# קוּמָה אֱלֹהִים שָׁפְטָה הָאָרֶץ כִּֽי־אַתָּה תִנְחַל בְּכָל־הַגֹּויִֽם



## nili95

So, this is Psalm 82:8. Can someone please explain the three vowels (i.e, gender, tense, etc.)?


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## slus

What three vowels?


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## nili95

Sorry - I meant three verbs. It seems that gender feminine verbs are being used for elohim.


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## Drink

Nope these are all masculine forms.

קומה and שפטה are the "long form" of the masculine singular imperative. The long form has the ה suffix, and is only possible on the masculine singular.

תנחל is the second-person masculine singular future tense, which is identical to the third-person feminine singular. But the presence of the pronoun אתה shows that it is the second-person masculine singular.


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## nili95

Drink said:


> Nope these are all masculine forms.
> 
> קומה and שפטה are the "long form" of the masculine singular imperative. The long form has the ה suffix, and is only possible on the masculine singular.
> 
> תנחל is the second-person masculine singular future tense, which is identical to the third-person feminine singular. But the presence of the pronoun אתה shows that it is the second-person masculine singular.


Thank you. Does this extended imperative occur much (or at all) in Modern Hebrew?


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## Drink

It occurs occasionally in poetry, but other than that not really.


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## nili95

Drink said:


> It occurs occasionally in poetry, but other than that not really.


Thank you, again.


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## Abaye

A long imperative like שָׁפְטָה _shofta_ is peculiar, I couldn't find an online conjugation table that covers such forms.
Would thank anyone who can find the table.


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## Drink

I don't know if I've ever seen it given in a table. But the form is regular. For binyan qal eqtol (ef'ol) verbs, the form alternates between qotla and qitla. For all other verbs it's pretty predictable. And it doesn't exist for פ"ה verbs.


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## Abaye

There's a relevant article by S. E. Fassberg: _The Lengthened Imperative קָטְלָה in Biblical Hebrew_ (originally in Hebrew). I couldn't find a free copy beyond the 1st page of the English version.

He mentions some other lengthened imperative variants like אֶסְפָה, סְלָחָה.


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## nili95

Abaye said:


> There's a relevant article by S. E. Fassberg: _The Lengthened Imperative קָטְלָה in Biblical Hebrew_ (originally in Hebrew). I couldn't find a free copy beyond the 1st page of the English version.
> 
> He mentions some other lengthened imperative variants like אֶסְפָה, סְלָחָה.


Thanks. Actually, I happened upon it (via jstor) after my first posts.

He notes that 14.5% of the relevant imperatives found in the Tanakh have this form. I would have loved to see a complete breakdown, the question being whether or not its use could help in dating the various texts.


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## Drink

nili95 said:


> Thanks. Actually, I happened upon it (via jstor) after my first posts.
> 
> He notes that 14.5% of the relevant imperatives found in the Tanakh have this form. I would have loved to see a complete breakdown, the question being whether or not its use could help in dating the various texts.



I read an article once that claimed that the long imperative generally indicates motion towards the speaker (תנה לי vs תן לו). That would mean it could be related to the Akkadian "ventitive" suffix _-am_. In Akkadian, this suffix can be used on almost any form of the verb, not just the imperative, however.


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## nili95

Drink said:


> I read an article once that claimed that the long imperative generally indicates motion towards the speaker (תנה לי vs תן לו). That would mean it could be related to the Akkadian "ventitive" suffix _-am_. In Akkadian, this suffix can be used on almost any form of the verb, not just the imperative, however.


The Akkadian suffix is mentioned at the close of the Fassberg article mentioned above.


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