Biblical Hebrew Forum

[yochanan bitan <ButhFam AT compuserve.com>]

re:  'ariyela halexa badderex
(using corrected version of feminine subject, morphology on verb and
collated preposition.) 
BR:
<Not always.  look at Gen 1:1 or an exen less controversial
example, 22:1.  The writer wanted to give a summarial
statement by which the narrative is framed.  Do you think it
works in my student's story?>

RB: "ariyela halexa" doesn't do the same thing as gen 22.1. 
For one, halexa is a movement verb. It gets something started, as an event,
and the rest of the events sort themselves out. 'framework/summary' is too
restricting for hebrew x-qatal.
For two, consider gen 4.1, discussed a couple months ago. Adam knew
Eve..... The 'act' is not the framework/summary for the rest of the story. 


BR:<hineh qatal is not rare.  In narrator's text you'll see one
in Gen 6: 12, 8:13, 19:28, 38:29, etc. I am guessing about
30-40 examples.  It's even more common in character's text
(direct speech), probably a hundred examples.  The string
<hineh + X + qatal> is quite a bit less common, maybe 30 or
40 altogether.  See Num 22:5, 22:32, Deu 22:17, 1 Ki 1:18, 1
Ki 1:51, Isa 62:11, *all in character's text*.  Do you think
the construction reflects "narrative surprise" in my
student's narrative?>

RB:
Notice that hinne X-qatal is NOT common in telling a narrative itself. 
Your vehinne-qatal data supports the suggested improvement. 
The 'less common' data even reinforces this.
Your first example, nu22.5, uses hinne to start a story 
and then the second hinne is hinne+qatal. 
The second one is the surprise, the first one only set the stage.
Your second example, nu 22.32, is probably focus, 'i' am the adversary, 
not the donkey, why did you hit her? (however "yaraT ha derex" is a bump in
the text.)
Dt 22.17 is probably restarting the 'story', it introduces a quote within a
quote within a law case.
1 Ki 1.18 is clear focus, distinguishing Adoniya from Shlomo.
1K1.51 This is like nu 22.5, a first hinne for background to begin a text
and a second hinne, hinne + qatal, for the surprising event.
Is 62.11This also is like 1K1.51 and nu22.5, though with two announcement
hinne's following the first introductory hinne.
Like you said: "all in a character's text", that is, not in the narrator's
text. that should be a clue for you.
when a narrator introduces a surprising event with a suffix verb, you find
"vehinne qatal nose".
In the Ariyela story, the event is the surprise, so the best form is:
vehinne dibbera ha-peraH.

We are talking probabilities and smooth style here. There are always ways
to 'read' something, including special intonations and 'false starts'. But
you don't want beginning students furiously sleeping with green ideas. i
may go back to not using capital letters. just kidding. See?

braxot
Randall Buth