Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Chris,

> Please help me concerning the gutteral verb for 'to unite'.  I am having
> extreme difficulty in understanding the grammar.  (gen 49:6, isa 14:20)
> TeCHaD and then (psalm 86:11) YaCHeD.  Even with Merwe, Kreuze's excelent
> reference grammar and Page H kelly's Introductory grammar I am going balmy
> trying to understand and work out why the vowel pointing and 'tav' prefix
> from the first two verbs in this Qal Stem is the way it is..

HH: The first form is a jussive verb in the third person, feminine 
singular. It functions as an imperative. The second verb is an 
imperfect verb in the second person, masculine singular.

> Secondly in psalm 86 'YaCHeD' is in the imperative????  If not please tell
> me why, (and why a patach under the 'yod' if it is a piel),

HH: Yes, it is in the imperative, second masculine singular. A 
pathach under the first syllable is not unusual for a Piel 
imperative. in fact, it is there in the normal form for standard 
verbs.

> I know that I shall be asking 1 + 1 = 2 questions for you guys on this board
> but I have been trying to teach myself for some years and I have never had
> access to other students or tutors, this has been a long hard struggle just
> to get this far in my limited understanding - just to explain my position,
> to increase your tolerance levels for such basic questions.

HH: You might be wise to buy some Hebrew software that parses the 
text for you, something like Bibleworks or Accordance. There are 
hardback products, too.

                                Yours,
                                Harold Holmyard