Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Daniel Wagner" <dan.wagner AT netzero.net>]

Concerning such quotes as

> "Aside from Ex. 3:14, the 1st person singular imperfect of hayah 
> occurs 64 times in the OT.  If we ignore the 22 instances of its use 
> with the vav-consecutive and the uncertain passages Job 3:16; 12:4, 
> the form is always future in meaning, or at least optative.....

and statements like

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

why have some of us (or those we quote) been isolating 1st person from 2nd 
and 3rd person in this discussion? Does the person also change the 
tense/aspect/whatever of the verb?
(I'm aware of course that "jussive" relates to 2nd and 3rd persons, and 
"cohortative" relates to 1st person only, but that is not related to what i'm 
seeing in recent posts concerning the 1st person of HYH in Ex. 3.)

What is the basis for excluding 2nd/3rd person analogies of HYH (or even 
other verb roots) to understand the function of _)EHYEH_ here? If the intent 
*were* to communicate present tense, what verb form would he have used? 

If the view i presented is not correct (i.e., translating it "I am I AM" 
without any major significance to the tense), i'm attracted to Niccacci's 
view, translating them respectively as modal (volitive) and past 
frequentative, something like "I WILL BE WHAT I'VE BEEN BEING." It certainly 
seems to work well in context of verses 12-15.

Dan Wagner



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