Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Trevor Peterson <06PETERSON AT cua.edu>]

>===== Original Message From CS Bartholomew <jacksonpollock AT earthlink.net> 
=====
>R.Alter's notes (The David Story) on 1Sam 1:7 comment on the "iterative
>tense."  Waltke & O'Connor (31.2.b) also cite 1Sam 1:7 as an example of the
>non-perfective used in an iterative context.
>
[snipped]
>
>Even if this negation could be sustained, it is not equal to a positive
>statement that the non-perfective encodes iterativity, is it?

Are they trying to say this? Wouldn't that mean that the yiqtol is always 
iterative? I doubt that this is their point. Semantic categories like the 
lists found in W&O'C are intended to show the range covered by a given 
syntactic element. The point is that this is a contextual meaning. In this 
particularly obvious context, the action is iterative (as explicitly marked, 
which you point out). The next question is, what about other places where 
yiqtol appears in a past narrative? The generalization is that it can also 
refer to iterative action without adverbial marking. (In English, we can say, 
"He used to walk to work every day," or, "He used to walk to work." In both 
cases, the action is the same.) What the yiqtol means in and of itself, apart 
from contextual factors, is a separate question.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics