Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Vadim Cherny" <VadimCherny AT mail.ru>]

> > ... Your figure of 26.9% is an overestimation on two counts, as you 
> > noted: the figure 13,619 does not include popular wayiqtols, ...
>
> Which are even by Rolf's estimates well over 90% past reference - he found 
> just 998 non-past WAYYIQTOLs, as posted here on 18th August.

That seems consistent with wayiqtol usage as tense

> > Some difficulty in coming to the common ground arises when Hebrew uses
> > future case in a way intelligible to Russian speakers, but not to 
> > English.
> > Such is Genesis 37:15, “A man asked him, asking, What do you want (future
> > tense)?” Even in English, the question is oriented into the future.
> > Ultra-polite Russian equivalent, “Что изволите?” is future.
>
> This does not mean "What do you want?", but "What are you looking for?" or 
> "Что ищешь?", a straight and not especially polite present.

mvksh has a second meaning (derivative from 'look for'), to want (e.g., 
Ps122:9).
The man politely asked, "What do you want [here]?"
I adduce Russian only to show that such idiomatic usage is possible. 
Besides, Russian is close to hebrew in other aspects. Cohortative Hebrew 
suffix hey (nh) is -ka in Russian, for example.

> > Just a single example of clear usage of yiqtol as past tense or imperfect
> > would suffice for me to retract. But something clear, like "yesterday he
> > yiqtol."
>
> Genesis 2:6 YA`ALEH
> Genesis 2:10 YIPPARED

Peter, you pointed to interesting, very interesting entries. The funniest 
thing is that I never had a problem with that verse. Naturally for Russian 
speaker, I read Genesis 2:6 with two future tense verbs, yiqtol and weqatal. 
For me, this is the same ci-yiqtol with ci implied. In 2:5, the earth was 
waterless. Then, [как] поднимется пар; as would raise up, и как (ка-ак) 
увлажнит, and as would water.
The same is for yipared in 2:10: and the river would open from there. This 
mode of expression is perfectly conventional in Russian, and in fact common 
in archaic recitals. It might (in my opinion) or might not be related to 
deictic shift, but it is possible. English expresses that idea with past 
tense, but it is future in Russian and Hebrew.

Vadim Cherny