Biblical Hebrew

The earliest written sources refer to Biblical Hebrew as 'the language of Canaan'. The Hebrew Bible also calls the language 'Judaean, Judahite' and in Mishnaic Hebrew we find 'Hebrew' and 'Hebrew language'. The origin of this term is obscure; suggested origins include the biblical Eber, the ethnonyms ʿApiru, Ḫabiru, and Ḫapiru found in sources from ancient Egypt and West Asia, and a derivation from the root 'to pass', alluding to crossing over the Jordan River. Jews also began referring to Hebrew as 'the Holy Tongue' in Mishnaic Hebrew. The term "Classical Hebrew" may encompass all pre-medieval dialects of Hebrew, including Mishnaic Hebrew, or it may be limited to Hebrew contemporary with the Hebrew Bible. The term Biblical Hebrew refers to pre-Mishnaic dialects (sometimes excluding the language of the Dead Sea Scrolls); it may or may not include extra-biblical texts, such as inscriptions like the Siloam inscription, and generally also includes later vocalization traditions for the Hebrew Bible's consonantal text, most commonly the early medieval Tiberian vocalization. == History ==

. The Paleo-Hebrew text reads "Simeon" on the front and "for the freedom of Jerusalem" on the back. The archeological record for the prehistory of Biblical Hebrew is far more complete than the record of Biblical Hebrew itself. Early Northwest Semitic (ENWS) materials are attested from 2350 BCE to 1200 BCE, the end of the Bronze Age. The Deuteronomic history says the Israelites established a unified kingdom in Canaan at the beginning of the first millennium BCE, which later split into the kingdom of Israel in the north and the kingdom of Judah in the south after a disputed succession. In 722 BCE, the Neo-Assyrian Empire destroyed Israel Hanina bar Hama said that God sent the exiled Jews to Babylon because "their language, Aramaic, is similar to the language of the Torah." ( Pesahim 87b:20). Aramaic became the common language in the north, in Galilee and Samaria. Alexander the Great conquered Judah in 332 BCE. Hebrew continued to be used as a literary and liturgical language in the form of Medieval Hebrew. The revival of the Hebrew language as a vernacular began in the 19th century, culminating in Modern Hebrew becoming the official language of Israel. Currently, Classical Hebrew is generally taught in public schools in Israel, and Biblical Hebrew forms are sometimes used in Modern Hebrew literature, much as archaic and biblical constructions are used in English literature. Since Modern Hebrew contains many biblical elements, Biblical Hebrew is fairly intelligible to Modern Hebrew speakers. The primary source of Biblical Hebrew material is the Hebrew Bible. According to Waltke & O'Connor, Inscriptional Hebrew "is not strikingly different from the Hebrew preserved in the Masoretic text." No manuscript of the Hebrew Bible dates to before 400 BCE, although two silver rolls (the Ketef Hinnom scrolls) from the seventh or sixth century BCE show a version of the Priestly Blessing. Vowel and cantillation marks were added to the older consonantal layer of the Bible between 600 CE and the beginning of the 10th century. The scholars who preserved the pronunciation of the Bibles were known as the Masoretes. The most well-preserved system that was developed, and the only one still in religious use, is the Tiberian vocalization, but both Babylonian and Palestinian vocalizations are also attested. The Palestinian system was preserved mainly in piyyutim, which contain biblical quotations. == Classification ==

Biblical Hebrew is a Northwest Semitic language from the Canaanite subgroup. As Biblical Hebrew evolved from the Proto-Semitic language it underwent a number of consonantal mergers parallel with those in other Canaanite languages. There is no evidence that these mergers occurred after the adaptation of the Hebrew alphabet. As a Northwest Semitic language, Hebrew shows the shift of initial to , a similar independent pronoun system to the other Northwest Semitic languages (with third person pronouns never containing ), some archaic forms, such as 'we', first person singular pronominal suffix -i or -ya, and commonly preceding pronominal suffixes. Although Ugaritic shows a large degree of affinity to Hebrew in poetic structure, vocabulary, and some grammar, it lacks some Canaanite features (like the Canaanite shift and the shift > ), and its similarities are more likely a result of either contact or preserved archaism. Hebrew underwent the Canaanite shift, where Proto-Semitic tended to shift to , perhaps when stressed. Hebrew also shares with the Canaanite languages the shifts > , and > , widespread reduction of diphthongs, and full assimilation of non-final to the following consonant if word final, i.e. from *bant. Typical Canaanite words in Hebrew include: "roof" "table" "window" "old (thing)" "old (person)" and "expel". Morphological Canaanite features in Hebrew include the masculine plural marker , first person singular pronoun , interrogative pronoun , definite article (appearing in the first millennium BCE), and third person plural feminine verbal marker . == Eras ==

