An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

[Page 530]
Succession as in # 1a may be implied by lexical considerations, but it is not
grammatically indicated, as in # 1b. For example, in English, ‘divide and conquer’
signifies a consecutive relationship between the two imperatives, but that is not so
with the command ‘eat and drink.’ These two statements are grammatically similar,
but they represent different relationships for lexical reasons; the same is true in
Hebrew.
b The most important of the volitional forms is the imperative (## 2–33), and, as
Driver notes, wəqataltí is “by far the most common construction after an imperative:
sometimes, however, a succession of imperatives is preferred, and sometimes the
perfect and imperative alternate.” 27 It is also found after cohortatives (## 4–6) and
jussives (## 7–8).
2. ידִּ בְ ַע־לא ֶ תָּ ֫ רְ ַמ אָ ו ְ ךְ ֵל Go and tell my servant.
3. ת ַבתּ ֵ ךָ ְל ה ֵשׂ ֲע
תָּ ֫ רְ ַפ ָכוְ . . . ר ֶפֹג־י ֫ ֵצ ֲע
הּתֹא ָ
4. . . . ךָי ֶכ֫ רְ ָב ְמ ה ָכרֲ ָבאֲ וַ
לֹכּ ךָב ְ וּכרְ ְב ִנוְ ׃ה ָמ דָ אֲ ה ָ תֹח ְפּ ְשׁ מִ
5.
יתִּ ֫ ְפסַ אָ ו ְ אנּ־ה ָ טָ קֳ ַל ֲ
6. דחַ אַ ְבּ ה ָבר ְ ְק נִ וְ
וּנּ ַל֫ ו ְ תוֹ ֑מֹק ְמּ הַ
2 Sam 7:5
Make yourself a gopherwood ark…and pitch it.
Gen 6:14
I will bless the ones blessing you…and (so) all the clans
of the earth will be blessed in you. 28
Gen 12:3
א Let me glean and (so) gather.
Ruth 2:7
Let us approach one of these places and spend the
night…
ו . . . הְי
Judg 19:13
Let there be lights…and let them be for…
7. וּיהָ ְ תֹרֹא ְמ י ִ
8.
וּלא֑ ֵ֫
ִשׁ ו ְ וינָ ָב וּעוּנָי ֫ עוֹנ ַ ְ
Gen 1:14
ו Let his children wander about and beg.
Ps 109:10
32.2.3 After Suffix-Conjugation (and wayyqtl) Forms
a Waw-relative suffix forms used after a suffix form do not take on that conjugation’s
perfective aspect. Rather, in that connection wəqataltí signifies either a consequent
(logical and/or chronological) situation (without aspect, in future time) to the one
represented by qtl or an epexegetical situation (with an imperfective aspect in past or
27 Driver, Tenses in Hebrew, 125.
28 On the grammar of this difficult verse, see P. D. Miller, Jr., “Syntax and Theology
in Genesis XII 3a, ” Vetus Testamentum 34 (1984) 472–76.