Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

> I understand what you are saying for WAYYIQTOL and I see some sense in
> it, i.e. if the deictic centre is fixed at the first event in a chain of
> consecutive events, the events after the first are relative future. But
> this doesn't work with WEQATAL in passages like Exodus 25-30, compare
> with Exodus 36-39, where WEQATAL also gives a chain of events which are
> future relative to the first event in the chain - which is given with
> jussive YIQTOL.
> Peter Kirk

Sorry, a small addition to the previous message. I fortunately found a
Russian parallel to the usage of weqatal for future but assured action.
Russian also employs past tense to relate very strong command which is
considered as done. You know Russian, "ну-же, сделал!" "now, DONE!" "now,
jumped!"

In Ex25, weqatal could mean something like, in broken English, "Now, you
[will surely] did it!"

Vadim Cherny