Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/157

 verb stands in the perfect, and the narration is continued in the imperfect. Conversely, the representation of a series of future events begins with the imperfect, and is continued in the perfect. Thus in, In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death (perf.), and Isaiah... came (imperf.) to him, and said (imperf.) to him, &c. On the other hand,, the Lord shall bring (imperf.) upon thee... days, &c., , and it shall come to pass (perf. ) in that day...

This progress in the sequence of time, is regularly indicated by a pregnant and (called ), which in itself is really only a variety of the ordinary, but which sometimes (in the imperf.) appears with a different vocalization. Further, the tenses connected by sometimes undergo a change in the tone and consequently are liable also to other variations.

2. The of the  is (a) pronounced with  and a  in the next letter, as ; before  of the 1''st pers. sing.'' (according to ) with, as. Exceptions are,  according to the Dikduke ha-ṭeamim, § 71; also   according to Qimḥi; but in   should be read according to Baer, and  in both places in. is always omitted in the preformative, in accordance with.

(b) When a shortening of the imperfect form is possible (cf. ), it takes effect, as a rule (but cf. ), after, e.g. in Hiphil. The tendency to retract the tone from the final syllable is even stronger after than in the jussive. The throwing back of the tone on to the penultima (conditional upon its being an open syllable with a long vowel, ), further involves the greatest possible shortening of the vowel of the ultima, since the vowel then comes to stand in a toneless closed syllable, e.g., juss.