Biblical Hebrew as preserved in the Hebrew Bible is composed of multiple linguistic layers. The consonantal skeleton of the text is the most ancient, while the cantillation and modern vocalization are later additions reflecting a later stage of the language. Biblical Hebrew as reflected in the consonantal text of the Bible and in extra-biblical inscriptions may be subdivided by era. The oldest form of Biblical Hebrew, Archaic Hebrew, is found in poetic sections of the Bible and inscriptions dating to around 1000 BCE, the early Monarchic Period. This stage is also known as Old Hebrew or Paleo-Hebrew, and is the oldest stratum of Biblical Hebrew. The oldest known artifacts of Archaic Biblical Hebrew are various sections of the Tanakh, including the Song of Moses (Exodus 15) and the Song of Deborah (Judges 5). Biblical poetry uses a number of distinct lexical items, for example for prose 'see', for 'great'. Some have cognates in other Northwest Semitic languages, for example 'do' and 'gold' which are common in Canaanite and Ugaritic. Grammatical differences include the use of , , and as relative particles, negative , and various differences in verbal and pronominal morphology and syntax. Later pre-exilic Biblical Hebrew (such as is found in prose sections of the Pentateuch, Nevi'im, and some Ketuvim) is known as 'Biblical Hebrew proper' or 'Standard Biblical Hebrew'. Biblical Hebrew from after the Babylonian exile in 587 BCE is known as 'Late Biblical Hebrew'. Qumran Hebrew, attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls from ca. 200 BCE to 70 CE, is a continuation of Late Biblical Hebrew. == Dialects ==

Dialect variation in Biblical Hebrew is attested to by the well-known shibboleth incident of Judges 12:6, where Jephthah's forces from Gilead caught Ephraimites trying to cross the Jordan River by making them say šibbóleṯ ('ear of corn') The Ephraimites' identity was given away by their pronunciation: sibbóleṯ. (however, there is evidence that 's Proto-Semitic ancestor had initial consonant š (whence Hebrew ), contradicting this theory;); or that the Proto-Semitic sibilant *s1, transcribed with šin and traditionally reconstructed as *, had been originally * while another sibilant *s3, transcribed with sameḵ and traditionally reconstructed as , had been initially ; later on, a push-type chain shift changed *s3 to and pushed s1 to in many dialects (e.g. Gileadite) but not others (e.g. Ephraimite), where *s1 and *s3 merged into . Hebrew, as spoken in the northern Kingdom of Israel, known as Israelian Hebrew, shows phonological, lexical, and grammatical differences from southern dialects. The northern dialect spoken around Samaria shows a more frequent simplification of into as attested by the Samaria ostraca (8th century BCE), e.g. (= < 'wine'), while the southern or Judean dialect instead adds in an epenthetic vowel , added halfway through the first millennium BCE ( = ). Other possible Northern features include use of 'who, that', forms like 'to know' rather than and infinitives of certain verbs of the form 'to do' rather than . The guttural phonemes merged over time in some dialects. This was found in Dead Sea Scroll Hebrew, but Jerome (d. 420) attested to the existence of contemporaneous Hebrew speakers who still distinguished pharyngeals. == Orthography ==

The earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, found at Khirbet Qeiyafa, dates to the 10th century BCE. The tablet is written from left to right, suggesting that Hebrew writing was still in the formative stage. This script developed into the Paleo-Hebrew script in the 10th or 9th centuries BCE. The oldest inscriptions in Paleo-Hebrew script are dated to around the middle of the 9th century BCE, the most famous being the Mesha Stele in the Moabite language (which might be considered a dialect of Hebrew). In the Second Temple Period the Paleo-Hebrew script gradually fell into disuse, and was completely abandoned among the Jews after the failed Bar Kochba revolt. The Samaritans retained the ancient Hebrew alphabet, which evolved into the modern Samaritan alphabet. It seems that the earlier biblical books were originally written in the Paleo-Hebrew script, while the later books were written directly in the later Assyrian script. While spoken Hebrew continued to evolve into Mishnaic Hebrew, A number of regional "book-hand" styles were put into use for the purpose of Torah manuscripts and occasionally other literary works, distinct from the calligraphic styles used mainly for private purposes. The Mizrahi and Ashkenazi book-hand styles were later adapted to printed fonts after the invention of the printing press. The 22 letters of the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet numbered less than the consonant phonemes of ancient Biblical Hebrew; in particular, the letters could each mark two different phonemes. After a sound shift the letters , could only mark one phoneme, but (except in Samaritan Hebrew) still marked two. The old Babylonian vocalization system wrote a superscript above the to indicate it took the value , while the Masoretes added the shin dot to distinguish between the two varieties of the letter. While no examples of early Hebrew orthography have been found, older Phoenician and Moabite texts show how First Temple period Hebrew would have been written. Phoenician inscriptions from the 10th century BCE do not indicate matres lectiones in the middle or the end of a word, for example and for later and , similarly to the Hebrew Gezer Calendar, which has for instance for and possibly for . The Hebrew Bible was presumably originally written in a more defective orthography than found in any of the texts known today. The Masoretic text mostly uses vowel letters for long vowels, showing the tendency to mark all long vowels except for word-internal . In the Qumran tradition, back vowels are usually represented by whether short or long. is generally used for both long and (, ), and final is often written as in analogy to words like , , e.g. , sometimes . Presumably, the vowels of Biblical Hebrew were not indicated in the original text, but various sources attest to them at various stages of development. Greek and Latin transcriptions of words from the biblical text provide early evidence of the nature of Biblical Hebrew vowels. In particular, there is evidence from the rendering of proper nouns in the Koine Greek Septuagint (3rd–2nd centuries BCE) and the Greek alphabet transcription of the Hebrew biblical text contained in the Secunda (3rd century CE, likely a copy of a preexisting text from before 100 BCE). In the 7th and 8th centuries CE various systems of vocalic notation were developed to indicate vowels in the biblical text. The most prominent, best preserved, and the only system still in use, is the Tiberian vocalization system, created by scholars known as Masoretes around 850 CE. In addition, the Samaritan reading tradition is independent of these systems and was occasionally notated with a separate vocalization system. These systems often record vowels at different stages of historical development; for example, the name of the Judge Samson is recorded in Greek as Σαμψών Sampsōn with the first vowel as , while Tiberian with shows the effect of the law of attenuation whereby in closed unstressed syllables became . All of these systems together are used to reconstruct the original vocalization of Biblical Hebrew. At an early stage, in documents written in the paleo-Hebrew script, words were divided by short vertical lines and later by dots, as reflected by the Mesha Stone, the Siloam inscription, the Ophel inscription, and paleo-Hebrew script documents from Qumran. In addition to marking vowels, the Tiberian system also uses cantillation marks, which serve to mark word stress, semantic structure, and the musical motifs used in formal recitation of the text. While the Babylonian and Palestinian reading traditions are extinct, various other systems of pronunciation have evolved over time, notably the Yemenite, Sephardi, Ashkenazi, and Samaritan traditions. Modern Hebrew pronunciation is also used by some to read biblical texts. The modern reading traditions do not stem solely from the Tiberian system; for instance, the Sephardic tradition's distinction between qamatz gadol and qatan is likely pre-Tiberian. However, the only orthographic system used to mark vowels is the Tiberian vocalization. == Phonology ==

