Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/334

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or longer duration, were terminated in the past, and hence are finally concluded, viz.:

(a) Corresponding to the perfect proper in Latin and the English perfect definite, in assertions, negations, confirmations, interrogations, &c., e.g. Gn 1815 then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not (לֹא צָחַ֫קְתִּי)......; and he said, Nay, but thou didst laugh (צָחָקְתְּ); Gn 311 מִי הִגִּיד לְךָ who told thee....? Cf. 313.14.17.22. Also pointing to some undefined time in the past, e.g. Is 668 מִֽי־שָׁמַע כָּזֹאת who hath (ever yet) heard such a thing?

 [c Rem. In opposition to this express use of the perfect to emphasize the completion of an event, the imperfect is not infrequently used to emphasize that which is still future, e.g. Jos 15 as I was (הָיִיתִי) with Moses, so will I be (אֶֽהְיֶה) with thee; Jos 117, Ex 1014, Dt 3221, 1 K 238, Is 464.11, Jo 22, Ec 19.

 [d (b) As a simple tempus historicum (corresponding to the Greek aorist) in narrating past events, e.g. Gn 44 and Abel, he also brought (הֵבִיא), &c.; Gn 719 the waters did prevail (גָּֽבְרוּ), &c.; Jb 11 there was a man (אִישׁ הָיָה) in the land of Uz, &c.; even in relating repeated actions, 1 S 1830.

 [e Rem. As the above examples indicate, the perfect of narration occurs especially at the head of an entire narrative (Jb 11; cf. Dn 21) or an independent sentence (e.g. Gn 711.13), but in co-ordinate sentences, as a rule, only when the verb is separated from the copulative ו by one or more words (cf. above Gn 44 and 719). In other cases, the narrative is continued in the imperfect consecutive, according to § 111 a. The direct connexion of the narrative perfect with ו copulative (not to be confounded with the perfect consecutive proper, § 112) agrees rather with Aramaic syntax (cf. Kautzsch, Gramm. des Biblisch-Aram., § 71, 1 b). On the examples (which are in many respects doubtful) in the earlier texts, see § 112 pp–uu.

 [f (c) To represent actions, &c., which were already completed in the past, at the time when other actions or conditions took place (pluperfect),[1] e.g. 1 S 283 now Samuel was (long since) dead[2]... and Saul had put away (הֵסִיר) those that had familiar spirits... out of the land. Both these statements, being as it were in parentheses, merely assign a reason for the narrative beginning at verse 6. Cf. 1 S 915, 2521, 2 S 1818.—Gn 2018 (for the Lord had fast closed up, &c.); 2730, 3119.34, Dt 210; and in a negative statement, Gn 25 for the Lord God had not (up to that time) caused it to rain, &c. This is especially frequent, from the nature of the case, in relative, causal, and temporal clauses, when the main clause contains a tense referring to the past, e.g. Gn 22 and he rested... from all his work which he had made (עָשָׂה); Gn 79,

  1. Cf. P. Haupt in the Notes on Esther, 9:2.
  2. Incorrectly, e.g. in the Vulgate, Samuel autem mortuus est... et Saul abstulit magos, &c.