Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bryan Rocine" <brocine AT earthlink.net>]

Dear Lee and Alviero,

Alviero wrote:
----------quote begins--------
On 04/28/99 (Deut.6--Alviero Niccacci) Lee R. Martin wrote:


> Professor Niccacci and others,
> Please advise me regarding my analysis of Deuteronomy
6:4-20
>
> 1 imperative, command =Hear, O Israel:
> 2 nominal , description =The LORD is our God; the LORD is
one:
> 3 weqatal , instruction = You shall love the LORD thy God
> with all thine heart,
> and with all thy soul,
> and with all thy might.
> 4 weqatal , instruction = And these words . . . shall be
in thine
> heart
> 5 asher+ptc. , relative clause = which I am commanding
thee this day
> 6 weqatal , instruction = And thou shalt teach them
diligently unto thy
> children,
> 7 weqatal , instruction = and shalt talk of them
> 8 infinitive , temporal = when thou sittest in thine
house,
> 9 infinitive , temporal = and when thou walkest by the
way,
> 10 infinitive , temporal = and when thou liest down,
> 11 infinitive , temporal = and when thou risest up.
> 12 weqatal, instruction = And thou shalt bind them for a
sign upon thine
> hand,
> 13 weqatal, instruction = and they shall be as frontlets
between thine
> eyes.
> 14 weqatal, instruction = And thou shalt write them upon
the posts of
> thy house, and on thy gates.
>

Line 3: thw weqatals convey instruction; they are not
injuctions if this term has a specific volitive nuance.
Weqatal is found after an imperative or jussive but does not
carry on the volitive force of it. This is affirmed on the
light of the evidence gathered elsewhere.

--------end quote--------

Rocine's new comment:
Well, I have been away for a while and I am pleased to see
the volume of traffic on the b-hebrew list!  But I am hardly
pleased to see the quality of some of it, as my colleague
Kirk Lowery has noted more than once.  Be that as it may, I
am afraid I probably won't be able to comment on all the
good old stuff and also keep up with the new, but I would
like to jump back into the discussion with a comment on the
weqatals in this passage.  I *do* see them as volitive, more
or less equivalent to imperatives (although in a mitigated
style).  In fact they are self-identified as "these
commands" many times.  I cannot see how they may be
instructions, in which a series of weqatals should reflect a
process.  On the contrary, these weqatals do not represent
an ordered process.  I.e., they do not instruct the hearer
to love YHVH and then (when finished) to have the commands
in the heart, and next to inculcate the children with the
commands, etc.  *All* the commands are to be kept at any
and/or all times, *concurrently*, if you will allow the
term.

Even though weqatal may be a mainline verb form in both
Hortatory Discourse and Instructional Discourse, I find it
necessary and helpful to distinguish between these two
direct speech genres.  (BTW, the imperative is also used in
both Hortatory and Instructional.)  Hortatory is
agent-oriented like this passage in Deu; that is, the
discourse is designed to exhort a hearer or alter his
behavior.  Instructional discourse, in contrast, is
goal-oriented.  The discourse describes a process by which
any person (or sometimes a specially qualified group like
priests) may accomplish a goal such a build a tabernacle or
correctly offer a sacrifice or correctly celebrate a
holiday.  Although temporal consecuity is a mandatory
quality in Instructional Discourse, it is optional quality
in Hortatory Discourse.

Shalom,
Bryan

B. M. Rocine
Associate Pastor
Living Word Church
6101 Court St. Rd.
Syracuse, NY 13206

(office) 315.437.6744
(home) 315.479.8267.