Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Vadim Cherny <vadimcherny AT gmail.com>]

If you mean, wenalin, it uses past tense for the same reason it is  
often used in commandments: to denote the action as assured. The  
servant implores his master so strongly that the action is certain,  
thus past voice. Again, such usage is extremely common in Russian, but  
not in English, which account for the fact that most scholars refuse  
to see a so plain thing.

Vadim Cherny


Yitzhak Sapir wrote:

I would see $bty as a rare alternative form of y$bty.  See also Judges
19:11, rd