sented as already accomplished in the conception of the speaker, e.g. הֲרִמֹ֫תִי I lift up (my hand in ratifying an oath) Gn 14; נִשְׁבַּ֫עְתִּי I swear Jer 22; הַֽעִדֹ֫תִי I testify Dt 8; יָעַ֫צְתִּי I counsel 2 S 17 (but in a different context in ver. 15, I have counselled); אָמַ֫רְתִּי (prop. I say) I decide (I consider as hereby settled) 2 S 19; I declare Jb 9, 32.
[k] (c) To express facts which have formerly taken place, and are still of constant recurrence, and hence are matters of common experience (the Greek gnomic aorist), e.g. ψ 9 for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken (לֹא־עָזַ֫בְתָּ) them that seek thee. Cf. ver. 13, also ψ 10, 119 and Gn 49 (כִּבֵּס).
[l] Rem. In almost all the cases discussed in No. 2 (included under the English present) the imperfect can be used instead of the perfect, wherever the action or state in question is regarded, not as already completed, but as still continuing or just taking place (see § 107 a). Thus, לֹא יָכֹ֫לְתִּי I am not able ψ 40 and לֹא אוּכַל Gn 31 have practically the same meaning. Hence also it very frequently happens that the imperfect corresponds to such perfects in poetic or prophetic parallelism, e.g. Is 5, ψ 2 f., Pr 1, Jb 3.
[m] 3. To express future actions, when the speaker intends by an express assurance to represent them as finished, or as equivalent to accomplished facts:
(a) In contracts or other express stipulations (again corresponding to the English present, and therefore closely related to the instances noted under i), e.g. Gn 23 the field I give (נָתַ֫תִּי) thee; cf.ver. 13 and 48, 2 S 14, 24, Jer 40; in a threat, 1 S 2, 2 S 5 (unless, with Wellhausen, יְסִירֻ֫ךָ is to be read).—Especially in promises made by God, Gn 1, 15, 17, Ju 1.
[n] (b) To express facts which are undoubtedly imminent, and, therefore, in the imagination of the speaker, already accomplished (perfectum confidentiae), e.g. Nu 17 הֵן גָּוַ֫עְנוּ אָבַ֫דְנוּ כֻּלָּ֫נוּ אָבָֽ֫דְנוּ behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone. Gn 30, Is 6 (נִדְמֵ֫יתִי I am undone[1]), Pr 4. Even in interrogative sentences, Gn 18, Nu 17, 23, Ju 9, Zc 4 (?), Pr 22.[2] This use of the perfect occurs most frequently in prophetic language (perfectum propheticum). The prophet so trans-
- ↑ Cf. the similar use of ὄλωλα (διέφθορας, Il. 15. 128) and perii! On the kindred use of the perfect in conditional sentences, cf. below, p.
- ↑ In Gn 40 a perf. confidentiae (after כִּי אִם; but cf. § 163 d) appears to be used in the expression of an earnest desire that something may happen (but have me in thy remembrance, &c.). Neither this passage, however, nor the use of the perfect in Arabic to express a wish or imprecation, justifies us in assuming the existence of a precative perfect in Hebrew. In Jb 21, 22, also, translate the counsel of the wicked is far from me. Cf. Driver, Tenses3, p. 25 f. In Is 43 either נִקְבְּצוּ is imperative (see § 51 o) or we must read יִקָּֽבְצוּ, corresponding to יֵאָֽסְפוּ which follows.
