Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>]

 Alviero Niccacci  wrote:
>
> In the same posting referred to above, you  mention that you have 67
>examples of weyiqtol's and more than 500 examples of yiqtol's with past
>meaning. While the 500 examples pose no problem to me, the 67 do. It is a
>fact that yiqtol as well as weqatal are used with past reference in
>narrative--both in historical narrative and in oral narrative.
>Specifically, yiqtol (actually x-yiqtol, that is second-place yiqtol) and
>weqatal are used to convey description, or custom (i.e. they have
>frequentative meaning), while wayyiqtol and qatal express single events
>(i.e. they have perfective meaning).
> However, for me weyiqtol is volitive, and therefore I do not expect it to
>have past reference. I only know of a couple of cases which contradict
>such assumption, though I think that they are special and their import
>should be weighed against the cases that suggest a volitive meaning. That
>is why I am interested in seeing your 67 examples of weyiqtol's with past
>meaning. Are you ready to provide the list?

Dear Alviero,

The following list is taken from my mag.art. thesis, "Imperfect consecutive
and the Verbal system of Biblical Hebrew", University of Oslo, spring 1995.
I did not have electronic search capabilities at that time, so I had to
read through the whole BHS and note down all weyiqtols with past meaning
and all wayyiqtols with non-past meaning. I used 20 Bible translations in
English, German, French and Norwegian to check my judgement whether a form
had past or non-past meaning. There may in a few cases be possible to
discuss the temporal setting. A very good indicater, however, that a form
is problematic, is when the notes of BHS suggests something else without
evidence. This is seen in many/most of the cases below.

2 Samuel 1:10 (1)
1 Kings 13:33 (1)
2 Kings 19:23,24,25  (4)(the one of v 24 definitely has past meaning, the
sequence in 23-25 of way,qat,wey,wey, qat,qat,wey,qat, qat,wey-qat argue
that all have past meaning)
2 Chronickles 24:11 (3)
Neh 3:14,15 (3) ( yiqtols with past meaning followed by weyiqtols)
Neh 9:27,28 (2) (several yiqtols with past meaning)
Job 3:11,13 (2)
Job 19:23 (2)
Job 29:21,23,25 (5)
Job 30:26 (1)
Job 31:17 (1)
Psalm 107:20,27 (3) (regardless of the temporal setting we give parts of
this Psalm, the matching of the verbs are really problematic, given the
traditional viewpoint.)
Ecclesiastes 8:10 (1)
Isaiah 8:2 (1Isaiah 10:13 (2)
Isaiah 37:24,25,26 (4) (doublette to 2 Kings 19:23,24,25 above)
Isaiah 41.5 (2)
Isaiah 42:6 (3)
Isaiah 43:28 (2)
Isaiah 44:19 (1)
Isaiah 48:3 (1)
Isaiah 51:2 (2)
Isaiah 53:2 (2)
Isaiah 57:17 (2)
Isaiah 63:3,5,6 (8)
Jeremiah 23:18,22 (4)
Ezekiel 16:10 (1)
Ezekiel 40:42 (1)
Daniel 8:12 (1)
Zechariah 7:14 (1)
Zechariah 8:10 (1)

If those forms you are aware of are not on this list, I would like to know
the references.

Regards
Rolf

Rolf Furuli
Lecturer in Semitic languages
University of Oslo