The phonology as reconstructed for Biblical Hebrew is as follows: Consonants The phonetic nature of some Biblical Hebrew consonants is disputed. The so-called "emphatics" were likely pharyngealized, but possibly velarized. Some argue that were affricated (), The phoneme , is also not directly indicated by Hebrew orthography but is clearly attested by later developments: It is written with (also used for ) but later merged with (normally indicated with ). As a result, three etymologically distinct phonemes can be distinguished through a combination of spelling and pronunciation: written , written , and (pronounced but written ). The specific pronunciation of as is based on comparative evidence ( is the corresponding Proto-Semitic phoneme and still attested in Modern South Arabian languages as well as early borrowings (e.g. balsam absent in some traditions color-coded. • • • • • • • • • • • Sound changes The following sections present the vowel changes that Biblical Hebrew underwent, in approximate chronological order. Proto-Central-Semitic Proto-Semitic is the ancestral language of all the Semitic languages, and in traditional reconstructions possessed 29 consonants; 6 monophthong vowels, consisting of three qualities and two lengths, , in which the long vowels occurred only in open syllables; and two diphthongs . The stress system of Proto-Semitic is unknown but it is commonly described as being much like the system of Classical Latin or the modern pronunciation of Classical Arabic: If the penultimate (second last) syllable is light (has a short vowel followed by a single consonant), stress goes on the antepenult (third to last); otherwise, it goes on the penult. Various changes, mostly in morphology, took place between Proto-Semitic and Proto-Central-Semitic, the language at the root of the Central Semitic languages. The phonemic system was inherited essentially unchanged, but the emphatic consonants may have changed their realization in Central Semitic from ejectives to pharyngealized consonants. The morphology of Proto-Central-Semitic shows significant changes compared with Proto-Semitic, especially in its verbs, and is much like in Classical Arabic. Nouns in the singular were usually declined in three cases: (nominative), (accusative) or (genitive). In some circumstances (but never in the construct state), nouns also took a final nasal after the case ending: nunation (final ) occurred in some languages, mimation (final ) in others. The original meaning of this marker is uncertain. In Classical Arabic, final on nouns indicates indefiniteness and disappears when the noun is preceded by a definite article or otherwise becomes definite in meaning. In other languages, final may be present whenever a noun is not in the construct state. Old Canaanite had mimation, of uncertain meaning, in an occurrence of the word urušalemim (Jerusalem) as given in an Egyptian transcription. Broken plural forms in Arabic are declined like singulars, and often take singular agreement as well. Dual and "strong plural" forms use endings with a long vowel or diphthong, declined in only two cases: nominative and objective (combination accusative/genitive), with the objective form often becoming the default one after the loss of case endings. Both Hebrew and Arabic had a special form of nunation/mimation that co-occurred with the dual and masculine sound plural endings whenever the noun was not in the construct state. The endings were felt as an inherent part of the ending and, as a result, are still used. Examples are Arabic strong masculine plural -ūna (nominative), -īna (objective), and dual endings -āni (nominative), -ayni (objective); corresponding construct-state endings are -ū, -ī (strong masculine plural), -ā, -ay (dual). (The strong feminine endings in Classical Arabic are -ātu nominative, -āti objective, marked with a singular-style -n nunation in the indefinite state only.) If Hebrew had at some point had the broken plural, any vestigial forms that may remain have been extended with the strong plural endings. The dual and strong plural endings were likely much like the Arabic forms given above at one point, with only the objective-case forms ultimately surviving. For example, dual -ayim is probably from *-aymi with an extended mimation ending (cf. Arabic -ayni above), while dual construct -ē is from *-ay without mimation. Similarly, -īm (and rarely > ) may still occur, especially after stops (or their spirantized counterparts) and (e.g. ). Samaritan and Qumran Hebrew have full vowels in place of the reduced vowels of Tiberian Hebrew. Samaritan Hebrew vowels