21st Century Bible Hebrew -- ayin yod verbs

Genesis 2:7-8

 

ז וַיִּ֩יצֶר֩ יְהֹוָ֨ה אֱלֹהִ֜ים אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֗ם עָפָר֙ מִן־הָ֣אֲדָמָ֔ה וַיִּפַּ֥ח בְּאַפָּ֖יו נִשְׁמַ֣ת חַיִּ֑ים וַיְהִ֥י הָֽאָדָ֖ם לְנֶ֥פֶשׁ חַיָּֽה:

ח וַיִּטַּ֞ע יְהוָֹ֧ה אֱלֹהִ֛ים גַּ֥ן־בְּעֵ֖דֶן מִקֶּ֑דֶם וַיָּ֣שֶׂם שָׁ֔ם אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֖ם אֲשֶׁ֥ר יָצָֽר:

Translation: **** Gd formed the man dust, from the earth, He breathed into his nose the soul of life; he must have become a living soul.

**** Gd planted a garden in Eden toward the east; He placed there the man whom He had formed.

 

The verb yita is unusual in that, like nagash, the qal and nifal are alike. The nun assimilates and disappears, and the middle letter takes dagesh. While Gd might decree this, He might also do the work himself.

 

Make sure you understand that this means to plant something. There is another verb, natah which is peh nun and lamed heh, and it means to set up a tent or spread something out. In English you might sometimes see “plant a tent” but that only uses “plant” in the meaning of “set up”. In BH they are two different verbs.

 

And now our first ayin yod verb, sim, “put, place”. LEARN THIS VERB. It is fairly common and a good paradigm for the other ayin yod verbs.

 

The aspectless gerundive is the same no matter how you use it.

שִׂים

This is the imperfect aspect.
 

Singular	Plural	Person/gender
אָשִׂים	נָשִׂים	First
תָּשִׂים	תָּשִׂימוּ	Second/masculine
תָּשִׂימִי	תָּשֵׂמְנָה	Second/feminine
יָשִׂים	יָשִׂימוּ	Third/masculine
תָּשִׂים	תָּשֵׂמְנָה	Third/feminine

 

This is the perfect aspect.

 

Singular	Plural	Person/gender
שַׂמָתִּי	שַׂמְנוּ	First
שַׂמְתָּ	שַׂמְתֶּם	Second/masculine
שַׂמְתְּ	שַׂמְתֶּן	Second/feminine
שָׂם	שַׂמוּ	Third/masculine
שָׂמָה		Third/feminine

This is progressive aspect.

 

Singular	Plural	Person/gender
שָׂם	שָׂמִים	First
שָׂמָה	שָׂמוֹת	Second/masculine

Oh man. What is going on with the masculine and feminine singular?

 

If you were a morphological grammarian, you would be in hot water. Even experts complain they can’t tell the progressive from the perfect. (If they use that terminology….)

 

What’s worse is that the normal word order is the same for both aspects, SVO.

 

Here is where functionality comes in. Progressive is always used differently from perfect aspect. When you know how the verb is functioning in the sentence, then you know which aspect you have. This is something morphologists always ignore, if they know it, and then they can argue  over it until the cows come home. Next week I’ll show you how to bring those cows home.