Biblical Hebrew Forum

[yochanan bitan <ButhFam AT compuserve.com>]

(paul zellmer wrote, re: is 2.6-9:)
> I honestly have not seen any approach 
> (word level, clause level, or discourse level)
> that adequately addresses this "perfective of confidence" issue.

it's quite simple, really, for the audience,
and within 'relevance theory' (sperber and wilson, et al.).
if you say 'the building fell down' to a BH audience that knows that 
the building is still standing, then it will be interpreted as 'perfective
of confidence'.

for isaiah 2.9, the only question is:
had the leadership or people already been debased by their idol worship?
if so, it is a regular vayyiqtol.
if not, it is a vayyiqtol of confidence.
the jussive 'don't lift them up' can fit either.

from 2.11 on to 21, the veqatal forms mark a future judgement. which is no
problem for a Hebrew reader. verbs like yashlix and yaHlof would confirm
that when the reader arrives to that point.

personally, i would take 2.6-9 as a past/presnt description (including
frequentive prefix verbs), the forward- looking prophetic part follows
10-ff.

braxot

randall buth