Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

Rolf,

Good questions! Thanks for asking—they are precisely the questions we need to be asking. The answer is no, the verbs do not mean something else in poetry. This is important, because we are still dealing with the same language—Hebrew. We need consistency, which is something that some models of the Hebrew verb have lacked. However, we are talking about a different register of language in poetry (it's not prose), and so words get used differently, even if the words  themselves (in this case verbs) are the same. This is the same in any language, really. It's not unique to Hebrew.

In poetry, you usually don't have an account of something or a scene unfolding, as you do in narrative, for example. Rather, you have an exploration of ideas, sometimes quite abstract. The lack of deictic markers for timeframes, therefore, give the verbs a little more freedom. One of the frequent techniques in poetry is stylistic variation, in which one colon within a parallel pairing uses a qatal, while the second colon in the pairing uses a yiqtol. This is still a definite/indefinite difference. The nature of parallelism and poetic devices allows for this kind of word pairing such that there can be synonymous parallelism but with clear distinction between the two lines. The issue is one of focus: yiqtol is unfocused, while qatal is focused. You might like to think of it as similar to a camera zoom: yiqtol gives you a wide angle shot, perhaps a bit fuzzy and not so sharp, while qatal gives you a hi-def close up with vividness.

GEORGE ATHAS

Dean of Research,

Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au)

Sydney, Australia

From: Rolf <rolf.furuli AT sf-nett.no>
Date: Sunday, 26 May 2013 11:16 PM
To: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] to rolf

Dear George,

I have two questions:

1) Is the meaning of the verb forms different in Hebrew prose and poetry? If the answer is affirmative, do we find a similar difference in other languages? (BTW, your clauses with examples of YIQTOL and QATAL are poetry).

2) Is there a difference in meaning between the YIQTOLs and QATALs in Psalm 2:1, 2?

Psalm 2:1, 2 (NIV):  "Why do the nations conspire (QATAL) and the people plot (YIQTOL) in vain?

                              The kings of the earth take their stand (YIQTOL) and the rulers gather (QATAL) against the LORD and    

                              his Anonted One."

Best regards,

Rolf Furuli

Stavern

Norway