Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com>]

PS to Gen 37:21ויצלהו and he rescued him.
myself:
> what's imperfective about it? does the person need 100%
> success? And Reuben succeeded, even if not as intended.
(people tend to bend languages when in use, anyway.)

the LXX is helpful here since they made a stylistic change from
the MT, demoting wayyishma` to a participle (AORIST, of course)
and then translating wayyatsilehu (lack of 'y' is still hif`il, it is the
older spelling convention) as AORIST εξειλατο ekseilato 'saved'.
So the LXX, me, and the MT read this as 'perfective' and 'past',
in contrast (?) to the aspectual sensitivity that the LXX translator
shows in 37:28 παρεπορευοντο pareporeyonto. I'm happy with
the aspectual interpretation of the Hebrew by the Greek in both
places.


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