In a message dated 2/5/2005 9:36:59 PM Eastern Standard Time,
kwrandolph AT email.com writes:
The above pattern has neither the place nor the need for a "shafel" form.
The "above pattern" is a late construct. The niph'al, for example, was
originally a reflexive, not a passive. Of course you "have found that
pattern to
fit the use in Hebrew quite well", because it was created to fit the
then-current use. The pattern was not intended to incorporate diachronic
reality.
The idea that Tanakh retains some archaic verb forms is no more surprising
than that it occasionally retains archaic words.