Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bryan Rocine" <596547 AT ican.net>]

Dear Paul,

Did you get a response to your question?  I don't recall one, so I'll have
a go even though a bit late.  I think your answer may be had in how we see
the boundaries between the clauses.  Unless I'm misunderstanding, you are
judging that _)amar_ begins a clause, and you are putting _welexem_ with
the previous clause.  But we can apply a "rule" of syntax to place
_welexem_ with the _)amar_-clause instead.  Rule: After a historical
narrative has begun, qatal is never found in the first position of a
clause.  I describe this syntax as X-qatal.  In this case, the _welexem_ is
the "X."  I might translate literally "and it was of bread that he was a
sayer to him" and the translations are correct, I think, in their relating
this clause to Pharoah's providing for Hadad.

There is one case in prose in which the qatal is common in the first
position of a clause.  That is when the clause itself is the first clause
of an *oral* historical narrative.  In other words, when a historical
narrative is "within quotation marks," the narrative may have an opening
clause which begins with a qatal.

Shalom,
Bryan

----------
> From: Paul Zellmer <zellmer AT cag.pworld.net.ph>
> Date: Friday, September 04, 1998 11:22 PM
> 
> The last few clauses in 1 Kings 11:18 (with the arrival in Egypt) read:
> 
> WAY.FBO)W. MIC:RAYIM )EL-P.AR:(OH MELEK:-MIC:RAYIM W)Y.IT.EN-LOW BAYIT
> W:LEXEM )FMAR LOW W:)EREC NFTAN LOW
> 
> My question is concerns the *'amar lo*.  I'm not quite sure what to do
> with it.  It's not wayyiqtol.  Is it a qal qatal verb clause, like it
> appears on the surface, meaning, "He said to him"?  That doesn't make a
> lot of sense in this context.
> 
> The English versions I have here are either ignoring it or making it
> part of the concept of provisions, but I haven't found support for that
> type of idiom.  What am I missing?
> 
> Paul
> --

B. M. Rocine
Associate Pastor
Living Word Church
6101 Court St. Rd.
Syracuse, NY 13208

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