Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

Peter wrote:
> If we follow the regular understanding of N + qatal in 1 Kings 11:1, 
> the point is not that Solomon "had a thing for" foreign women or 
> "habitually fell in love with them". I guess that would require a 
> participle. Here, rather, the sense is pluperfect: at some time 
> previous to the events described in the previous passage, Solomon "had 
> fallen in love with" many foreign women and so was, at the narrative 
> time, in a state of love regarding them - cf an English or Greek 
> perfect or pluperfect tense. 

I'm inclined to think this is putting more on the verb form than it can 
bear.  Per Bryan's approach, it looks more to me as though it's 
saying "Solomon was in love with many foreign women" in a stative 
sense, i.e. it described the state of his heart in a sort of "this is 
how he was" manner.

Indeed, they had become his wives and 
> concubines. I understand Bryan's conception of the qatal as stative as 
> relating in that way to its pluperfect "flashback" sense - is that 
> right, Bryan? Maybe the older grammarians were not as wrong as we 
> sometimes think in calling the qatal form "perfect".

I'm not convinced that Bryan's approach includes the pluperfect 
idea.  This need not be part of the stative concept.  To say 
something like "he was old" or "he was tall" or "he was an 
Edomite" need not include the pluperfect notions "he became old 
and was now in a state of being old" etc.

> On the other hand there are cases where qatal cannot be stative e.g. 
> Exodus 36:11 where wayyiqtol and qatal are parallel. Or is Bryan 
> suggesting that all such cases are late?

In addition to Bryan's reply, I would simply note that the qatal 
clause begins with K"N, which eliminates a WP from possible use 
and indicates a kind of subordinate clause, sort of an aside, 
emphasizing "he did this same thing."  The meaning of K"N 
indicates that he did nothing different on the other curtain, he made 
it just like the first.  There's no indication of sequence or non-
sequence between the two curtains; he may have made first one 
and then the other, or he may have worked on both at the same 
time.  It really doesn't matter to the writer here, the important thing 
is that he made them both the same.  

Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
A Bible that's falling apart means a life that isn't.