Could someone tell me whether (a) I just totally missed this part of the
discussion; (b) nobody has thought to bring these points into the discussion; or
(c) these data are discredited and no one pays attention to them anymore.
Dahood in the Anchor Bible Psalms (e.g. vol III, pp 420ff) cites numerous
examples of QATAL followed by YIQTOL in parallel passages and both referring to
the same timeframe (most often past, but sometimes present). He cites
qtl-yqtl parallels as common in Ugaritic poetry.
To me, this might seem to support the argument that the prefixed and
suffixed forms are not clearly distinguished semantically for either tense or
aspect; but on the other hand the fact that this appears to be a fixed pattern only
in poetry suggests the opposite: i.e. that only in this poetic convention
are they parallel and they do in fact carry semantic differences in general
usage.
Hayyim Obadyah
, MPA
New York, New York 10027
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