An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

d Two negative points about perfectivity are important. First, perfectivity does not
pertain to the duration of the situation. The situation represented by the perfective
form may last a moment or years. This can be made clear by showing both the
perfective and non-perfective conjugations being employed in reference to the same
extended duration.
1. וּל ְכא ֽ ָ לאֵ רָ ְשִׂי ינֵ ְבוּ
םי ִע ָבּר ְא
ַ ן ָמּ ה־ת ַ אֶ
ה ָנ ָשׁ
2. טוּקא ָ ה ָנ ָשׁ םי ִע ָבּר ְאַ
רוֹדבּ ְ
The Israelites ate (pfv.) manna for forty years.
Exod 16:35
For forty years I loathed (non-pfv.; or, was loathing)
(that) generation.
Ps 95:10
When the perfective form gathers together an extended internal situation, we refer
to it as a constative perfect. 3 Second, the perfective does not emphasize the
completedness of a situation. Earlier researchers commonly erred in characterizing the
suffix conjugation as indicating completed action, instead of indicating a complete
situation. Expressed in that erroneous way, the theory that the suffix conjugation
indicates perfective aspect is open to objection. In # 3 the suffix form does not
represent a completed action.
3. הרֵ ְשׂ ֶע־םיתֵּ
ְשׁ ת ַנ ְשׁ ִבּ In the twelfth year of Joram…Ahaziah became king.
ךְ ַל ָמ . . . םרוֹי ָ ְל ה ָנ ָשׁ
וּהָי֫ זְ חַ אֲ
2 Kgs 8:25
[Page 481]
We discuss such examples as this one below. The faulty completedness definition
alsc necessitated inventing an abnormal prophetic psychology to explain the prophets’
use of the suffix conjugation for future events. Perfective aspect may occur in
reference to any time period. 4
30.2 Varieties of Perfective Aspect
a A number of factors, such as the inherent meaning of the verb, adverbial and
adjectival modification, and the stative or fientive character of a verb, modify the
Studies 46 (1987) 215–32; and G. Buccellati, “The State of the ‘Stative,’ ” Fucus: A
Semitic/Afrasian Gathering in Remembrance of Albert Ehrman, ed. Y. L. Arbeitman
(Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1988) 153–89. On the Amarna evidence for the use of
the ENWS suffix form, see (in addition to the references at 29.4j n. 71), W. L. Moran,
“The Death of ˓Abdi-Aširta,” Eretz-Israel 9 (1969) 94–99.
3 GB 2. 25 (§16b).
4 As patterns of verb usage in the Slavonic (or Slavic) languages show; note that “in
the East and West Slavonic languages (including Russian, Polish, Czech, but not
Bulgarian or Serbo-Croatian), and also in Georgian…the Perfective non-Past is
primarily a future tense”; Comrie, Aspect, 66–67.