Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Hi Vince,

I would say that zaqen the adjective and the zaqen the qatal
are semantically identical.  Morpho-syntactically, the qatal
and adjective are distinct as evidenced by the extant cases
of this idiom (tjhe semantic identity together with
morphological variety account for the variety in1 Ki 1:1,
Gen 18:11, and the Joshua reference) and shall be chosen on
basis of the clause type required in the discourse.  I am
still not sure whether 1 Ki 1:1 has an adjective or qatal,
but you see, it doesn't matter a hoot.   I am inclined to
view ba in 1 ki 1:1 as a participle, also quite similar to
both adjective and qatal in the sense that both refer to a
state of things at a time being talked about, the participle
focusing on the on-going action and the qatal focusing on
the state the subject is in at the time being talked about.
I lean toward a verbless clause with a compound predicate:

"The king David [was] old, coming into [his] days, so they
covered him with clothes but he would not become warm."

Shalom, Haver,
Bryan


> if you will remember, i was asking about the status of
"zaqen ba" in
> 1kings 1:1. some pointed out an unambiguous instance in
joshua,
> "zaqanti ba'ti", and i was content with that. but kirk
lowery pointed
> out off list the other case in gen 18:11, "zqenim ba'im".
>
> do you guys (in toronto speak, that's gender neutral!)
want to take
> another kick at this can? ;-)
>
> cheers
> V


B. M. Rocine
Associate Pastor
Living Word Church
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