Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>]

From a 1930 edition, "The Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament" 
Printed in London for the British and Foreign Bible Society



> Not in the Torah proper, but in 2 Sam 15:34 it's past.



Not clear


> 2 Sam 16:18
> appears to be present.


Why does this appear to be present?  The first translation I looked 
at, uses it as future

> See also Isaiah 3:7

Definitely future


> ; Ps 50:21;


Not used by itself



> Ruth 2:13;


"Though I be not"


> Song of Songs 1:7.


"should I be"



> In addition, nearly all occurrences of the word
> are in formulae such as "I will be their God" (ehyeh lahem lelohim)
> and such.  I wasn't able to find another instance where it's used
> absolutely like this.  So there are a couple of things wrong with
> your question: a) there are no exact parallels, and b) you limit it
> only to the Torah when we need to be looking at the whole of the
> Tanakh.
>
> > In the very same chapter, Exodus 3:12  Ehyeh is definitely used in the
> > future tense.  It is not characteristic of the Torah to be careless about
> > the words, and combinations of letters used - rather the opposite.
>
> But it's in another formula, 'ehyeh `immak.  So that doesn't really
> tell us anything about the 'ehyeh asher 'ehyeh phrase.
>
> > > > On the fact that, Biblical Hebrew is still Hebrew, and not some other
> > > > language
> > >
> > > But modern Hebrew is based more on Mishnaic than biblical
> > > Hebrew (evidence e.g. the lack of the waw-consecutive form).
> > > Mishnaic Hebrew developed into a tensed language, whereas
> > > biblical Hebrew seems to be something different.
> >
> >
> > Not to me, when I read it
>
> Then you're reading it anachronistically.  Mishnaic Hebrew,
> followed by modern Hebrew, created a tensed language that uses
> the prefix conjugation for future, the participle for present and the
> suffix for past.  But a simple glance at the Tanakh shows that
> those writers knew of no such system.
>
> > > > If someone would remind me where exactly this pasuk (Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh)
> > is,
> > > > in the Torah, I will see if I can find if any of the commentaries
> > comment on
> > > > this.
> > >
> > > Exodus 3.
> >
> [snip]
> > I really don't see how anyone can claim that they know better 
> than the great
> > Torah commentators, which are far more numerous than what I just quoted,
> > none of whom, I can assure you, believe that "Ehyeh" means 'I am'
>
> Do we really think that our knowledge of biblical Hebrew grammar
> hasn't advanced a bit since medieval times?  Those giants did the
> best they could with the knowledge they had, but their grasp of
> biblical grammar was flawed at best.  That doesn't mean their
> comments are worthless, of course, but it does mean we need to
> check them against what we now know about grammar and
> especially the verb system.  So citing them uncritically doesn't get
> us anywhere, nor does citing them show that I am "simply wrong"
> as you said in another post.  It means they were operating from an
> incorrect premise of grammar.  'ehyeh COULD mean "I will be," but
> that doesn't mean it ALWAYS carried that meaning.  I've given
> several passages where it has to carry present meaning, and even
> one that is past.  The picture is nowhere near as simple as you
> suggest.
>
>
> Dave Washburn
> http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
> "You just keep thinking, Butch.  That's what you're good at."
>
>
> ---
> You are currently subscribed to b-hebrew as: [rosewalk AT concentric.net]
> To unsubscribe, forward this message to 
> $subst('Email.Unsub')
> To subscribe, send an email to join-b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu.