Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dr. Joel M. Hoffman" <joel AT exc.com>]

>Probably "emphatic" is the wrong word here, as this refers not to
>emphasis in the normal English meaning, rather towards assuredness, as
>the sentence is surely to be carried out.

It seems unlikely to me, because inf. absolute is also used in
conditional clauses, e.g., V'HAYA IM SHAMO'A TISHMU... ("If you
listen.")

But more generally, there are lots of possitibilites, all consistent
with the text, but none, as nearly as I can tell, considerably more
likely than the others.

For example, inf. absolute could be dialectal (similar to "If I had
been there..." vs. "If I would have been there...").  Inf. absolute
could be telic.  Etc.

-Joel


Joel M. Hoffman, PhD
http://www.exc.com/JoelHoffman