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b-hebrew - Re: Verbforms in Is 51.2

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  • From: "Robert Holmstedt" <rdholmst AT students.wisc.edu>
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Verbforms in Is 51.2
  • Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 09:26:30 -0500


Paul, Peter, and Randall"

Allow me to throw my two-cents in on this issue of the verb forms in Is 51.2
and let me know what you think.

I would hesitate to parse them as imperfects due to the lack of the energic
nun between the verb and the suffix (I know this is not a hard and fast
rule, but I take it as a flag).
Nor does the Masoretic pointing of the conjuction allow us to parse them as
waw-consecutive imperfects.
Rather, it looks like there are 2 viable options for the text as it is
pointed: 1) prefix preterites (if you believe that these existed and show
up in the biblical text) or 2) what Joüon-Muroaka call "indirect volitives"
(§116; cf. Waltke-O'Connor §34.5.2).

Therefore, I propose either of the two following translations (although I
favor the indirect volitive option, #2)

1) Look to Abraham, your father and to Sara who bore you, because I called
him as an individual and I blessed him and multiplied him.

2) Look to Abraham, your father and to Sara who bore you, because I called
him as an individual in order that I might bless him and multiply him.

Rob


--
Robert D. Holmstedt
Ph.D. Candidate
Hebrew & Semitic Studies
University of Wisconsin-Madison



  • Re: Verbforms in Is 51.2, yochanan bitan, 10/19/1999
    • <Possible follow-up(s)>
    • Re: Verbforms in Is 51.2, Robert Holmstedt, 10/19/1999

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