> From: K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
> To: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2011 09:16:09 -0700
> Subject: [b-hebrew] Participle or Qatal?
> Dear All:
>
> Recently while reading Deuteronomy, I came across the phrase, “אשׁר־יהוה
> אלהיך נתן לך” )$R YHWH )LHYK NTN LK (it occurs once in Exodus, 29 times in
> Deuteronomy). It suddenly hit me as I was reading it that even though I was
> reading an unpointed text, I was reading the verb נתן NTN as a participle (I
> later checked some of the verses with the Masoretic text, and they have it
> pointed as a participle). Yet the unpointed text could be read as either qal
> participle or qal qatal.
<snip>
> But is that what Moses said? What think ye?
I read it in my eloctronic version of the text (without vowel points)
and my first, most natural reading of it was qal qatal. :-) I suppose
that the context (and surrounding verbs) would make the most
difference in which reading follows more naturally. (I.e. if you were
reading a lot of participles just before that sentence, it would
follow most naturally that it is also a participle.)
For me there is a slight difference in nuance as well with the
participle including the idea of an ongoing giving whereas qatal would
emphasize the fact that it was given once for allways.