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§154. Sentences connected by Wāw.
[a] Wāw copulativum[1] (וְ) serves to connect two or more sentences, or single words (on its various vocalization, cf. § 104 d–g). Its use, however, is by no means restricted merely to joining sentences which
- ↑ For further particulars of the use of wāw copulativum, see Gesenius’ Thesaurus, i. 393 ff. On its use in the co-ordination of similar tenses and moods (e.g. five imperfects consecutive in Gn 25, five perfects with וְגַם) as well as of dissimilar tenses and moods, the remarks made in the treatment of the tenses will suffice. With regard to the connexion of single nouns by וְ (which strictly speaking is always really a contraction of so many clauses into a single sentence) the following observations may be made:—
(a) Contrary to English usage, which in lengthy enumerations uses the and to connect only the last member of the series, in Hebrew polysyndeton is customary, as in Gn 12 wāw copulativum six times, 24:35 seven times, 15:19 ff. nine times, and in Jos 7 ten times. Sometimes, however, only the last two words are joined (so in a series of three members, Gn 5, 10, 11, 13, 14, 30, &c.; the last three out of a series of four, Jer 2); less frequently only the first two, ψ 45; cf. § 132 d. The formula תְּמוֹל שִׁלְשׁוֹם yesterday (and) the day before yesterday, Ex 5, &c., is always without the copula. On the other hand, the constructio asyndetos in a series of verbs is used as a rhetorical expedient to produce a hurried and so an impassioned description; e.g. Ju 5 at her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay; Ex 15, Dt 32, 1 S 15, Jer 4, Am 5, ψ 10, 14, 45, Jb 20, 28, 29, Ct 2, 5, &c.
(b) Frequently wāw copulativum is also explanatory (like isque, et—quidem, and the German und zwar, English to wit), and is then called wāw explicativum, e.g. Gn 4 and (i.e. namely) of the fat thereof (unless it is simply copulative); Ex 24, 25 (to wit two); 27:14, 28:23, Ju 17 (in וּמַסֵּכָה; here as often elsewhere, to introduce an explanatory gloss, cf. Is 17, Ez 3, and especially P. Haupt, SBOT. Isaiah, p. 90, l. 21 ff.), 1 S 17 and that too with the bear; 2 S 13, Is 57, Jer 17, Am 3, 4, Ze 9:9, Pr 3, Neh 8, 2 Ch 23 (but in 1 S 28 the וּ before בְּעִירוֹ is to be omitted with the LXX); cf. also such combinations as וְעַד—מִן from... and even to..., Gn 13, 14, 19, 11, &c.—In 1 S 6 (see Driver on the passage), 2 S 1, &c., ו is equivalent to yea, and; in Is 32 even.
וְ is used to express emphasis (=and especially), e.g. in Gn 3 וְהֵֽרֹנֵךְ; Is 2, ψ 18, perhaps also in Jb 10 yea, a whole host; 2 Ch 16.—An undoubted example of what is called wāw concomitantiae occurs in Jb 41 a seething pot וְאַגְמֹן with burning rushes; cf. Ex 10 (with your little ones), 12:8, Lv 1, Is 42. In Arabic this wāw concom. is followed by the accusative.
וְ-וְ is used in the sense of both—and in ψ 76, Dn 1, 8. On וְ-וְ as meaning sive—sive, cf. § 162 b.
(c) See the Lexicon on adverbs used in a copulative sense, such as גַּם also, moreover, summing up a number, e.g. גַּם־שְׁנַ֫יִם both together, Gn 27, Pr 17; גַּם־כֹּל all together; as an intensive and, e.g. Gn 30, 37, 1 S 30; cf. also such examples as 1 S 24 see, yea see! גַּם-גַּם or גַּם-וְגַם Gn 24=both—and; גַּם occurs three times in Gn 24 and 32:20; also אַף, which is generally still more intensive, in the sense of also, in addition to this, even, and belongs rather to poetry, and to the later language; frequently also equivalent to a mere and, but sometimes adversative but now, ψ 44, &c.; and אַף-אַף (also three times), equivalent to both—and; cf. וְאַף גַּם and even, Lv 26; אַף־כִּי prop. add to this also that, equivalent to not to mention, according to the context either quanto magis or quanto minus.
