# והיה כאשר הגלה אתנו כן ישיב אתנו



## Ali Smith

שלום

How would you translate והיה כאשר הגלה אתנו כן ישיב אתנו? My book says "As he led us into exile, thus will he bring us back." but this seems plain wrong. The reason is the sentence begins with waw-retentive followed by היה, which, of course, is a circumstantial clause, just like והיה כי תשמעו את הדברים האלה וזכרתם and והיה בבקר ויצאתם (see attachment).

אני מודה לכם מאוד


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## Drink

Circumstantial? Huh?

And it shall be (or it shall come to pass) that just as he exiled us, thus he shall return us.


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## Ali Smith

But doesn’t כאשר mean either “when (in the past, like the German “als”) or “because”?


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## Drink

It can also mean "just as".

When does it mean "because"?


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## GeriReshef

Today כאשר means when (eg: call me when you are ready),
but literally כאשר =  כ & אשר, that means - like, as (כ) that (אשר), or "just as" as Drink suggested.


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## Abaye

והיה כאשר is idiomatic in the bible. The usual structure is:
והיה כאשר <משהו בעבר> כן <משהו בעתיד>


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## Drink

The phrase והיה כאשר only occurs 10 times in Tanach, and the word כן is present in only half those cases. I'm not sure that's enough to say it's an "idiom".

Rather it's just a logically sensible phrase, with the ordinary meanings of each word והיה and כאשר.


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## Ali Smith

Thanks, but wouldn't the following be a better translation of "As he led us into exile, thus will he bring us back."?

והיה כאשר הגלה אתנו כן וְהֵשִׁיב אתנו


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## Drink

No. Usually adverbs like כן cannot be followed by a vav-consecutive. So either just והשיב or כן ישיב. But I'm not sure the meaning would be the same if you take away the כן.


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## Ali Smith

Thanks! What about the following?

והיה כאשר הגלה אתנו וְהֵשִׁיב כן אתנו


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## Drink

Doesn't sound right to me.


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