Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Chavoux Luyt <chavoux AT gmail.com>]

Hi Karl

> From: K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
> To: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2011 09:16:09 -0700
> Subject: [b-hebrew] Participle or Qatal?
> Dear All:
>
> Recently while reading Deuteronomy, I came across the phrase, “אשׁר־יהוה
> אלהיך נתן לך” )$R YHWH )LHYK NTN LK (it occurs once in Exodus, 29 times in
> Deuteronomy). It suddenly hit me as I was reading it that even though I was
> reading an unpointed text, I was reading the verb נתן NTN as a participle (I
> later checked some of the verses with the Masoretic text, and they have it
> pointed as a participle). Yet the unpointed text could be read as either qal
> participle or qal qatal.
<snip>
> But is that what Moses said? What think ye?
I read it in my eloctronic version of the text (without vowel points)
and my first, most natural reading of it was qal qatal. :-) I suppose
that the context (and surrounding verbs) would make the most
difference in which reading follows more naturally. (I.e. if you were
reading a lot of participles just before that sentence, it would
follow most naturally that it is also a participle.)

For me there is a slight difference in nuance as well with the
participle including the idea of an ongoing giving whereas qatal would
emphasize the fact that it was given once for allways.

Regards
Chavoux Luyt