are allophonically lengthened (to a lesser degree) in open syllables, e.g. , , though this is less strong in post-tonic vowels. While Proto-Hebrew long vowels usually retain their vowel quality in the later traditions of Hebrew, in Samaritan Hebrew may have reflex in closed stressed syllables, e.g. , may become either or , The reduced vowels of the other traditions appear as full vowels, though there may be evidence that Samaritan Hebrew once had similar vowel reduction. Samaritan results from the neutralization of the distinction between and in closed post-tonic syllables, e.g. ('house') ('the house') . for Southern ('wine'), and Samaritan Hebrew shows instead the shift > . This was carried through completely in Samaritan Hebrew but met more resistance in other traditions such as the Babylonian and Qumran traditions. This is absent in the transcriptions of the Secunda, but there is evidence that the law's onset predates the Secunda. In the Samaritan tradition Philippi's law is applied consistently, e.g. > ('heart'). In some traditions the short vowel tended to shift to in unstressed closed syllables: this is known as the law of attenuation. It is common in the Tiberian tradition, e.g. > Tiberian ('seven'), but exceptions are frequent. It is less common in the Babylonian vocalization, e.g. ('seven'), and differences in Greek and Latin transcriptions demonstrate that it began quite late. In the Tiberian tradition take offglide before . This is absent in the Secunda and in Samaritan Hebrew but present in the transcriptions of Jerome. In the Tiberian tradition an ultrashort echo vowel is sometimes added to clusters where the first element is a guttural, e.g. ('he will listen') ('his work') but ('he will make glorious') 'its breadth'. / gutterals --> The following chart summarizes the most regular reflexes of the Proto-Semitic vowels in the various stages of Hebrew: All Proto-Hebrew short vowels were deleted word-finally. Notes: • Samaritan Hebrew vowels may be lengthened in the presence of etymological guttural consonants. results from both and in closed post-tonic syllables. • with the law of attenuation. • with Philippi's law. • Samaritan are nearly in complementary distribution ( in open syllables, in closed syllables). /o/ contrasts only stressed final syllables. • lengthening occurs in some open one syllable away from the stress and some stressed syllables; exact conditions depend on the vowel and reading tradition • reduction occurs in the open syllables two syllables away from the stress and sometimes also in pretonic and stressed open syllables; exact conditions depend on the vowel and reading tradition. • mainly in most closed syllables. • more common before long consonants. Stress Proto-Hebrew generally had penultimate stress. The ultimate stress of later traditions of Hebrew usually resulted from the loss of final vowels in many words, preserving the location of proto-Semitic stress. Tiberian Hebrew has phonemic stress, e.g. ('they built') vs. ('in us'); stress is most commonly ultimate, less commonly penultimate, and antipenultimate stress exists marginally, e.g. ('into the tent'). There does not seem to be evidence for stress in the Secunda varying from that of the Tiberian tradition. Despite sharing the loss of final vowels with Tiberian Hebrew, Samaritan Hebrew has generally not preserved Proto-Semitic stress, and has predominantly penultimate stress, with occasional ultimate stress. There is evidence that Qumran Hebrew had a similar stress pattern to Samaritan Hebrew. == Grammar ==

Medieval grammarians of Arabic and Hebrew classified words as belonging to three parts of speech: Arabic ism ('noun'), fiʻl ('verb'), and ḥarf ('particle'); other grammarians have included more categories. In particular, adjectives and nouns show more affinity to each other than in most European languages. Roots are usually triconsonantal, with biconsonantal roots less common (depending on how some words are analyzed) and rare cases of quadri- and quinquiconsonantal roots. Nouns and adjectives The most common nominal prefix used is , used for substantives of location ( 'assembly'), instruments ( 'key'), and abstractions ( 'judgement'). The vowel after is normally , but appears sometimes as , or in the case of as (contracted from ). The Amarna letters show that this was probably still present in Hebrew In the development of Hebrew, final were dropped first, and later was elided as well. Mimation, a nominal suffix of unclear meaning, was found in early Canaanite, as shown by early Egyptian