An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

taken as having jussive (# 6) or cohortative (# 7) force (34.1d n. 3). The second
volitional form signifies purpose or result, in contrast to the sequence imperative +
imperative (cf. ## 3, 10). 32 A chain of jussives or cohortatives can follow an
imperative. When the verb after an imperative is preceded by its own subject (## 8–9)
or by a negative particle (# 10), it is usually a non-perfective form, with a volitional
sense. 33
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2.
1. רסָי ֵ ו ְ הוהי־לא ֶ וּריתִּ ֫ ְעהַ ינִּ ֶמּ ֫ ִמ םי ִעדְּ רְ ַפ ְצהַ ימּ֑ ִ ַע ֵמוּ
Pray to YHWH that he take the frogs away from me and
my people.
Exod 8:4
תֹמָ ֑ יו ְ ךָנְ ִבּ־תא ֶ א ֵצוֹה Bring out your son that he might die.
3. הֵיהְ ו ֶ ינַ ָפל ְ ךְ ֵלּהַ תְ הִ
יתי ִ רִ ְב ה ָנתְּ אֶ ו ְ ׃םימִ תָ
4. םינִ ֵבל ְ ה ָנ ְבּל ְ נ ִ ה ָבהָ ֫
ה֑ פָ רֵ ְשׂ ִל ה ָפר ְ ְשׂ נִ וְ
5. הרָ ְבּ ְק אֶ ו ְ ינִּ ֶמּ ֫ ִמ חקַ יתִ ֵמ־תאֶ 6. . . . ךָתְּ א ִ וּה ֵ֫ב ִשׁ הֲ
ם֑ יִמ ָ֫
תְּ ְשֵׁי ו ְ םחֶ ֶל ֫ ל ַכא֫ ֹ יוְ Judg 6:30
Walk before me and be perfect and I will confirm my
covenant.
Gen 17:1–2
Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.
Gen 11:3
Accept (it) from me so that I can bury my dead.
Gen 23:13
Bring him back with you…so that he might eat bread
and drink water.
1 Kgs 13:18
3 On final-he verbs, see E. J. Revell, “First Person Imperfect Forms with Waw
Consecutive,” Vetus Testamentum 38 (1988) 419–26, at 419–20 (cf. 424–25 on the
phonology in general); GKC §75l/ p. 210, §108a n. 2 / p. 319. For final-aleph verbs,
note ˒emṣā˒-ḥēn ‘let me find favor’(Gen 33:15, 34:11, etc.); niqrā˒ ‘let’s call’ (Gen
24:57); ˒al-nā˒ ˒eśśā˒ ‘let me not rift’ (Job 32:21); wə˒ērāpē˒ ‘that I may be healed’ (Jer
17:14, with wə˒iwwāšē˓â ‘that I may be saved’); ˒eśśā˒ ‘(if) I rise’ (Ps 139:9, followed
by ˒eškənâ ‘if I dwell’); wənēṣē˒ ‘let us go’(1 Kgs 20:31); ˒ābô˒ ‘I would go’ (Gen
38:16); but note wə˒ēṣə˒â ‘that I may go out’ (2 Chr 1:10, before wə˒ābô˒â ‘and that I
may go’). Suffixed forms are also not marked as cohortative, e.g., ləkî ˒î˓āṣēk nā˒ ˓ēṣâ
‘Come now, let me advise you’ (1 Kgs 1:12). See also Miller, “Syntax and Theology,”
475–76.
32 Cf. Lambdin, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew, 119.
33 Orlinsky, “Cohortative and Jussive,” 32:273–77.