Nouns which indicate males or things which pertain to males are masculine; those which indicate females or things which pertain to females are feminine. But those which express other things are common; and, although most of them occur in the Bible either in masculine or feminine, it approaches the neuter case. Some occur as feminine only once and in all others are always found to be masculine and contrarily some are masculine in only one place. E.g.: the word 
a wing is in the feminine gender everywhere except twice (in the second book of Chronicles chapter 3, verses 11 and 12) and for this reason considered common gender by the writers. Were it not for this most beloved book of Chronicles they would without doubt place it among the feminines. If we had more such nouns perhaps all rules would change and those which now number among the exceptions would be regular and contrarily, many regulars would be exceptions. For, as I said in a word, there are many who wrote a grammar of the Scriptures but none who wrote a grammar of the Hebrew language. But to the proposition. We see also how the Scriptures refer in the same sentence one noun to both genders indiscriminately, like Genesis chapter 32, verse 9 
if Esau should come to the one camp and smite it; and in this matter I shall entirely agree with Rabbi Shelomo (Rashi), who states 
“everything which doesn’t have the spirit of life express it either in masculine or feminine gender.” See his commentary in the place referred to.1
Adjectives are changed from masculine to feminine by adding to them a 
or 
, with a kametz 
, and by changing the syllables in accordance with the preceding rules; e.g., 
wise 
feminine, 
great 
feminine, 
blessed 
feminine, 
visiting 
and 
feminine, 
a man 
a woman, 
a master 
a mistress.
The exceptions are those which have a double segol 
, both of which should be changed into 
. But in order that two should not occur at the beginning of a word the first is changed into a patach, like 
a king 
a queen, which according to the preceding rules ought to be 
.
Masculine adjectives ending in a 
change the last syllable into a 
like 
pretty into 
seeing, feminine 
, etc. Further, those ending in 
are changed in feminine either like the preceding or simply by adding a 
, like 
second, in feminine 
or 
seconds, in feminine 
. And this condition occurs particularly in those adjectives by which it is indicated from which tribe or region someone is, like 
a Hebrew man, feminine 
and 
a Hebrew woman; it must be noted that all these adjectives are formed in the masculine gender from the proper nouns of their lands of birth or parentage by the addition of a yod with a chirek preceding it, and by changing the syllables according to the rules of the following chapter which deals with the construct of nouns, as from 
comes 
from 
comes 
, from 
comes 
, and from 
Ethiopia comes 
and from 
comes 
a Jerusalemite. To all these nouns in masculine plural only a 
, is added, like 
Hebrews, 
Ethiopians. If the noun from which this is formed ends in a plural form, then this is left off. For example, 
Egypt becomes 
an Egyptian, and this, as I have said, is changed into feminine by the addition of a 
or a 
with a kametz 
preceding it. But in the plural they are always inflected like feminines which end in a 
like 
, etc.
And hence it seems to have been a fact that just as the regular ending 
together with the preceding kametz 
, or the 
, and the plural 
almost made adjectives into feminines, so the Hebrews generally were accustomed also to consider substantives, which ended in 
or 
in singular and in 
in plural, to be of the feminine gender, unless perhaps it is a fact that they mistook the origin of the gender of adjectives. But of this enough.
