Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>]

Dear Lee and other listmembers,


Looking at the verbs of Ezekiel chapters 1 and 10 we find that the 30
YIQTOLS with past meaning describes the behavior of the living
creatures/cherubs while 8 of the 15 WAYYIQTOLS refer to Ezekiel and his
behavior. Is there any difference in semantic meaning between the YIQTOLS
and the WAYYIQTOLS? One could argue that while Ezekiel reported his own
experience as past, his vision need not have the same tense, yes the
YIQTOLS  can even be present or future. Such arguments sound quite forced
and the QATAL (Pual) of 1:14 shows definitely that the setting is past,
something which also is evident from the rest of the description, provided
that we do not have a tense theory to defend.

If the setting is past, there is no difference in tense between the YIQTOLS
and the WAYYIQTOLS. But are there other differences between them? Both
groups have stative verbs (e.g. HYH 5 YIQTOLS 1 WAYYIQTOL) and fientive
verbs, and I am not able to find any indication that there is a difference
in aspect between the two groups. Why, then, are different forms used?
There may not be a more difficult explanation than word order.

Compare for instance the YIQTOL of (MD and RYM in 10:17 with the WAYYIQTOLS
of the same roots in vv 18 and 19. Can anybody find any semantic
difference? The reason why YIQTOLS  are used in v 17 is simply that there
are word elements before each one of them preventing the use of wayyiqtols,
but this is not the case in vv 18 and 19.  The choice of word order may of
course be a matter of convention, of subject and of stress, but this is
related to pragmatics and not to semantics. The examples of HYH in this
context, which evidently only are stative and not iterative, may also
throow some light upon Numbers 9 and the "bounded" YIQTOLS there.



Regards
Rolf

Rolf Furuli
lecturer in Semitic languages
University of Oslo