Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Joseph Justiss <jljustiss AT msn.com>]

I would like to weigh in on the syntax of this verse and others like it in 
the Hebrew Bible. John Sailhamer argues that a clause in biblical Hebrew that 
begins with wayyiqtol then shifts to (waw)X Qatal where both verbs are of the 
same verbal root expresses contemporaneity between the actions of both 
clauses.  The sense would be something like "And God named the light day 
while naming the darkness night."  You have the same construction in Exodus 
1:5, something like: "the number was seventy while Joseph was in Egypt."

 

I believe he has also argued that this clause structure also often serves to 
signal the closing off of sections in the text, thus the name "closed Qatal 
clause".

 

Joseph Justiss PhD student 

Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary

Mill Valley, CA
                                          
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