21st Century Bible Hebrew -- qal of a strong verb

Genesis 1:16

טז וַיַּעַשׂ אֱלֹהִים אֶת־שְׁנֵי הַמְּאֹרֹת הַגְּדֹלִים אֶת־הַמָּאוֹר הַגָּדֹל לְמֶמְשֶׁלֶת הַיּוֹם וְאֶת־הַמָּאוֹר הַקָּטֹן לְמֶמְשֶׁלֶת הַלַּיְלָה וְאֵת הַכּוֹכָבִים:

Translation:     Gd must have made the two great lights, the great light for governor of the day and the small light for governor of the night, and the stars.

This is the qal of mashal, “rule, govern, have control”.

The first is the gerundive for prepositions and the second is the one that cannot take prepositions.

מְשׁוֹל

מָּשׁוֹל                                                                                               

This is the imperfect aspect.

Singular	Plural	Person/gender
אֶמְשׁוֹל	נִמְשׁוֹל	First
תִּמְשׁוֹל	תִּמְשְׁלוּ	Second/masculine
תִּמְשְׁלִי	תִּמְשׁוֹלְנָה	Second/feminine
יִמְשׁוֹל	יִמְשְׁלוּ	Third/masculine
תִּמְשׁוֹל	תִּמְשׁוֹלְנָה	Third/feminine

This is the perfect aspect.

Singular	Plural	Person/gender
מָשַׁלְתִּי	מָשַׁלְנוּ	First
מָשַׁלתָּ	מְשַׁלְתֶּם	Second/masculine
מָשַׁלְתְּ	מְשַׁלְתֶּן	Second/feminine
מָשַׁל	מָשְׁלוּ	Third/masculine
מָשְׁלָה		Third/feminine

This is progressive aspect.

Singular	Plural	Person/gender
מּוֹשֵׁל	מּוֹשְׁלִים	First
מּוֹשֶׁלֶת	מּוֹשְׁלוֹת	Second/masculine

Notice that none of these match memshelet. The two segol vowels in the last two syllables is a sign that this is a noun, not a verb.

Notice that while l’ is usually translated as “to”, and has misled people into calling memshelet an infinitive, that is old think. This preposition has a number of uses, and “to” is only one of them. You may have been taught that l’ is an indirect object marker, but that’s a label from Latin. Its use as “for” takes the genitive in Russian. Its use in hayah l’ requires a different verb with instrumental case in Russian. Let’s redd out your brain so you can see what Biblical Hebrew really is and does.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2020 All Rights Reserved