An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

7. . ל ַכאֹ נּ־ה ַמ וּר ְמאֹ ת י ִכוְ . . . ערָ ְזנ ִ אֹ ל ןהֵ . .
ם ֶכל ָ יתִ ָכרְ ִבּ־תא ֶ יתי ִ וִּ֫ ִצוְ 8.
ןוּטֹק ֑ ְלִי םהֶ ָל ֫ ןתֵּ ִ
And if you say, “What shall we eat…if we may not
sow…?”, [you should realize that] I will command my
blessing for you.
Lev 25:20–21
תּ ( When/if) you give it to them, they gather it up. 21
Ps 104:28
e The protasis of an irreal conditional may be introduced by וּל (## 9–11) or, in the
negative, י ֵלוּל/א ֵלוּל (< אֹ ל + וּל; # 12). 22 The particle וּל may introduce a free-
standing[Page 638] protasis, one without an apodosis (# 13); the sense is then ‘oh (I
wish) that, would that.’ 23 The particle יכּ can also introduce an irreal conditional (#
14).
10.
9. י ִכּ ידָי ִ בּ ְ ברֶ ח־שֶׁי ֶ֫ וּל
׃ךְיתִּ ְגרַ ה ֲ התָּ ַע
If there were a sword in my hand, I would surely now
kill you.
Num 22:29
תא֑ ֹ ז וּלי ִכּ֫ ְשַׂי וּמ ְכח ָ וּל If they were wise, they would understand this.
11. וּנתי ֵ֫
מִ הֲ ַל הוהי ץפֵ ח ָ וּל
ה ָלֹע . . . חקַ ָל־אֹ ל
12. . . . יבִ א ָ יהלֹ ֵ א ֱ י ֵלוּל
םקי ָ ר ֵ התָּ ַע י ִכּ י ִל הָיהָ ינִ תּ֑ ָ֫
חְ ַלּ ִשׁ
13. ב ֶשׁ נֵּ֫ ו ַ וּנ ְלאוֹה ַ֫
וּלוְ ׃ןדֵּ רַיּ ְ ה ַ ר ֶב ֵע֫ ְבּ
14.
איגֵ ְבּ ךְ ֵל ֵ
Deut 32:29
If YHWH had wanted to kill us, he would not have
taken…the offering…
Judg 13:23
If the God of my father…had not been on my side, you
would have sent me away empty-handed.
Gen 31:42
Would that we had been content to dwell on the other
side of the Jordan!
Josh 7:7
א־י ִכּ ם ַגּ Even if I were walking in the valley of death’s shadow, I
would not fear (anything) evil.
21
Note, too, the second half of the verse.
22
There are a few cases in which lûlē(˒) is not counterfactual; note the verse example
in Judg 14:18. On lû, see J. Huehnergard, “Asseverative *la and Hypothetical *lu/law
in Semitic,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 103 (1983) 569–93, esp. 570–
71; with the phonological addendum of R. C. Steiner, “Lulav versus *lu/law,” Journal
of the American Oriental Society 107 (1987) 121–22.
23
Lambdin, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew, 279. On the relation of the conditional
sense and the other, which he calls optative, see Huehnergard, “Asseverative *la,#
573–74; he suggests that at base the particle marks that “a statement [is] hypothetical,
that a proposition [is] deemed by the speaker to be contrary to known fact or to
reasonable expectation” (p. 574).