Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

We are tending to lose focus in this discussion, so I want bring the central
questions back to the foreground.

First, I want to echo some of Dan's questions; I wonder the same thing.

> why have some of us (or those we quote) been isolating 1st person from 2nd
and 3rd person in this discussion?

> If the intent *were* to communicate present tense, what verb form would he
have used?

I'd also like to repeat my questions to Shoshanna, which have not yet
received a direct answer:

1. Do you believe that the prefix-conjugation of biblical Hebrew can
accurately
be called the "future tense"?

2. Or that translating a prefix verb into the present tense is always wrong?

Finally, I would like to see Shoshanna
1. provide a list what she believes are valid English translations of
"eyheh", (e.g. I will, I shall,  I should be, I would be ...?) and
2. say which she would use in each of the verses I listed as problematic for
her view:

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]"

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