transcriptions () of Jerusalem as Urušalimim, but there is no indication of its presence after 1800 BCE. Final is preserved in , originally meaning 'at night' but in prose replacing ('night'), and in the "connective vowels" of some prepositions (originally adverbials), e.g. ('with us'); nouns preserve in forms like . Construct state nouns lost case vowels at an early period (similar to Akkadian), as shown by the reflexes of ( in absolute but in construct) and the reflexes of ( and ) However forms like show that this was not yet a feature of Proto-Hebrew. Biblical Hebrew has two genders, masculine and feminine, which are reflected in nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs. Hebrew distinguishes between singular and plural numbers, and plural forms may also be used for collectives and honorifics. The plural can be used to form abstract states or qualities from concrete ideas, a phenomenon called the plural of abstraction. Hebrew has a morphological dual form for nouns that naturally occur in pairs and for units of measurement and time which contrasts with the plural ( 'day' 'two days' 'days'). A widespread misconception is that the Hebrew plural denotes three or more objects. In truth, it denotes two or more objects. However adjectives, pronouns, and verbs do not have dual forms, and most nominal dual forms can function as plurals ( 'six wings' from Isaiah 6:2). Finite verbs are marked for subject person, number, and gender. Nouns also have a construct form which is used in genitive constructions. Common nouns may be marked as definite with the prefix followed by gemination of the initial consonant of the noun. In Tiberian Hebrew the vowel of the article may become or in certain phonetic environments, for example ('the wise man'), ('the man'). However, early Hebrew grammarians like Abraham Ibn Ezra and David Kimhi have already noted that in Biblical Hebrew, the definite article may not be attached to proper nouns. Nevertheless, Reuven Chaim Klein cites philologists who point out that rabbinic sources like the Talmud seem to understand that a definite article can be applied even to a proper name. This may reflect dialectal variation or phonetic versus phonemic transcriptions. The Qumran tradition sometimes shows some type of back epenthetic vowel when the first vowel is back, e.g. for Tiberian ('tent'). Biblical Hebrew has two sets of personal pronouns: the free-standing independent pronouns have a nominative function, while the pronominal suffixes are genitive or accusative. Only the first person suffix has different possessive and objective forms ( and ). This includes various distinctions of reflexivity, passivity, and causativity. The meaning of the prefixing and suffixing conjugations are also affected by the conjugation , and their meaning with respect to tense and aspect is a matter of debate. though one scholar has argued that this is due to the prevalence of clauses with a wayyiqtol verb form compared to other less marked forms that use SVO either more often or at least to a comparable degree. Attributive adjectives normally follow the noun they modify. In Biblical Hebrew, possession is normally expressed with status constructus, a construction in which the possessed noun occurs in a phonologically reduced, "construct" form and is followed by the possessor noun in its normal, "absolute" form. Pronominal direct objects are either suffixed to the verb or alternatively expressed on the object-marking pronoun . Tense and aspect Biblical Hebrew has two main conjugation types, the suffix conjugation, also called the Perfect, and the prefix conjugation, also called Imperfect. The Perfect verb form expressed the idea of the verb as a completed action, viewing it from start to finish as a whole, and not focusing on the process by which the verb came to be completed, stating it as a simple fact. This is often used in the past tense; however, there are some contexts in which a Perfect verb translates into the present and future tenses. The Imperfect portrays the verb as an incomplete action along with the process by which it came about, either as an event that has not begun, an event that has begun but is still in the process, or a habitual or cyclic action that is on an ongoing repetition. The Imperfect can also express modal or conditional verbs, as well as commands in the Jussive and Cohortative moods. It is conjectured that the imperfect can express modal quality through the paragogic nun added to certain imperfect forms. While often future tense, it also has