Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Joel:

Rabbi Hirsch is treating the verbal forms as having temporal import, whereas
I, and I think a majority on this list, do not believe that the yiqtol and
qatal forms indicate temporality.

Here I think the sequence of events, as in most Biblical narratives, is
indicated by the sequence in which they are recorded.

As for the nomenclature, it is probably the most accurate as the forms do
not relate to grammatical ideas found grammaticalized in Indo-European
languages.

Karl W. Randolph.

On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 12:33 PM, Joel C. Salomon 
<joelcsalomon AT gmail.com>wrote:

> 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