Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Nir cohen - Prof. Mat." <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br>]

karl,

>>>In the Proverbs example that I cited, Yiqtols and Wayiqtols are used interchangeably to present the same grammatical pattern. In Proverbs it is present continuous indicative use.

let us be more careful. when you say Wayiqtol, do you refer to the (presumably) biblical
WYQTL or the (presumably) masoretic wAyiqtol [as opposed to wEyiqtol]? [even if you
do not trust masorah on the matter, you cannot confuse the one with the other].

indeed, everybody agrees that the latter (wAyiqtol) is just conjunctive yiqtol, used for the
same purpose. as in נעשה ונשמע. so, we both agree on that.

in prov 31, indeed, all the cases of WYQTL are of two types:

1) following qatal, and masorah spells WAYIQTOL

2) following yiqtol/qtol, and masorah spells WEYIQTOL.

makes sense!

-------------
 
as to the true wAyiqtol used as future/imperfective, this is a rarity found practically ONLY
IN POETRY, mostly in psalms and studied by d. michel. many of these cases in psalms can be
explained as a result of a habit to add and drop the waw with no grammatical reason, IN POETRY. there are other considerations too (e.g. lack of a better alternative, and also the thesis that the basic
function of wayiqtol is the consecutive, not the past tense; also see andrason 2011 for a more dynamical view which explains well the difference between wayiqtol as preterite and qatal as pluperfect). but this is a rare exception to a rule, and we first have to understand the rule.

nir cohen