Biblical Hebrew Forum

["K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Dear B-Hebrew friends:

While reading through Deuteronomy, I found myself thrown for a loop in
trying to understand the following: (now watch it be some simple thing that
I overlooked that opens the key)

זכר ימות עולם בינו שנות דור־ודור
ZKR YMWT (WLM BYNW $NWT DWR WDWR
Where to divide it between two sections? What are the verbs, subjects?

The second half of the verse is fairly straightforward:
שאל אביך ויגדך זקניך ויאמרו לך
$)L )BYK WYGDK ZQNYK WY)MRW LK
Ask your father, and he will set it before you,
(ask) your elders, and they will say to you.

From this second half it looks as if the verbs should be imperatives, but
are they? The traditional pointing is that they are imperatives. But to fit
the context, they then should be all singular imperatives. One way to read
this is that this verse is a continuation from verse six, "Remember, their
injustice dies, years have insight to generations" to which the second half
of the verse then commands to ask about it. Or another reading, "Remembrance
dies forever, its insight to change in generations" or again, "Remembrance
dies forever, its insight years of generations" or a final guess on my part,
"Remember days of the past, years have insight to generations" or maybe a
different combination.

As in previous messages, I'm thinking through my fingers as I type this, and
I could have made a simple mistake.

What do you all think?

Karl W. Randolph.