# Aramaic: use of past tense for the present-future



## S1234

Hi everyone

Daniel 6.6 says אֱדַיִן גֻּבְרַיָּא אִלֵּךְ אָמְרִין דִּי לָא נְהַשְׁכַּח לְדָנִיֵּאל דְּנָה כָּל עִלָּא לָהֵן הַשְׁכַּחְנָה עֲלוֹהִי בְּדָת אֱלָהֵהּ.

Translation: Then these men said, "We will not find any ground of accusation against this Daniel unless we find it against him with regard to the law of his God."

Why is the verb הַשְׁכַּחְנָה not translated using the past tense?

Thanks


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## Ali Smith

The presence of הֵן, which is a conditional particle, in לָהֵן might be the reason it is followed by the suffix conjugation. This phenomenon is extremely common in classical Arabic, e.g. وَإِن كُنتُمْ فِى رَيْبٍۢ مِّمَّا نَزَّلْنَا عَلَىٰ عَبْدِنَا فَأْتُواْ بِسُورَةٍۢ مِّن مِّثْلِهِ.

In English, too, you could say something like "We wouldn't find any pretext against this Daniel unless we found it against him in the law of his god."


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## zaw

Is this use common in Aramaic? Or is this an exceptional case?


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## Ali Smith

The suffix conjugation seems to be used with verbs after a particle that corresponds to English "except, unless". In English, we might use a subjunctive "we should" or the future "we will". I'm not sure exactly why this is the case.


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## 𒍝𒊑𒈾 𒂵𒉿𒀉

It should be said also that the Aramaic suffix conjugation does not actually mean past tense nor does the prefix conjugation mean present or future tense. They mean perfective and imperfective respectively. So there is nothing weird about הַשְׁכַּחְנָה being in this context.


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