Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Rolf" <rolf.furuli AT sf-nett.no>]

 Dear Ruth,

It is a legitimate linguistic interpretation to say that a situation is 
gnomic. But it can also be an excuse for not being able to explain the use of 
verbs. I for one am very reluctant to explain the use of Hebrew verbsa as 
being gnomic.  It is not correct to say that in order to interpret Proverbs 
31:10-29 as a present situation, the writer must have been an eyewitness. The 
writer could have had a particular woman in mind, and a description of an 
ideal wife need not be timeless.

In the 19 verses,  there are 18 QATALS, 5 YIQTOLs, 9 WAYYIQTOLs, 2 passive 
participles, 1 Niphal participle, and 1 active participle. Those who believe 
that Hebrew has four different verb conjugations must in any case explain why 
so many different verb forms are used to express timelessness.  All the 
finite verbs can be explained as having present reference in a simple way, 
namely by interpreting the WAW (expressed as WAYY for phonological reasons) 
of WAYYIQTOL as having a syntactic and not a semantic function. In that case, 
there are 18 suffix forms (QATALs) and 14 prefix forms (YIQTOL) with present 
reference.  English translations of the WAYYIQTOLs consistently use "and" 
before the English verbs translated from the WAYYIQTOLs.

But why use two different forms to express a present situation? Please look 
at Psalm 2:1-4. Here we have two pairs of parallell clauses with present 
reference, expressed by two YIQTOLs and two  QATALs? Why the use of different 
forms? One reason can be that YIQTOL represent the imperfective aspect and 
QATAL the perfective one, and that the aspects are not mutually exclusive as 
the English aspects are. Both aspects can be used in some situations, and one 
of the aspects must be chosen in other situations. In my study of all the 
verbs of the Tanakh, I analyzed 2,505 QATALs and 2,481 YIQTOLs as having 
present reference.

To bring in the challenge that no one so far has taken, I refer to  Jeremiah, 
chapters 50 and 51:

111 QATALs; future reference: 59; past: 14; present: 10; present completed 
(English "perfect") 21, present: 5; modal: 2.

55 WEQATALs; future reference: 55

YIQTOL: 82; future reference: 82

WEYIQTOL: 2; future reference: 2

WAYYIQTOLs: 6; future reference: 6

How will you account for the 59 QATALs with future reference, compared with 
the 14 with past reference? How will you account for the 6 WAYYIQTOLs with 
future reference?



Best regards,



Rolf Furuli
Stavern
Norway





>
>
> > A prime example is Proverbs 31:10­31‹with the exception of the first
> > Yiqtol, all the other verbs in that section are in the context of present
> > tense, imperfective aspect, indicative modality. Yet there is a regular
> > pattern that explains the use of the Qatal and Yiqtol verb conjugations, a
> > pattern that isn¹t described by TAM.
> > > When we take the pattern as evidenced by this Proverbs passage, and 
> > > apply
> > it to most of the Yiqtols (and Wayiqtols) found in narrative, we find it
> > fits without resorting to tense. Tense is told not by the conjugation, but
> > by the context.
>
> Karl, you keep asserting that this passage refers to present time, but it
> doesn't -- unless you believe that the narrator of the passage is an
> eye-witness giving a play-by-play description of a particular woman's
> actions.  You agree that the passage is gnomic, and by definition a gnomic
> utterance is timeless.  It's the difference between "The eagle is circling
> to swoop on its prey" (present reference) and "The early bird catches the
> worm" (timeless).
>
> At least in English, just about any verb form can be used in a gnomic
> context and still maintain the timelessness (obviously this may not apply to
> Hebrew, but that's something you would have to prove).  Like this:
>
>     Listen (imperative) to my thinking (gerund) about the ideal wife.
>     She would be (some sort of modal) someone who always makes your
>     life good (present).  She studied (simple past) hard at school, and
>     she encourages (present) her children to do (infinitive) the same.
>     She's always helping (present continuous) other people.  Once you
>     have married (perfect) her, you will never regret it (future).
>

>
>
> Ruth
>
>
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