Unit 22 Flashcards

Question

[![]()](https://s3.amazonaws.com/brainscape-prod/system/cm/055/634/856/q_image_thumb.png?1381114180)

Answer 1

f) זָבַח

Answer 2

g) שִׁבְעִים

Answer 3

h) כָּתַב

Answer 4

The Qatal verb expresses what we call an “anterior” relationship, i.e. it speaks of an action that occurs before something else in its context. We must look at the context to see which verb or event the Qatal verb is anterior to (i.e. which verb or event it occurs before), and understand the meaning of the verb accordingly. These are the common English translations of the Qatal verb:

Answer 5

As discussed in the previous unit, the biblical Hebrew verbal system is different in many ways from the English verbal system. Because of this, we shouldn’t expect that a given form (Qatal, for example) will have an exact parallel tense in English. The fact that Hebrew has fewer verb forms than English often creates a situation in which one Hebrew form covers the uses of two or more English forms. In contrast to the “absolute” tense system of English, Hebrew uses a “relative” verbal system in which each verb form takes its meaning from its relationship to other verbs in its context.

Answer 6

1. (“he heard”) 1. We saw in the previous unit that Qatal is the regular past (or present perfect) tense in direct speech, since it naturally expresses an action that happened before the time of speaking. There are cases also in narrative prose where the context would lead us to translate a Qatal verb with the simple past tense. But since there is a separate verb form (see Unit 28) that functions as the regular past tense in narrative prose, the simple past tense is a less common use of Qatal here.

Answer 7

1. (“he has heard”) 1. We saw in the previous unit that Qatal is the regular past (or present perfect) tense in direct speech, since it naturally expresses an action that happened before the time of speaking. There are cases also in narrative prose where the context would lead us to translate a Qatal verb with the simple past tense. But since there is a separate verb form (see Unit 28) that functions as the regular past tense in narrative prose, the simple past tense is a less common use of Qatal here.

Answer 8

2. (“he had heard”) – Because the Qatal verb expresses an “anterior” relationship in narrative, it is very often found in circumstantial and/or subordinate clauses that give background information to the main story line. This background information usually concerns actions that occurred before the main past tense of the narrative, in which case the Qatal verb should be translated with the English past perfect (the English tense for a past action that occurred before another past tense action).

Unit 22 Flashcards

(32 cards)