Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Dear Dave, You wrote:
>
> In Gen 26:13 we seem to have a rogue weqatal, W:GFD"L.
The
> two preceding clauses are both wayyiqtol, the following
one
> (subordinated with a preposition) is qatal.  I can't see
any reason
> why a weqatal would be between these.  BHS suggests
repointing
> to W:GFDOL to make conjunction + adjective, but I'm not so
sure.
> It looks to me like this may be an example of qatal with
the simple
> conjunction rather than a weqatal, but I'm wondering what
others
> think.  How does your approach to the verb system treat
this word?
>

It seems to be the week for Longacre!  I mentioned him in my
discourse analysis of a chapter of Isaiah this week, and
Randall Buth mentioned him on the functions of pronominal
constructions.  I'll mention him again on your question.  He
has come up with a discourse function for a isolated weqatal
that interupts a wayyiqtol string.  He says it marks a
pivitol/climactic event.  See "Weqatal Forms in BH Prose: A
Discourse-modular Approach" in _BH and Discourse
Linguistics_ ed. Bergen.

I can also offer another exlanation for your particular
question.  vegadel is not a weqatal at all; it is a m.s.
adjective.  It is used as a substantive in conjunction with
halok so that we might "translate" vayelek halok vegadel `ad
ki gadal me'od very literally:  "And he went a going and a
great(ness) until that he was very great."  In standard
English I might say "He continued to increase until he was
very great."

Shalom,
Bryan



B. M. Rocine
Associate Pastor
Living Word Church
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