Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lee R. Martin" <lmartin AT vol.com>]

Dear Friends,
I haven't had the time to follow the discussions closely, but I think we
have missed one component of Gen. 11:5-8.  Verse 5 says," Yahweh came
down to see the city and tower that the humans had built."  The
discussion has been on BNU, "built" as perfective, while v. 8 tells us
that the building was not complete.  Let's take a different
perspective.  BNU is in a relative clause, that modifies "city and
tower." If you omit "city and tower" and just use the relative clause as
the object, you get the following: "Yahweh came down to see what they
had built."   Yahweh did not come down to see what they "would" build,
but what had already been built.  What they had built could be called a
city and a tower, even if it was and unfinished city and tower.  By the
way, when is a city completed?  It is never completed until it is either
destroyed or deserted.  BNU is perfective.

--

Lee R. Martin
Pastor, Prospect Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee
Instructor in Hebrew and Old Testament
Church of God Theological Seminary
http://www.earth.vol.com/~lmartin/