Biblical Hebrew Forum

["B. M. Rocine" <brocine AT twcny.rr.com>]

Dave, I will give the examples of three types of "explainably 
non-sequential" wayyiqtol below.

1.  wayyiqtol of 'mr after a wayyiqtol expressing a verbal event.  I think 
we can also refer to these as speech introduction formulas as explained in 
Miller's book on the subject.  Direct speech is only introduced in prose by 
'mr or dbr, but previous to 'mr or dbr may be a clause that tells the manner 
of the speech.

e.g.  Gen 3:9  vayyiqra' yhwh 'elohim 'el ha'adam vayyo'mer lo

2.  a second wayyiqtol paraphrases the first, like many times in the flood 
narrative.

e.g.  Gen 7:18  vayyigberu hammayim vayyirbu me'od `al ha'arets

The idea here is not that first the waters swelled, and then they increased. 
The idea is, with dramatic paraphrase, to cover the same story time again 
like a fan telling how the Babe hit a home run: "Babe smashed a homer! He 
slammed one out of the park!"  Babe didn't hit two homers.  It was such a 
momentous event it gets covered twice.  In the example from Gen the writer 
and reader's world knowledge cooperates with the sequential meaning of the 
wayyiqtol.

3.  an identicle wayyiqtol covers the same story time as a previous 
wayyiqtol.

e.g. Jdg 12:11 vayyishpot 'axarav 'et yisra'el 'eylon hazzebuloni vayyishpot 
'et yisra'el `eser shanim

Shalom,
Bryan


B. M. Rocine
Living Word Church
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