Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter_Kirk AT SIL.ORG]

Dear Galia,

Thank you for your helpful comments, also for Bryan's further comment. 
Just to clarify things, I was not trying to suggest a perfect 
correspondence, rather that the differences were not great and that it 
might be instructive to examine them. It still seems to me that for 
non-stative verbs the difference is small: simple past and wayyiqtol 
are generally sequential but can be used (though perhaps not 
preferred) for past within past; whereas the preferred form for past 
within past is past perfect and X-qatal. One more difference is that 
in Hebrew X-qatal is continued with wayyiqtol, whereas English 
continues with past perfect.

Peter Kirk