitics to emphasize interrogative words (like the Latin nam in quisnam; cf. also quis tandem); e.g. Job 38:2 מִי זֶה‎ who now (darkeneth, &c.)...? 1 Samuel 17:55 f., Isaiah 63:1, Jeremiah 49:19, Psalms 24:8, Psalms 25:12, &c; מַה־זֶּה‎ what now? 1 Samuel 10:11; how now? Genesis 27:20; why now? Judges 18:24; but before the verb עָשָׂה‎ it is usually מַה־זֹּאת‎ Genesis 3:13, Genesis 12:18, Exodus 14:5, Judges 15:11; לָ֫מָּה־זֶּה‎ wherefore now? Genesis 18:13, Genesis 25:22, 1 Samuel 17:28, 2 Samuel 12:23, &c.—So also מִי־הוּא‎ Isaiah 50:9, Job 4:7 ff.; and still more emphatically מִי הוּא־זֶה‎ Psalms 24:10, Jeremiah 30:21.

3. זֶה‎ is likewise used as an enclitic (see c above): (a) of place, in such passages as Genesis 27:21 הַֽאַתָּה זֶה וגו׳‎ whether thou (that art here) be my son Esau? 2 Samuel 2:20 is it thou? הִנֵּה־זֶה‎ behold, here, 1 Kings 19:5, Isaiah 21:9;^[2] cf. also the strengthen- ing of the separate pronoun by הוּא‎ Isaiah 43:25 (אָֽנׄכֹי‎), 1 Samuel 7:28, Isaiah 37:16, Psalms 44:5 (אַתָּה‎), and אֵ֫לֶּה הֵם‎ these are, Genesis 25:16, 1 Samuel 4:8; (b) of time: עַתָּה זֶה‎ now, 1 Kings 17:24; just now, 2 Kings 5:22; and rather frequently before words denoting number, e.g. Genesis 27:36 זֶה פַֽעֲמַ֫יִם‎ twice, now; cf. 31:38, 2 Samuel 14:2, Job 1:12, Job 7:3, Job 19:3; separated from the numeral in Genesis 31:41 זֶה־לִּי‎ elliptically for this, i.e. this present period, is to me, i.e. makes altogether, twenty years, &c. The other examples are similarly elliptical.