An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

e After qtl (or wayyqtl) representing a situation in past time, subordinate wqtl
represents an imperfective situation within the single event, the epexegetical wəqataltí
construction (cf. 33.2.2; see also 32.2.1d # 9).
23. לִיח־י ַ֫ ֵשׁ נְ א ַ ה ֶשֹׁמ רחַ ְבִ יּוַ םי ִשׁאר ָ םתֹא ָ ןתִּ ֵ יּוַ . . .
. . . וּט ְפ ָשׁ וְ
. . .
ה ֶשׁ קָּ הַ
ר ָבדּ ָ ה־ת ַ אֶ
ה ֶשֹׁמ־לא ֶ ןוּאיבְ ִ י
ןֹטקָּ ה ַ ר ָבדּ ָ ה־ל ַ ָכו ְ
׃םה ֵ וּטוּפּ ְשִׁי
Moses chose capable men…and he placed them as
heads…and they would judge…The difficult cases they
would bring to Moses, but all the simple ones they
decided on their own.
Exod 18:25–26
We prefer to interpret the wqtl construction as epexegetical with an imperfective
meaning rather than as copulative with perfective value for two reasons. 33 First,
epexegetical wəqataltí may signify a (future) consequence, a primary meaning of the
non-perfective conjugation, after qtl. We see no reason for denying the possibility that
it might also express imperfective aspect, the other primary value of the nonperfective
conjugation, in the same syntactical construction. Second, when the chain
is broken the text reverts to yqtl, which signifies imperfective aspect in past time (see,
e.g., # 23). In this connection the situation represented by wəqataltí does not
chronologically follow that expressed by the suffix conjugation, but rather explains
the leading situation. The aspectual value of epexegetical w«qataltí after qtl can be
seen by contrasting that construction with wayyqtl after היה. Lambdin contrasts the
two constructions with these examples. 34
דרָי ַ ו ְ ץרֶ א֫ ָ ָבּ ב ָער ָ הָיהָ ה ָמְ יר֫ ַ ְצ ִמ
דרֶ ֵיּ֫ ו ַ ץרֶ א֫ ָ ָבּ ב ָער ָ הָיהָ ה ָמְ יר֫ ַ ְצ ִמ
There was a famine in the land and he used to go down to
Egypt (customary).
There was a famine in the land and he went down to Egypt
(specific, punctual).
By this contrast Lambdin rightly aims to show the difference in aspect between
the two sentences. The first is imperfective, more specifically customary, the second
perfective, more specifically preterite. But the sentences also differ with respect to
temporal sequence.[Page 534] The verb דרָי ַ ו ְ is contemporary with the primary
situation, while דרֶ ֵיּ֫ ו ַ is probably chronologically successive to the first. Lambdin
confines the contemporary/sequential differentiation to sentences with היה in the
main clause. In any narrative sequence, however, relative wəqataltí signifies a past
situation that is subordinate or epexegetical to a situation represented by wayyqtl or
qtl in the leading clause.
33 With Driver, Tenses in Hebrew, 117–18.
34 Lambdin, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew, 279.