Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Stoney Breyer" <stoneyb AT touchwood.net>]

Stoney Breyer
Writer
Touchwood, Inc.
314 421-9878
 
In English, how about "Now he had believed his friends would always help

him out, but when he really needed them they didn't want to know." To me

this implies that he no longer believed. 

[SB:] Well, yes, but that implication is in the second clause, and
particularly the "but", not in the tense of the first clause.  Compare
"Now he had believed his friends would always help 
him out, and in fact when he really needed them they all pitched in."