Special Issue IOSOT 2013 - Books and Journals

40 S. Japhet / Vetus Testamentum IOSOT (2013) 36-76
I. Linguistic Opposition
1. Formation of the Imperfect Consecutive
The form of the impf. cons. is attained through the prefixing of the Wāw cons.
to the jussive. This means that, wherever possible, the short form of the impf.
is used and the tone is retracted.19 In 1 pers. sing. the use of the short form
and the retraction of the tone occur more rarely, and the full form of the impf.
is used.20
In late biblical Hebrew the distinction between the short and the full forms
of the impf. is gradually lost.21 Thus, the two forms alternate in the formation of
‎22‎‏.ויעלה and ויעל the impf. cons. and we have, for example, both
This phenomenon is found in Ezr.-Neh. and Daniel, as well as in the Samaritan
Pentateuch23 and the Isaiah Scroll.24 There is, in fact, only one exception
to the general picture: the book of Chr., contrary to the general tendency of the
period, uses clearly and systematically only the short form of the impf. in the
formation of the impf. cons.
ל״ה A. Verbs
The Chr. follows two basic rules:
a) Whenever the impf. cons. is represented in his sources by the full form of
the impf. the form is changed and shortened. It appears thus in his sources
six times25 and the rule is rigidly observed: 1 Chr. xi 17 // 2 Sam. xxiii 15
19) Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, edited by E. Kautzsch, translated by A. E. Cowley, 1910, § 49d,
pp. 133-134; P. Joüon, Grammaire de l’Hebreu Biblique, 1947, § 47a, pp. 105-106.
20) Gesenius, op. cit., § 49e, p. 134, Joüon, § 47d, p. 106.
21) This is one aspect of a more general process of losing the distinction between the moods,
which reached its fulfillment in the new verbal system of Mishnaic Hebrew. Cf. G. Bergsträsser,
Hebräische Grammatik, 1926 II § 101, p. 50; Kutscher, op. cit., pp. 30, 251 and M. H. Segal, A Grammar
of Mishnaic Hebrew, 1927, p. 150ff.
etc. ‏.‏Jer‏—ויעלה x 13, etc. frequently‏—ויעל 2 Chr. i 6, iii 6, 14 22)
23) A. Sperber: “Hebrew based upon Biblical Passages in Parallel Transmission”. HUCA, XIV,
1939, § 49, pp. 187-189.
24) Kutscher, op. cit., pp. 252-253.
25) Actually seven, but once it is changed differently: 1 Ki. x 29: ותעלה ותצא מרכבה ממצרים 2 chr.
‏.ויעלו ויוציאו ממצרים :17 i
The Qal is changed into Hif ʿil. This is one of the characteristics of the Chr. Cf. Kropat, op. cit.,
pp. 14-15, Gerleman, op. cit., p. 18 and further p. 350, n. 2. The second change from singular to
plural is also typical. Cf. Kropat, p. 8ff.