Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Paul Zellmer <zellmer AT cag.pworld.net.ph>]

Bryan Rocine wrote:

> 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.
>

I got a off-list response from Lee Martin.  (Lee, I found your comment
after I
had sent you the note.)He said, "It makes sense if you understand the
broadness
of the semantic range of 'amar.  It probably means "promised him" in
this
context."

With this broader interpretation of 'amar, I have no problem seeing this
as an
X-qatal.

It does result in an interpretation question, however.  If "promised" is
the intented meaning here, does that mean that the food may or may not
have been given?  Why the change of verb, with NTN used in the first and
third of the group of clauses and )MR in the second?  I don't see, "and
he gave him a house, and bread he promised him, and land he gave him,"
as being the necessary equivalent of, "and he gave him a house and bread
and land."  Maybe I'm still missing an idiom that is being used here,
but LXM should be able to take NTN if the author had wanted to say that,
right?  Since NTN is not used with LXM, what is actually being brought
out by the group of clauses?

Thanks to both you and Lee.  Oh, and since it was your grammar that
called the
verse to the attention of the students in the first place, thanks for
that,
also.  (They really had some difficulty recognizing the direct object in
the
"X" position in the X-qatal.)

Paul

--
Paul and Dee Zellmer, Jimmy Guingab, Geoffrey Beltran
Ibanag Translation Project
Cabagan, Philippines

zellmer AT faith.edu.ph