21st Century Bible Hebrew -- "call, give a name"

Genesis 1:5

 

ה וַיִּקְרָא אֱלֹהִים לָאוֹר יוֹם וְלַחֹשֶׁךְ קָרָא לָיְלָה וַיְהִי־עֶרֶב וַיְהִי־בֹקֶר יוֹם אֶחָד:

 

Transliteration: Va-yiqra elohim la-or yom v’la-choshekh qara lailah va-y’hi-erev va-y’hi-voqer yom echad.

Translation:     Gd named the light day and the darkness He named night; there was evening and there was morning one day.

 

Vocabulary in this lesson:

 

יִּקְרָא	call (to), call by name, name
לָ	Indirect object preposition, genitive preposition, possessive
יוֹם	day
לָיְלָה	night
עֶרֶב	evening
בֹקֶר	morning
אֶחָד	one

 

We have another lamed alef verb in this verse, and we have it in narrative imperfect.  Here’s the qal imperfect aspect, on which the narrative imperfect is built.  Memorize this; you will see it again.

 

Singular	Plural	Person/gender
אֶקְרָא	נִקְרָא	First
תִּקְרָא	תִּקְרְאוּ	Second/masculine
תִּקְרְאִי	תִּקְרֶאנָה	Second/feminine
יִקְרָא	יִקְרְאוּ	Third/masculine
תִּקְרָא	תִּקְרֶאנָה	Third/feminine

 

BUT notice that when He names the darkness, it’s perfect aspect.  Why?

 

The perfect aspect here closes off this episode in the creation story.  Something else is going to happen after this, nothing to do with light at all.

Next is a two-fer.

 

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