Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Joel C. Salomon" <joelcsalomon AT gmail.com>]

Rabbi S. R. Hirsch on Genesis 25:34 says (roughly) that a Qatal form 
following a Vayiqtol form¹ is a past perfect, i.e., the translation 
should be
        And Jacob _had given_ Esau bread and pottage of lentils…
with a fairly different view of what transpired than traditional 
translations suggest.

Is this grammatical feature otherwise attested to?  Is it widely accepted?

1. I’m using terminology I picked up from this list; if there’s a more 
standard naming scheme would someone please correct me?

—Joel C. Salomon