Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Matthew Anstey" <manstey AT portal.ca>]

Gday B-Haverim,

For those TAMmers, formalists, functionalists, and BH-verb-lovers, can you
please enlighten me on Psa 13.5 yekoltiyw? The sentence seems to be, "Answer
me YHWH ... lest my enemy says 'I have overcome him.'"

To me it seems that qatal would be better here, but that is only intuition
as I get lost in the rules about embedded sentences like this, particularly
in poetry. Assuming the embedded sentence could be worded this way all by
itself, since it is direct speech, wouldn't one expect it to me, "Let me
overcome him," or "I will overcome him."?

What do you think?
Matthew Anstey

"The need of truth is more sacred than any other need." Simone Weil