While rereading F. I. Andersen, "The Sentence in Biblical Hebrew,"
I came across the following statement:
qum <A> qax 'et-'ishteka, Get up: take your wife! (Ge 19:15)
[Note that I have adapted some of his notation, and the <A>
indicates apposition.]
Of this passage he says
"The first verb becomes semantically empty, functioning merely as
a hortatory particle." (p.56)
I'm interested in what the rest of you think of this statement. I
wonder, based in part on Jonah 1:1ff where YHWH tells Jonah to
"get up, go to Nineveh" whereas Jonah "got up and ran away." It
seems to me that QUM there serves a definite rhetorical function
producing a certain irony. However, the Genesis passage
Andersen mentions may be different. Opinions?
Dave Washburn http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"Oh, no! They've all become giant Swiss lederhosen-clad
dancing yodelers!" "Talk about unpredictable!" - P&B
Would you agree with this statement?,
Dave Washburn, 08/23/1999