Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Phil Sumpter" <philsumpter AT hotmail.com>]

Thank you very much Petr for your response.

As far as I can see, in the Psalms every example of a clause-initial first 
person yiqtol within an imperative-'jussive' sequence is in the cohortaive 
(-ah ending), apart from three exceptions: Pss 90:12; 119:116, 144. I guess 
that more or less confirms your judgement ...

I still wonder about the meaning of the imperative-jussive sequence as being 
either purpose or consequence. There are a number of examples in Book I of 
the Psalms which seem to be neither:

Pss 27:14 and 31:25: "Be strong and let your heart take courage." This seems 
to be synonymous parallelism ... There is no sequence, consequence, or 
purpose.
Ps 34:4: "Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!" 
Same as above.

One example where the distinction between purpose and consequence could be 
exegetically significant is Ps 37:4: "Delight yourself in the Lord, and/so 
that he will give you the desires of your heart" (same for Ps 37:34). Or 
maybe the distinction was not significant to the Hebrew mind - doing things 
has consequences, and why do them unless you want the consequences ... ?

Philip Sumpter

http://narrativeandontology.blogspot.com/