Biblical Hebrew (and Semitic) questions

[Richard W]

As for Biblical Aramaic malḵîn, it might be relevant that the Hebrew construct plural of méleḵ is malḵê - there seems to be no sound evidence of it being malᵉḵê.

I don't understand what you mean here. Did you mean to write māl^eḵê with qamaṣ at the end of that sentence? How would mal^eḵê be distinguished from malḵê?

I meant what I wrote. In writing, I would expect to see the distinction made by placing metheg under the first consonant of malᵉḵê, but no metheg under the first consonant of malḵê. Possibly I am expecting too much - דִּבְרֵ֥י diḇᵉrê doesn't have a metheg at Amos 8:11.

[zompist]

This is a very basic question... in Genesis 1 we have

וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, יְהִי אוֹר – וַֽיְהִי אְוֹר.

My question is, where does יְהִי yəhī come from? Conjugation tables like this one have no such form; they have the 3sm prefixing form יִהְיֶה yihye instead.

(This page has nice glosses, but it glosses the 1st occurence of יְהִי as jussive, the second as imperfective!)

[bradrn]

This is a very basic question... in Genesis 1 we have

וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, יְהִי אוֹר – וַֽיְהִי אְוֹר.

My question is, where does יְהִי yəhī come from? Conjugation tables like this one have no such form; they have the 3sm prefixing form יִהְיֶה yihye instead.

(This page has nice glosses, but it glosses the 1st occurence of יְהִי as jussive, the second as imperfective!)

According to A Grammar for Biblical Hebrew, by Barrick and Busenitz (p127):

The perfect verb הָיָה and its imperfect form יִהְיֶה frequently occur in biblical Hebrew with the waw (וְהָיָה and וַיְהִי, respectively) … Occasionally the strong dagesh (forte) is omitted from the more commonly used forms for euphonic reasons. יְהִי is a shortened form of יִהְיֶה. The waw-consecutive, when attached to the imperfect, prefers the shortened form of the imperfect whenever one exists.

I’m not too sure how helpful this is though — I’m really bad at Hebrew.

[Richard W]

According to A Grammar for Biblical Hebrew, by Barrick and Busenitz (p127):

The perfect verb הָיָה and its imperfect form יִהְיֶה frequently occur in biblical Hebrew with the waw (וְהָיָה and וַיְהִי, respectively) … Occasionally the strong dagesh (forte) is omitted from the more commonly used forms for euphonic reasons. יְהִי is a shortened form of יִהְיֶה. The waw-consecutive, when attached to the imperfect, prefers the shortened form of the imperfect whenever one exists.

I’m not too sure how helpful this is though — I’m really bad at Hebrew.

The jussive (2 & 3 person) is like the form seen in the waw-consecutive, e.g. apocopated for lamedh he verbs. The vocalisation is at least semi-regular for a segholate, though 'lamedh he' (they actually end in yodh!) segholates seem a bit of a mess.

[zompist]

OK, thanks! Does יְהִי survive in modern Hebrew? My understanding is that the converted (waw-) forms and the jussive both mostly disappeared after Biblical Hebrew. And that would explain why conjugation tables omit it.