Biblical Hebrew Forum

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 On  05/07/99 (Re[2]: Volitive weyiqtol) Peter Kirk wrote:


> Dear Prof. Niccacci,
> 
> You wrote to Lee Martin, "weyiqtol continues a preceding volitive 
> verbform--i.e.  cohortative, imperative, or jussive-- in the sense 
> that it carries on its volitive force."
> 
> Would it be correct to rephrase and generalise this "we+volitive 
> verbform continues a previous volitive verbform..."? - with the 
> understanding that a volitive verbform is cohortative in 1st person,

> imperative in 2nd person, and jussive (i.e. apocopated yiqtol) in the

> 3rd person. This seems to be consistent with the examples you and 
> others quote. This explains why there are no second person weyiqtols

> following imperatives: there is no second person jussive, the 
> imperative is used instead.
> 
> I did a search on all 2nd person weyiqtol forms and came up with an 
> interesting result. In all of the historical books I found only 
> W:TAG."YD in Exodus 19:3, the double W:TI$:MA( W:TOW$IYA( in 2 Chron

> 20:9, and W:T")FM"NW. in 2 Chron 20:20 [also W.T:HIY in poetry 2 Kings 
> 19:25 || Is. 37:26]. But there many examples in the poetic and 
> prophetic books.
> 
> Presumably TO)MAR... W:TAG."YD in Exodus 19:3 must be considered 
> non-volitive and instructional. In 2 Chronicles 20:9 the chain 
> apparently starts with a cohortative and so this may be volitive. In 2 
> Chronicles 20:20, we have a clear example of an imperative being 
> followed by a 2nd person weyiqtol, but unfortunately it is not clear

> whether the volitive force is continued. I guess it would be safer to

> consider none of these cases volitive. But then it would be 
> interesting to look also at the poetical examples.
> 

Dear Peter Kirk,

your way of rephrasing and generalising my previous message is quite good.
Thank you for  calling our attention to very good cases of 2nd person weyiqtol. May I comment on some of them.

- Exod. 19:3 is an intriguing case, still I tried to interpret according to the usual function of the verbform in a paper, "Narrative Syntax of Exodus 19-24", published in E. van Wolde, _Narrative Syntax and the Hebrew Bible_ (Tilgurg Conference 1996), page 216, as follows: "(God said to Moses) Thus you will (or: must) say to the house of Jacob, and tell to the Israelites." Actually I think that even the first sentence type x-yiqtol--koh to'mar lebêt ya`aqob--is volitive.

- 2Chron. 20:9 is an outstanding example: 'im-tabô' `alênû ra`â ... "If evil shall come upon us..." (protasis), na`amdâ lipnê habbayit hazzeh (cohortative, apodosis) "let / permit us stand before this House..." weniz`aq 'eleyka miTSTSaratenû (coordinated, volitive weyiqto) "and let us cry to you from our affliction", weti$ma` wetô$îa` (two coordinated, volitive weyiqtols) "and may you hear and save."

- 2Chron. 20:2) is also wonderful: ha`amînû baYHWH 'elohêkem wete'amenû (imperative --> volitive weqatal) "Believe in the Lord your God in order to be established / made firm!"; ha'amînû binbî''ayw wehaTSlîxû (imperative --> indirect imperative, see Joüon) "believe his prophets in order to succeed!"
Note the two tense shifts: imperative --> weyiqtol and imperative --> (indirect) imperative. They are two well established volitive structures. Both indicate purpose, i.e. they establish a volitional connection between the two verbforms.

- I try to apply the same rules to petry as well. BTW there has been some controversy about the issue of poetry versus prose as far as the verbal system is concerned. Actually, some scholars have noted a point that they thought was an Canaanite feature, and that is the use of othe forms yiqtol and Qatal in parallel lines in Ugaritic and arcaic BH poetry. One can mention U. Cassuto, _The Goddess Anath_ (ET 1971); M. Held in _Studies in Honor of Abraham A. Newman_ (1962), S. Gevirtz, _JNES_ 32 (1973) 99-104, not to mention M. Dahood, esp. his 3 vols. on the Psalms in the "Anchor Bible" series.
I was myself rather impressed by these studies when I wrote the last chapter of _Syntax_ on the verbal system in poetry. With the years, I tried more and more to apply the verbal system of prose to poetry. I think this is possible if one allows poetry to be more free to shift from one temporal axis to the other.
I would insist on this point. Only if we have gained a correct understanding of the functions of the verbforms in plain prose, we shall be able to appreciate poetry. Actually poetry is much less tied to a specific temporal axis than is prose. It easily shifts from one axis to the other. From the past experience--of the people or of the individual--it brings support for the present and also for the future.
I would encourage people not to choose the easiet way to solve the problems, i.e. to take the different verbforms as saying the same thing. This brings a leveling of the temporal axes that does not serve poetry.

Peace and all good.
Alviero Niccacci


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