Biblical Hebrew Forum

[peter_kirk AT SIL.ORG]

See my interleaved answers to Rolf's questions.

If the rest of the hundreds of examples of non-sequential wayyiqtol 
which he claims to have found (in narrative) were no more certain than 
these, I would have to conclude that there is no definite evidence for 
any non-sequential wayyiqtol (in narrative) apart from the well-known 
cases of hendiadys.

Peter Kirk


______________________________ Reply Separator 
_________________________________
Subject: Tidbits from Ruth
Author:  furuli AT online.no at internet 
Date:    24/04/1999 17:29


Dear list-members,


I read the book of Ruth today. It has several thought-provoking verbs, 
which become even more interesting when we keep in mind that the text is 
narrative.

How would those of you who believe that wayyiqtols present a sequence of 
events explain the following cases:

1:4 Did the sons of Naomi marry Moabite women and thereafter live about ten 
years in Moab, or did the ten years start before their marriages?

PK: The context allows either. In favour of the latter, I suppose it 
would be odd that there were no children if they had been married ten 
years, and Ruth does seem to have been quite young (but then maybe she 
was married in Moab as a child). The wayyiqtol verb sequence suggests 
the former.

1:9-10 Did the women first raise their voice and then weep, or did both 
things occur together?

PK: I think everyone agrees that there are certain instances like this 
of hendiadys in which the two verbs are simultaneous.

1:19 Was the whole town first stirred and then the women exclaimed "Can 
this be Naomi"?, or did both things occur at the same time?

PK: Perhaps hendiadys again, but for each individual the emotion 
leading to the exclamation must have preceded the actual utterance of 
words.

2:6,11 Did the foreman first answer and then reply, or is this one and the 
same thing?

PK: A well-known hendiadys.

2:23 Did Ruth first stay close to the maidens and then she started to live 
with her mother-in-law, or did Ruth live with her mother-in-law before she 
met the maidens?

PK: Well, there is no indication in the story that Ruth had actually 
got as far as a house in Bethlehem or spent a night there before the 
events of chapter 2. Perhaps she had. But a recent cartoon film I saw 
of the story of Ruth gave more insight on this than many scholarly 
commentaries. Where did Naomi and Ruth live in Bethlehem? Well, maybe 
the cartoon suggested that they had Elimelech's house in Bethlehem, 
but that this was in a rather ruinous condition after at least ten 
years! Maybe they had to spend their first night in Bethlehem at some 
sort of inn or caravanserai, and the next day, while Ruth was in the 
field, Naomi was making the old house habitable. And so the last part 
of 2:23 really is consecutive. At least, there is no proof that it 
wasn't.

3:7 Did Boaz first eat, then drink and then be in good spirits, or did all 
three things occur together?

PK: Eating and drinking may be a hendiadys, though also it may have 
been the custom (as now in Azerbaijan) to drink only after eating. And 
then the good spirits resulted from the eating and even more the 
drinking, so sequential.

How would those of you who do not accept that a qatal without we has future 
meaning explain the qatal mkr in 4:3? Can the selling be anything but 
future in relation the deictic center which was speech time?

PK: This verse has more than one interpretation. One is that Naomi now 
wants to sell this land and the kinsman has a duty to buy it - that 
implies a future reference, or else MFK:RFH could be rendered "has put 
on the market". The other is that Naomi had at an earlier time sold the 
land to a third party (the equivalent at that time of mortgaging it) 
and it is now the duty of the kinsman to redeem it from the third 
party. I am not sure (without reference books to hand) how far the 
choice between these is linked to the verb forms and how far to 
different understandings of ancient Israelite traditions. But it does 
illustrate the danger of assuming a temporal sequence etc. on the basis 
of translations rather than a thorough exegetical study of each 
occurrence.


Regards
Rolf


Rolf Furuli
Lecturer in Semitic languages
University of Oslo