Esther 2:14
Alviero Niccacci
sbfnet at netvision.net.il
Sat Jan 2 04:04:55 EST 1904
At 6:17 AM -0500 11/9/00, Bryan Rocine wrote:
>B-Haverim,
>
>Reading, enjoying Esther...
>
>Esther 2:14 ba`ereb hi' ba'ah ubaBBoqer hi' shabah...lo'
>tabo' 'el hammelek... "in the evening she would be an
>enterer and in the morning she would be a returner...she
>would not come to the king..." Here we see the qatal used
>in what I call procedural discourse (how-it-was-done
>discourse). It's set in the past and describes habitual or
>repetitive action. Usually we see the "tag team" of weqatal
>and yiqtol in such a context. Here we see qatal and yiqtol.
>So much for vav-conversive! Qatal without the vav can refer
>to the habitual or repetitive in the history texts as well
>as the poetic. Any comments?
Hi Bryan!
In Esther 2:14, the verbforms *ba'áh* and *shabáh* are
vocalized as participles rather than as qatal forms because the
stress falls on the last syllable. I think this Masoretic
vocalization is correct. I would sugest the following translation
(RSV, with modifications):
«In the evening (the maiden) WAS COMING (*ba'áh*), and in the morning
she WAS GOING BACK (*shabáh*) to the second harem in custody of
Sha-ashgaz the king's eunuch who WAS IN CHARGE OF [*shomer*, ALSO A
PARTICIPLE] the concubines; she WOULD NOT GO [lo'-tabo', negated
yiqtol] in to the king again, unless the king delighted [*xapec*, A
STATIVE QATAL] in her and SHE WOULD BE SUMMONED [weniqre'ah, A
WEQATAL] by name».
The participle alternates with (indicative, non volitive)
yiqtol and weqatal as expected. I a past narrative, they express
continuity and customariness, respectively.
Frankly, I would not say that *Qatal without vav can refer to the
habitual or repeetitive in the history texts as well as the poetic*.
I do not know any such examples, do you?
Alviero Niccacci
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