Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Vadim Cherny <vadimcherny AT gmail.com>]

The discussion of Hebrew verbal system stems from basic  
misunderstanding of deictic center shifts. They are not prominent in  
Roman-German languages, and so the scholars brought up in those  
languages cannot easily understand the Hebrew system.

The Hebrew verbal system is, however, closely paralleled in Russian.

I have argued for years, and my point of view apparently gains some  
following,  that Hebrew has a standard past-future tense system - but  
with massive use of deictic center shifts. Such shifts only occur in  
narrations, as is the case with recitals in Russian.

The narrator transposes himself into the narrated time, and the events  
which are past for the reader remain future for the narrator.  
Similarly, in prophecies the narrator transposes himself into the  
future events, and some of them become past for him.

Interestingly, Russian uses exactly the same construction for deictic  
center shifts: "And + FT", just like"waw + yiqtol" in Hebrew.

As for weqatal, it is about highly assured events. Again, the  
construction of "Exclamation + PT" is common in Russian for very  
strong commands (ну, сделал, быстро!). Unsurprisingly,  
weqatal generally appears in commandments which, though referring to  
future events, are treated as done.
Weqatal is also used in prophetic narrations to speak about the events  
which had become past for the narrator.

This can be approximated in English:

catav - wrote
yictov - will write
wayictov - and [on that day] he would write. "And + Future tense".
weqatal - Shoot him! Now! Done! (instead of "do it!"). "I want to see  
you having shot him!" Or, "treat is as a done deal" refers to future  
with past. "And + Past Tense".

Vadim Cherny