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  • From: Peter_Kirk AT SIL.ORG
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Deut. 32:37-38
  • Date: Fri, 12 Feb 1999 01:41:24 -0500 (EST)



Here we have a qatal which is something like an English past perfect:
"the rock in which they have taken refuge" and in which they continue
to trust, which trust is shown by their continued worship in yiqtols
which correspond to an English present: "(the gods) who eat the fat of
their (regular and ongoing) sacrifices and drink...". Don't be misled
by the translations, even back to LXX, which seem to have missed the
point that the sacrifices are regular and ongoing; this fits the
context better as well as the Hebrew verb form. (Of the translations I
have to hand, Francais Courant has a future tense in v.38, and other
French translations and Russian Synodal have past continuous, but only
two Turkish versions imply a present.)

Peter Kirk


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Subject: Deut. 32:37-38
Author: mjoseph AT terminal.cz at internet
Date: 11/02/1999 16:16


In Deut. 32:37 there is a perfect/qatal/suffix conjugation verb XFSFYW.
which is translated unremarkably as a past tense, "they took refuge"
(NIV). In the next verse, though with a change of subject, there are two
more past tenses, "ate" and "drank," though the verb in each case is an
imperfect/yiqtol/prefix conjugation verb, YO)K"LW. and YI$:T.W.
respectively.

I'm not sure if this bears on the endless thread concerning the Hebrew
conjugations or not, but in any case I was wondering if someone could
address the question of imperfect/yiqtol/prefix conjugation as a past
tense, not so much generally, but rather specifically in this verse,
where there is no waw, consecutive or otherwise, and where the verbs in
question are found in a subordinate clause introduced by )$ER

Mark Joseph






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