Biblical Hebrew Forum

[yochanan bitan <ButhFam AT compuserve.com>]

>but here's the interesting question. what is X ysovveni, syntactically?
>what i want to say is that it's the prefixed form of the so-called
>consecutive without the prefixed conjunction.

the overlay/clash of verb tenses in parallel lines is a feature of hebrew
poetry. 
yesoveveni (prefix) parallels afafuni (suffix) just like the beautiful
four-line 
chiastic verb-tense play at psalm 2.1-2 (and frequently through psalms,
occasionally still in qumran). 
by the way, the 'clash' is real in hebrew poetry, the different verbs are
used for poetic effect. it is one reason why poetry must be very carefully
used when discussing the hebrew verb. poetry is not for learning the hebrew
verb, it is for enjoying it, the way poetry should be.

i presented this to the IOSOT in Salamanca, 1983. It was well-received and
an editor offered to forward/put it to VT. but living, at the time, far
from any library for polishing off (southern sudan), i 'buried' it in an
SIL publication (START or Notes on Translation, 1986). not so politically
astute for academia. 

but better news on accessability:
Some of the same background is discussed in 
Buth, Hebrew Poetic Tenses and the Magnificat, Sheffield: JSNT 21,
1984,67-83,
 and now reprinted in a Sheffield reader volume: 
NT Text and Language, ed. Porter and Evans, Sheffield: 1997, 240-255. 

braxot 
randall buth