Biblical Hebrew Forum

[yochanan bitan <ButhFam AT compuserve.com>]

nice example bryan, 
i will try and answer at two levels, 
to such a student 
and to those [with additional questions or background]:

> if I am a student reading Gen 32:27 
> lo' ashalleHaxa ki 'im beraxtani
> ... why isn't beraxtani a prefixed form?  the text is telling me the
suffix form
> means something other than past.   

yes, that's right. it is something other than simple past here.
the principle:

in contexts where a tense or modal framework is already defined by other
verbs, or particle, or logical subordination or genre/discourse-type,
the two tense-aspects in Hebrew can signal additional aspectual or modal
nuances. 

here lo ashalleHaxa signals a future non-happening "will not". 

[footnote (though i would not present this for students here): this
"negative event" is future, not aspectual, i.e. the meaning is not
discussing a partial, in-process, or repeated release. if english aspectual
terminology were added, it would be perfective: "i will not have
released..."] 

ki-im signals an exceptive condition "unless" 

[footnote: (also wording that is not good for students) i.e. on the other
hand, if B is true then A will be negated. And since A is already negated,
negative negated-A = positive A. i.e. i will release you if B is
fulfilled.]

the suffix tense here brings out a perfective aspect and becomes a way of
saying 
"unless you have blessed me". 
the blessing is complete and past relative to the sending-off. it is future
relative to the speaking.

the above situation could have been rephrased positively and simply: 
ashalleHexa im tevarexeni "i will release you if you will bless me". 
but the simple positive loses some of the weighty, confrontational,
oath-like style.

[a footnote for the those who like to follow twisted strands of thought:
the logic in doubly negative conditions is always convoluted and the ki-im
is a kind of ngegation. 
there is a tendency in hebrew to use the suffix/definite tense for
conditions that are "not true". here the suffix tense is additionally
fitting with the implication "and you have not yet blessed me". ] 

[I also assume in all the above that negative conditionals and
contrafactuals are not the way to introduce students to any verb system.
(at least you didn't choose judges 15.7 :-)  i forget what age kids are
when they first grasp such logic, but it's not at the beginning of their
communication experiences!  
In my courses we don't hit such stuff until beginning of second semester,
after studetns have already read jonah (1st semester) and then hit ruth
1.17. that gets them ready for later in the second semester when they read
judges. ]

[in a similar way that light is both wave and participle, tense-aspects may
signal time orientation and/or aspect orientation.]

yevarexexa ha-shem
randall