Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Trevor Peterson" <06peterson AT cua.edu>]

Doris wrote:
> 
> Lev. 22:7 reads: Uva hashemesh v'taher... is the waw 
> preceding  taher a 
> consecutive waw? If so, should it  not not read vayithar ?  

If you're going to think in terms of consecutive vavs, you need to
consider that they can be added to both perfect and imperfect forms.
You're right about what it would look like if it were a consecutive
imperfect form, but clearly the form we have in the text is not
imperfect. It is perfect, and adding a consecutive vav normally has no
effect on the rest of the shape.

The consecutive perfect, or what I would call the converted perfect, is
the sequential form that covers the same basic range as the imperfect.
Notice, BTW, that uva is also a converted perfect. If these were
narrative forms (what you call the consecutive imperfect), we would
expect this to be a past discussion--"When the sun set, he became clean
. . . " But clearly it is not past in this case--"When the sun sets, he
will be clean . . . "

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics