Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com>]

[RB]
I repeat the Qumran example, a third time, since you still can't find the
infinitive main clause
4Q398 fr 14-17 (4QMMT C 25ff)

זכור [את ]דויד שה[ו]א איש חסדים
[ו]אפ ה[ו]א [נ]צל מצרות רבות
ונסלוח לו
ואף אנחנו כתבנו אליך מקצת מעשי התורה
שחשבנו לטוב לך ולעמך

>> try “w-nisloH lo”.


[Karl]  > I read the short quote as an imperative statement.
> Morphologically that is a possible reading. And when a statement is
> imperative, one expects that the verb contained in that statement to be
> imperative as well, even in Biblical Hebrew.

The sad thing here, is that those who don't know Hebrew but who follow this
list in English might assume that there must be some way for both sides to
be right. 'Street wisdom' says that there are two sides to an argument.
But here there is no argument. w-nslwH cannot be read as an imperative
in the Hebrew language.
"Morphologically, that is a possible reading." is the statement of someone
who doesn't know Hebrew. zxor 'remember' was an imperative, and everything
following was what they were supposed to remember as the writer described
David's life. In that description was wnslwH, an unambiguous infinitive
absolute. To call that an infinitive would be a first-year school boy mistake.
To insist on that,  defies description on list.




-- 
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
randallbuth AT gmail.com
Biblical Language Center
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