Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] fred on 2 tenses at the same sentence

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>
  • To: fred burlingame <tensorpath AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew List <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] fred on 2 tenses at the same sentence
  • Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2011 17:19:03 -0500

You are right, an E$-ET XAYIL is always an E$-ET XAYIL, from age 12 to her last day, and then her daughters become each in her turn an E$- ET XAYIL. The whole thing is timeless. Do you want the author to declare that she had her eyes open for "sleeper" properties (ZAMM-AH SADEH), that she is now keeping her eyes open for "sleeper", properties, and even in coming years she will still have her eyes open for "sleeper" properties? The poet talks about proven acts in the past with the understanding that by virtue of the universal law of continuity they will remain such.
When it comes to V-$ALAL LO YE-XSAR, I feel the future promise of LO YE-XSAR, there will be never a lack of food. Yet, in MI-ME-RXAQ TA-B- IY LAXM-AH, I see TA-B-IY as timeless, as merely she-bring-it, with gramaticalization thrown to the wind.
The word XAYIL from the root XL, has an L indicating elevation.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Feb 2, 2011, at 11:32 AM, fred burlingame wrote:

Hello Isaac;

I enjoyed your story of hebrew family life.

Females (and others) today however, seem to have a different interpretation of these verb tenses. Rather than recounting the mother's "past" actions, in the week preceding shabat; the אשת חיל (e-shet ha-yil) rehearses the woman's actions as the "present" attributes of the mother?

http://www.hillel.org/NR/rdonlyres/D8427B98-3F42-4F74-A355- AA9088FF8E15/0/eshet_chayil.pdf

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ ejud_0002_0006_0_06079.html

Do you conclude that the formal and literal meaning of these verbs includes past tense, the above comments notwithstanding?

And חיל of course represents a most interesting word. 1 samuel 2:4 conveys "strength." But Isaiah 26:17 implies "twisting" in pain of child birth. What is the root meaning that can provoke such opposite usages?

regards,

fred burlingame

On Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 9:52 AM, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:
1. DAR$-AH is present? E$ET XAIL is the main shabat-night PIUT, sung before meal with great gusto, extolling the virtuous and diligent deeds of Mrs. Busy-Busy (who is sitting beaming at the table opposite her husband, Mr. GEBER-GEBER, with all her children around her K-$TIYL-EY ZEIT-IYM) during the previous week (during the week Mr. GEBER-GEBER is busy sitting at the town gate with "ZIQN-EI AREC").
2. VA-TA-AS is: (and it came to pass that)-she-do. The past is indicated by the attached verb VA.

Isaac Fried, Boston University




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page