Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Dear Lee,

Alviero wrote:
> >
> >
> > Dear Lee Martin,
> >
> > here is some comment on your analysis.
> >
> > 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.
> >

And Lee replied,
> I am still having difficulty with your distinction between
"instruction" and "volition" as used in your  _Syntax_.   In
line 3, above, YHVH says, "You shall love the Lord...."
(weqatal).  It is very hard for me to conceive of such a
statement as entirely non-volitional.  It
> appears from my study of various grammars and
translations, that the use of  weqatal, yiqtol, and x-yiqtol
in direct speech are utterly confused.  I see no consistency
in the translations and grammars.  You are consistent,
however, but I am not fully convinced that you are
> right. Would you comment, for example on lines 39-46?
Would you suggest the following translation:
>
> 39 lo'+yiqtol, neg. weqatal, simple future = You will not
tempt the LORD your God,
> 41 inf.+yiqtol, instruction, simple future = You will
diligently keep the commandments ...
> 43 weqatal, instruction, simple future = and  you will [be
able to] do the right and the good...
> 44 lam`an+imf., purpose = in order that it may be well
with you
> 45 weqatal , instruction, simple future = and you will [be
able to] go in
> 46 weqatal , instruction, simple future = and you will [be
able to] possess the good land

I find Deu 6 to be Hortatory Discourse as I have mentioned,
and I propose two kinds of weqatal in Hortatory, a mainline
weqatal which gives commands in a mitigated style, and an
off-the-line weqatal which gives support for the commands by
telling why to follow them.  Essentially, off-the-line
weqatals are like Predictive Narrative which is embedded
within the Hortatory to give support the the mainline of
exhortations.  Morphologically, the two weqatals can very
often be distinguished by the person of the subject.
Mainline weqatals are most often second person references
(as we would expect for commands), and off-the-line weqatals
most often display a shift from the second person to first
or third (as we would expect for Predictive Narrative).  An
illustration of this shift in person for an off-the-line
weqatal is 2 Sam 24:2 "Number (imperative) the people,
[why?] so I may know (weqatal) the number of the people."

In the passage in question we do not have the shift in
person to help identify the off-the-line weqatals.
Fortunately, we do have v. 18's (your #44) lema`an, "to the
intent that..."  I believe lema`am sets the following yiqtol
and weqatals as off-the-line in support of the mainline of
exhortations.  In turn, I would identify the weqatals which
precede lema`an as mainline exhortations, your #'s 39-43.

Shalom,
Bryan


B. M. Rocine
Associate Pastor
Living Word Church
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