uses in the past and present under certain contexts. Biblical Hebrew tense is not necessarily reflected in the verb forms per se, but rather is determined primarily by context. The Participles also reflect ongoing or continuous actions, but are also subject to the context determining their tense. The verbal forms can be Past Tense in these circumstances: • Perfect, Simple Past: in narrative, reflects a simple completed action, perception, emotion or mental process, and can also be past tense from the perspective of a prior verb which is used in future tense • Imperfect, Waw Consecutive Preterite: simple past tense which takes the וַ prefix as a conjunction, appears at the beginning of a clause when it is connected in a narrative sequence with previous clauses, where the conjunction can be translated as 'and then', 'then', 'but', 'however', sometimes is not translated at all, and can even have a parenthetical function as if suggesting the clause is like a side note to the main focus of the narrative • Imperfect, Past: reflecting not just a past action but also suggesting the process with which it was being done, e.g.: "I brought the horse to a halt", "I began to hear" • Imperfect, Cyclic Past: reflecting a habitual or cyclic action over time, e.g. "this is what Job would always do" • Participle in Past Tense: an active or passive Participle being used in its imperfect verbal sense in the past, e.g. "and the Spirit of God was hovering" The verbal forms can be Present Tense in these circumstances: • Perfect, Proverbial/General Present: a general truth in the present tense which is not referring to a specific event, e.g. "the sun sets in the west" • Perfect, Stative Present: present tense with verbs that depict a state of being rather than an action, including verbs of perception, emotion or mental process, e.g. "I love", "I hate", "I understand", "I know" • Perfect, Present Perfect: a Present Perfect verb, e.g. "I have walked" • Imperfect, Present Condition: an Imperfect verb in the present, one which implies that an action has been going on for some time and is still ongoing in the present, especially used of questions in the present, e.g. "what are you seeking?" • Imperfect, Cyclic Present: an Imperfect verb in the present, reflecting a cyclic action in the present, e.g. "it is being said in the city", "a son makes his father glad" • Participle in Present Tense: an active or passive Participle being used in its imperfect verbal sense in the present, e.g. "I am going" The verbal forms can be Future Tense in these circumstances: • Perfect, Waw Consecutive Future: by analogy to the Preterite, a simple future tense verb which takes the וְ prefix as a conjunction, appears at the beginning of a clause when it is connected in a narrative sequence with previous clauses, where the conjunction can be translated as 'and then', 'then', 'but', 'however', sometimes is not translated at all, and can even have a parenthetical function as if suggesting the clause is like a side note to the main focus of the narrative • Perfect, Waw Consecutive Subjunctive: takes the וְ prefix as a conjunction to continue the Subjunctive Mood in a narrative sequence • Perfect, Waw Consecutive Jussive/Cohortative: takes the וְ prefix as a conjunction to continue the Jussive and Cohortative Moods in a narrative sequence • Perfect, Promise Future: the completeness of the verb form here expresses an imminent action in the context of promises, threats and the language of contracts and covenants in general, e.g. "I will give you this land", "will I have this pleasure?" • Perfect, Prophetic Future: the completeness of the verb form here expresses an imminent action in the context of prophecy, e.g. "you will go into exile" • Imperfect, Future: reflects a future event which has not yet come into completion, or one that has not yet begun, or future tense from the perspective of a prior verb which is used in past tense • Imperfect, Subjunctive: reflects a potential, theoretical or modal verb, such as in conditional clauses, e.g. "If you go...", "she should stay" • Imperfect, Jussive/Cohortative: reflects a non-immediate command, invitation, permission or wishful request, e.g. "let there be light", "you may eat from the tree", "let's go", "O that someone would get me a drink" == Sample text ==

The following is a sample from Psalm 18 as appears in the Masoretic text with medieval Tiberian niqqud and cantillation and the Greek transcription of the Secunda of the Hexapla along with its reconstructed pronunciation. == Notes ==