Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Garth Hotmail" <garthgrenache AT hotmail.com>]

Dear Dave and Edward and all,

My recent thinking is that "Yahweh" could easily be a QAL 3ms Imperfect.

The vowels of Qal Imperfects are variable and seem to depend on each root's 
vowels.

These show up in 1st-gutteral roots, of which HW- is one.
Limiting the range further, I searched for all Qal imperfects of roots 
spelled H?H, and found four in the Bible, each with different vocalisation:

  1.. HGH "mutter" =>  Yehgeh 
  2.. HYH    "be"     =>  Yihyeh 
  3.. HMH "roar"    => Yehemeh 
  4.. HRH "conceive" => Taharu "you shall conceive" (Is 33:11)
Note the fourth root above with it's vocalisation 'YaCaCeH'.  This is the 
exact vocalisation suggested for 'Hiphil' Yahweh, but all of these are Qal!

A Qal Imperfect "He is" better fits the context of Exodus 3:14-15 than the 
Hiphil meaning "He causes to be".  Also, Hebrew root HWH is only known in the 
Qal stem.

By the way, I have a yahoo group dedicated to the discussion of God's name 
YHWH.  You would all be welcome to join us and contribute to the discussion:

http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/YHWHgroup/

Love from Garth Grenache,

Moderator of YHWHgroup

http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/YHWHgroup/