Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>]

Lee Martin wrote


>Dear Rolf,
>I always read your posts with great eagerness and anticipation of learning
>some new
>linguistic tidbits, but I am afraid I am shocked at this response.
>Randall is right
>on and your response is unbelievable. (no offense intended)   Nowhere did
>Randall say
>that HaYaH is fientic.  I quote "stative events can repeat."  Note the
>following
>sentence: "My son was at school every day last year, and every night he
>was in bed."
>Being at school and being in bed are states, but they occur in iterative
>fashion.
>HaYaH and other statives are used exactly this way in BH.
>In regard to the yiqtols in Numbers 9:
>
>v.2 VeYa`aSu is future
>
>v.7 NiGaRa` is either present or immediate future
>
>v.8 Ve'eShMe`aH is cohortative
>
>     YeTsaVeH is future
>
>v.10 YiHeYeH is future
>
>v.11 Ya`aSu is future
>
>v.12 YaSh'iRu is future
>
>       YiShBeRu is future
>
>       Ya`aSu is future
>
>v.13 YiSa' is future
>
>v.14 YaGuR is future
>
>       Ya`aSeh is future
>
>       YiHYeh is future
>
>v.15 YiHYeh is iterative past from the writer's
>perspective. The parenthetical iterative section
>continues through 20.  These past time iterative
>yiqtols are substantiated by such words as TaMiyD
>(always v.16), VeYeSh 'aSheR (and it was so,v20,21)
>'O (or,v.21, 22), and by the infinitives in vv.17, 19, 22
>(when), and by the clear habitual statements in vv.18
>and 23. In this section, every yiqtol is
>iterative/habitual.
>
>If I missed one, please let me know.
>I will look at Ezekiel later.  Name your other passages and I will examine
>them as
>well.
>

Dear Lee,

I wrote in a post about a week ago that  stativity is not a semantic
property for verbs in Hebrew, but whether a verb should be viewed as a
state or not is due to conversational pragmatic implicature. I accept
Randall's example with his son but that is beyond the point - that I tried
to express, evidently without success. Let me illustrate by rewriting
Randall's words:

* "On June  the fifth between 8 and 12 o'clock my son was at school every
day last year, and every night he was in bed."  Nobody would write a
sentence like that, but if I understand Randall correctly, this seems to be
the result if we apply his example to Numbers 9:15. " On the day that the
tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the
testimony; and at evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of
fire until morning."

The time frame for  the YIQTOL is one day, from the evening until the
morning. So if we apply Randall' s example to the time when YIHYE held,
then his son's habitual doings must occur "from the evening until the
morning", that is, the force of YIHYE must be iterative or habitual during
this time, and only during this time. What I object to is that we take a
verb which is applied to a particular short period of time (from the
evening until the morning) and say it is iterative or habitual in the sense
that the whole state occurs over and over again (day after day the cloud
was over the tabernacle from the evening until the morning.) In my view the
definite time frame that is stated, excludes such a possibility - I have at
least not seen an example of it. An inerative or habitual interpretation of
YIHYE inside this frame (from evening until morning) would require a
fientic interpretation of HYH, and this was what I was asking for.

I have no problems with your yiqtols above, those with past meaning occur
in vv 15-23.


Regards
Rolf

Rolf Furuli
Lecturer in Semitic languages
University of Oslo