An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

participle, this use lends itself to circumstantial clauses. Brockelmann seems to have
had this use in mind when he wrote: “The imperfect can designate past events with a
lively sympathy…In poetry the imperfect can also vividly visualize unique actions of
the past.” 21 Driver, though mistakenly viewing this function as the one essential
meaning of the prefix conjugation, described it more precisely:
The imperfect does not imply mere continuance as such (which is the function of the
participle), though, inasmuch as it emphasizes the process introducing and leading to
completion, it expresses what may be termed progressive continuance; by thus seizing[Page
504] upon an action while nascent, and representing it under its most striking and impressive
aspect (for it is just when a fresh object first appears upon a scene that it exhibits greater
energy, and is, so to speak, more aggressive, than either while it simply continues or after it
has been completed), it can present it in the liveliest manner possible. 22
7. ריע֑ ִ הָ
. . . י ַשׁוּח אֹ בָ יּוַ םִי ָל֫ ָשׁוּרְי אֹ בָ י םלֹ ָשׁ ְבאַ ו ְ
8. . . םיפִּ סִּ ה ַ תוֹמּא ַ וּענָיּ ֻ֫
וַ
׃ן ָשׁ ָע א ֵל ָמִּ י תִיבַּ֫ הַ ו ְ .
9. ׃לאֵ רָ ְשִׂי שׁיא ִ וּל ֲעַיּ וַ
םיתִּ ְשׁ ִל ְפּבּ ַ ךְַיּו ַ םק ָ אוּה
וּב ֻשָׁי ֫ ם ָעהָ וְ
. . .
׃ט ֵשּׁ פַ ל־ךְ ְ א ַ וירָ חֲ א ַ
10. הוהי־ל ַע ל ֵלּ ַפּתְ תִּ וַ
׃ה ֶכּבְ ת ִ הֹכבוּ ָ
And Hushai…came into the city while Absalom entered
(began entering) Jerusalem.
2 Sam 15:37
The doorposts shook…and the temple filled (began
filling) with smoke.
Isa 6:4
And the men of Israel retreated. He (Eleazar) stood his
ground and struck the Philistines…and the troops
returned (began returning) after him but only to strip the
dead.
2 Sam 23:9–10
She prayed to YHWH and began weeping bitterly.
1 Sam 1:10
31.3 Non-Perfective and Present Time
a Under the heading of present time we consider the range of uses associated with
English present tenses, including certain habitual or gnomic patterns.
b By progressive non-perfective we mean a pattern similar to the customary
nonperfective, but in a present-time frame with reference to the act of speaking. Here
the non-perfective, instead of implying that a specific situation has ceased, represents
it as ongoing. This pattern is more common with dynamic situations. Contrast, for
example, תא ָב הזֶּ מ־י ִ א, ֵ ‘Where have you come from?’, with י ִכל ֵ֫
ת ֵ ה ָנא֫ ָ ו, ְ ‘Where
are you going?’, in Gen 16:8. Regarding pairs like these William Turner surprisingly
confessed:
21 Brockelmann, Hebräische Syntax, 43–44.
22 Driver, Tenses in Hebrew, 27.