Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Penner" <pennerkm AT mcmaster.ca>]

Shoshanna Walker wrote:

> Please, then cite an example from some OTHER place in the Torah, where
> "Ehyeh" is not future

In the Torah (Pentateuch), all other instances of the first person singular
prefix conjugation "ehyeh" refer to future time; all are God speaking,
promising his presence.

As for the rest of the Tanak, examples of present time reference of "ehyeh"
might include:

Hosea 1:9 "I am not yours" (in parallel with a verbless clause).
Psalm 50:19 "you thought I was"
Job 3:16 "Why was I not as a hidden untimely birth"
Job 10:19 "would that I ... were as though I had not been"
Job 12:4 "I am a laughingstock" (in parallel with a verbless clause)
Job 17:6 "I am one before whom" (in parallel with a suffix conjugation verb)
Prov 8:30 "I was beside him" "I was his delight" (when he marked out the
foundations of the earth)
Ruth 2:13 "though I am not one of your maidservants"
1Chr 17:5 "I have gone" (since the day I led up Israel to this day)
1Chr 17:8 "I have been with you wherever you went [suffix conjugation]"

The other 40 instances of "ehyeh" have future time reference.

Ken Penner
Ph.D. student, Biblical Field (Early Judaism)
McMaster University
Hamilton, Canada