Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Dear Rolf,

Thanks for your informative post on the issue of stativity in Jos 16:1 ff.

Do you think it's a good idea to translate first, and then apply tests for
stativity?  For instance, while "what happened was that the (boarders of
the) lot went out..." is not good English because of the stativity of the
situation, I think that the following *is* good BH:

vayehi... vay.ece' hag.oral mi... 'el...

In fact, we have nearly this expression in 16:5:

vayehi gebul beney 'eprayim lemi$pexotam vayehi gebul naxalatam mizraxah...

as well as in 19:1 and 21:4:

vay.ece' hag.oral... vayehi...

I would say the first wayyiqtol of 16:1 can be considered equivalent to the
above which use wayyiqtol of hyh (in a hendiadys?) even though it does not.

I would lean toward characterizing these passages as more than a mere
catalogue of the boundaries of each lot.  They seem at the same time to
contain a narrative element about how each lot "fell out" (or happened) to
the different tribes, etc.  I am influenced by the meaning of goral which
does not only refer to a plot of land but also to a decision-making
procedure.  The wayyiqtols in these 'boarder passages' introduce, at the
least, a sense of passing of events.  Does that make any sense?

HTH and shalom,
Bryan


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

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