An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

וּר ְמאֹ יּוַ . .
7. ה ֶשֹׁמ וֹמ ְשׁ ארָ ְק תִּ וַ
םִימּ ַ֫
ה־ן ַ ִמ י ִכּ ר ֶמאֹ תּ֫ וַ
׃וּהתי ִ֫
ִשׁ מְ
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8.
בֹנ ְגתִּ ו ַ תי ָ ִשׂ ֫ ָע ה ֶמ
יב֑ ִ ָבל־ת ְ אֶ
9. םי ִשׂ ֲע ַמּ ה־ל ַ ָכ ְכּ
יתלֹ ִ ֲעה ַ םוֹיּמ ִ וּשׂ ָע־ר ֶשׁ אֲ
םִי ר֫ ַ ְצ ִמּ ִמ םתֹא ָ
ינִ ֻ֫ב זְ ַעַיּ ו ַ הזֶּ ה ַ םוֹיּה־ד ַ ַעוְ
םיר֑ ִחֵ
א ֲ םיהלֹ ִ א ֱ וּדבְ ַעַיּ וַ
׃ךְ ָל־ם ַגּ םי ִשֹׂע ה ָמּ ה ֵ֫
ן ֵכּ
10. תא ֵ תָּ ְעדָי ַ֫ התָּ א ַ ם ַגוְ . . באוֹי ָ י ִל ה ָשׂ ָע־ר ֫ ֶשׁ אֲ
ירֵ ָשׂ־ינֵ ְשׁ ִל ה ָשׂ ָע ר ֶשׁ אֲ
.
. . . לאֵ רָ ְשִׂי תוֹא ְב ִצ
ם ֶשׂ ָיּ֫ ו ַ ם ֵגרְ הַיּ ַ וַ
ם ֑לֹ ָשׁ ְבּ ה ָמ חָ ְל ִמ־ימֵ דְּ
Judg 16:23
She called his name Moses, saying, “I drew him out of
the water.”
Exod 2:10
What have you done? You have deceived me?
Gen 31:26
As they have done from the day I brought them up out
of Egypt until this day, they forsook me and served
other gods. So they are doing to you.
1 Sam 8:8
You know what Joab…did to me—what he did to the
two commanders of Israel’s armies…He killed them
and so shed the blood of battle in times of peace.
1 Kgs 2:5
33.2.3 Pluperfect
a The use of wayyqtl to represent pluperfect situations can be seen as a subvariety of
epexegetical use, but it has been controversial. Driver denied such use apart from
instances occurring at the beginning of a narrative or paragraph. He tried to explain
the exceptions to this rule as due to a redactor who joined originally distinct literary
units together without regard to formal unity. But W. J. Martin and D. W. Baker have
argued otherwise. Driver seems inconsistent here, since he allows for the epexegetical
use of waw-relative, which may entail a pluperfect situation. 13 Moreover, wayyqtl in
the received text, the object of our grammatical investigation, must be understood to
13 See Driver, Tenses in Hebrew, 84–85; A. B. Davidson, Hebrew Syntax (3d ed.;
Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1901) 72–73; and, for the alternative view, W. J. Martin, “
‘Dischronologized’ Narrative in the Old Testament,” Congress Volume: Rome 1968
(Vetus Testamentum Supplement 17; Leiden: Brill, 1969) 179–86; D. W. Baker, The
Consecutive Nonperfective as Pluperfect in the Historical Books of the Hebrew Old
Testament (Regent College Thesis, 1973).