An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

12. םירִ ָבדּ ְ ה ַ ירֵ חֲ א ַ יהְי ִ וַ
דגֻּיּ ַ ו ַ ה ֶלּא֫ ֵ הָ
Sometime later he was told…
Gen 22:20
Thomas O. Lambdin analyzed this frequent construction with temporal clauses
and phrases:
Within a narrative sequence temporal modifiers are very frequently placed before the clause
they modify and are introduced by waw-conversive + a form of the verb הָיה. ָ In the past
tense narrative this is uniformly יהְי ִ ַ
ו…The temporal [form] is then followed by the expected
sequential form of the main narrative. 17
This construction introduces the books of Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel,
Ezekiel, Ruth (# 11 above), Esther, and Nehemiah. 18 Wayyqtl apart from יהְי ִ ו ַ
introduces the books of Leviticus, Numbers, 2 Kings, and 2 Chronicles, but these are
best regarded as secondary beginnings; that is, the books have a connection with the
ones that precede them. This use of wayyqtl after יהיו stands in polarity over against
relative wqtl after היהו (cf. 32.2.6b).
33.3 Waw-Relative: Aspectual Matters
a An inductive study of wayyqtl’s uses confirms the presumption that wayyqtl
represents a situation subjectively as perfective. We cite uses with forms of the suffix
and the prefix conjugations and verbless clauses, participles, and infinitives. Lacking
an adequate understanding of aspect, A. B. Davidson, for example, taught the
common error that the “conversive tenses” have “the meaning of the preceding
tenses.” 19 In fact, however, wayyqtl after the non-perfective conjugation does not have
the meaning of that conjugation; rather it signifies perfective aspect in addition to the
subordinate values analyzed above. When wayyqtl follows a prefix conjugation it
possesses a complementary perfective value, even as a suffix conjugation can
complement a prefix conjugation in a pair of poetic lines. Significantly, there are no
instances of wayyqtl after a prefix conjugation denoting either customary aspect in
past time or a dependent modal situation. After the other grammatical forms wayyqtl
also signifies notions associated with the suffix conjugation.
33.3.1 After Suffix-Conjugation Forms
a Wayyqtl, after a suffix form, usually expresses a perfective value. If the time
reference is to the past, the wayyqtl form may be a definite (“preterite”; # 1, cf. # 9),
ingressive (# 2), constative (# 3), complex (## 4–5), telic (## 6–7), indefinite
perfective (# 8), or unique definite past (# 9).
[Page ׃ל ֵכֹא ו ָ ינִ אי ַ֫
ִשּׁ ה ִ שׁחָ ָנּהַ The serpent deceived me, and so I ate.
555]
17 T. O. Lambdin, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew (New York: Scribner, 1971)123.
18 Cf. GB 2. 37 (§8a*).
19 Davidson, Hebrew Syntax, 70.