Page:Introductory Hebrew Grammar- Hebrew Syntax (1902).djvu/79

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(4:10); Hos. 5:5 Judah is fallen. This usage receives an extension among the prophets, whose imagination so vividly projects before them the event or scene which they predict that it appears realised. Is. 5:13 גָּלָה עַמִּי מִבְּלִי־דַעַת my people is gone into captivity; 9:5 כִּי יֶלֶד יֻלַּד־לָנוּ for a child has been born to us; 9:1 הַהֹֽלְכִים בַּחשֶׁךְ רָאוּ אוֹר גָּדוֹל they who walked in darkness have seen great light. Is. 5:14; 9:2 seq., 10:28; 11:8, 9; 28:2, Hos. 4:6; 10:7, 15, Jer. 4:29, Am. 5:2. The prophetic perf. is sometimes scarcely to be distinguished from perf. of confidence, Ps. 22:22, 30.

(c) The perf. is used in the sense of the future perf. to indicate that an action though fut. is finished in relation to another fut. action. Gen. 24:19 עַד אִם־כִּלּוּ לִשְׁתֹּת until they (shall) have done drinking; 2 S. 5:24 כִּי אָז יָצָא י׳ לְפָנֶיךָ for then Je. will have gone forth. Gen. 28:15; 43:9; 48:6, 1 S. 1:28, 2 K. 7:3; 20:9, Is 4:4; 6:11; 16:12, Jer. 8:3, Mic. 5:2, Ru. 2:21.

Rem. 1. The prophetic perf. may be distinguished from the ordinary perf. by the fact that it is not maintained consistently, but interchanges with impfs. or vav conv. perfs., the prophet abandoning his ideal position and returning to the actual, and so falling into the ordinary fut. tenses, e.g. Is. 5:14–17. The prophetic passage may begin with perf., Is. 5:13, which is frequently introduced by כִּי for, לָכֵן therefore, or other particles, Is. 3:8; 9:5; or it may begin with vav impf., Is. 2:9. When further clauses with and are added, if the ideal position be sustained, the natural secution, vav impf., may be used, Is. 9:5, Ps. 22:30, or simple perf. If verb be disconnected with and, Is. 5:16. But frequently the ideal position is deserted and the ordinary fut. tenses, the impf. or vav perf., are employed, Is. 5:14, cf. v. 17, Ps. 85, 11, 12. Cf. Is. 13:9, 10; 14:24; 35:2, 6; 46:13; 47:9; 52:15; 60:4.

Rem. 2. It seems but a variety of (c) when the perf. is used in questions expressing any lively feeling, as astonishment, indignation, incredulity, or the like. The speaker