Biblical Hebrew Forum

[KELowery AT cs.com]

How does one understand the morphology of WA':ATA`"BFH

in Ps 119:163:

$EQER &FN"'TIY WA':ATA`"BFH T.OWRFT:KF 'FHFB:T.IY
"Falsehood I hate and abhor; your Torah I love."

From a strictly morphological viewpoint, it looks like a piel cohortative 1cs
from T`B. Yet GKC 108g cites this very verse as an example of a "he 
paragogicum"
added to a waw-consecutive! And cites the form with a waw-qamets (which
apparently some mss have, but not L/BHS), which would be unambiguously
wayyiqtol, albeit with a final he which is difficult to explain. Then there's
Waltke&O'Connor (pg 576-77), who, although they do not cite this verse, speak 
of
"pseudo-cohortatives" followed by some very unclear discussion of the 
phenomena.
The translations typically treat it as if it were a perfect, since the other 
two
verbs are perfects.

So:

1. morphologically, what is it?

2. syntactically and semantically, what is its function?

And why not just have expressed it with a perfect in the first place? (I.e.,
what change in meaning, if any, is signaled by the "cohoratative" here?)

Blessings,

Kirk

P.S. Evidently there are about 90 or so cases of this type of phenomenon,
according to the standard authorities. So the case here is not unique.
________________________________________________________
Kirk E. Lowery, Ph.D.             Email: klowery AT wts.edu
Associate Director                Phone: 215-572-3854
The Westminster Hebrew Institute  Fax: 215-887-5511
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