Hi Peter, you wrote in response to Waldo's query on Gen 15:6:
> This WEQATAL verb form is indeed somewhat unusual in a narrative
> context. It is commoner in instructions and predictions, with a future
> force, where it might be translated "he will believe" or "he should
> believe". But in this context it should probably be understood as
> imperfective or continuous, and so translated more like "he was
> believing".
To signal a reference to the continuous in the past, I think the writer
would have used an X-yiqtol construction if the action was repeated in the
past or a participle if the action was on-going activity in the background
as you have translated it, "he was believing." I realize that weqatal
within narrative can refer to repeated action in the past, but only so when
it follows an X-yiqtol clause as in Gen 2:24 `al ken ya`azob 'ish 'et 'abiv
ve'et 'immo vedabaq be'ishto.
Often, a procedural passage (that is, one that describes how something was
repeatedly done in the past) is set off by a discourse switch cue like
miyyamiym yamimah "yearly" or mishpat ha-X "the custom of the X" prior to
the first X-yiqtol.
See my other post in Gen 15:6 for my understanding of wehe'emin.
Shalom,
Bryan
B. M. Rocine
Living Word Church
6101 Court St. Rd.
Syracuse, NY 13206