Special Issue IOSOT 2013 - Books and Journals

42 S. Japhet / Vetus Testamentum IOSOT (2013) 36-76
b) In the other pers., although the short form is still more prevalent,32 the
‏.(ונבנה)‏ 38) Neh. iv 6 (iii ‏;(ונחנה)‏ full form occurs twice: Ezr. viii 15
It is in Ezr.-Neh., and not in Chr. that the general linguistic state is reflected.
The tendency to lengthen the short forms exists, but it is still in its beginnings,
at least in written documents.
ע״ו/ע״י B. Verbs
The process of lengthening the short forms in the impf. cons. is here much less
developed than in ‏,ל״ה as is shown by the various texts.33 The Chr.’s sources
still preserve the short forms, and this is true in general also for Ezr.-Neh. However,
even here the distinctions mentioned above are preserved:
a) The 1 pers. sing. occurs in Chr. only twice. Both instances are taken from his
sources and are changed into the full form: 2 Chr. vi 10, 11 (1 Ki. viii, 20, 21).34 All
the other forms in Chr. are short.35
b) In Ezr.-Neh., although the material is meagre, we do find one example of
‎37‎‏.ונשוב (9) 15 the full form:36 Neh. iv
32) But their number in general is of course much smaller than in Chr. We find altogether nine
‏.ויהי examples of various verbs and fifteen times the form
33) Sperber, op. cit., pp. 188 brings only two examples of such a change in the Samaritan Pentateuch,
compared to sixteen in ‏.ל״ה They are: 1) Gen. xxv 17, וימת—‏MT ‏;וימות—.‏Sam 2) Num.
xvii 15: וישב—‏MT ‏.וישוב—.‏Sam The examples from the Isaiah Scroll are classified by Kutscher
as orthographic changes (p. 108), and here he cites six examples. Kutscher himself is not completely
positive about this classification and it seems more likely that the presence of the wāw
is not a sign of introducing the mater lectionis in a short unaccented syllable, but of the shifting
‏,ויחום—ויחם ‏,ויעוף—ויעף i.e., forward of the tone, with analogy to the regular forms of the impf.,
etc. If this distinction is right, the place of these examples is really in another paragraph (p. 253).
34) The question is, of course, whether it should rather be classified as an orthographic change
for the syllable is in any case accented. Even so, it serves as an illustration to the consequent use
in Chr.
35) For example: ‎26‎‏—וימת times, four‏—ויקם times, five‏—וישם times, ‎11‎‏—וישב times, etc.
ואקום are: 36) The full forms in 1 pers. sing. are more numerous in Ezr.-Neh. than in Chr. They
ויקם ‏.‏Neh‏—ואריב xiii 24. In addition to these only the form Neh. ix 15, 15 ‏,ואשוב (8) 14 Neh. ii 12, iv
is found. (Ezr. iii 2, x 5, 6, 10, Neh. iii 1, ix 4).
37) So the Kethib. The Qre is ‏.ונשב The introduction of the Qre in this matter points no doubt
to a linguistic editing of the text. Other examples of the same type are: (1) Jd. xix 21, Kethib—
וישוב—‏Kethib (3) Ez. xviii 28, ‏;ותלש—‏Qre ‏,ותלוש—‏Kethib )2( 2 Sam. xiii 8, ‏;ויבל—‏Qre ויבול
‏.וישב—‏Qre