194

The Preterite with Vau prefixed.

: IT

So likewise the preterite is clearly frequentative in Exodus 16. 35, where it occurs twice without the conjunction :

(אכלו

'And the children of Israel did eat the manna (8 forty years, until they came to a land inhabited: the manna they did eat (1) until they came to the border of the land of Canaan,'

Surely this use of the preterite in a frequentative sense, not only with the prefixed vau, as in 15 of Exodus 18. 26, ypл of Joshua 6. 8, 13, and, of I Samuel 7. 16, but also

סבבו and עשו ,35 .16 of Exodus אכלו without it, as in

of Joshua 6. 14, 15, and □ of 1 Samuel 7. 17, is sufficient to show that the frequentative force of the preterite does not depend on the vau. And as the vau of the preterites which have the vau neither attaches these preterites to preceding dominant imperfects, nor serves any purpose but that of a simple copulative, it may be conclusively inferred that these are not cases of vau conversive, but cases of the simple conjunctive vau. Now this fact has a special importance of its own in connection with the alleged lateness of the Book of Ecclesiastes, for it shows that that use of the conjunctive vau in Ecclesiastes, which is said to indicate lateness, is by no means uncommon in Hebrew of much earlier date than the days of Solomon.

The Preacher's use of the Preterite with the
initial vau.

It may be further observed that when the Book of Ecclesiastes is searched for instances of the

The three Solomonic Books.

195

preterite with vau prefixed, and when these are compared with similar instances in the other Solomonic Scriptures and in Hebrew unquestionably early, this alleged mark of lateness shrinks into very small dimensions, or rather vanishes away altogether. All the instances in the Book of Ecclesiastes, including those where the vau is conversive as well as those where it is simply conjunctive, are forty-eight in number. Whereas in the Book of Joshua the instances of vau simply conjunctive, not including the instances of vau conversive, are above eighty.

List of passages in which the copulative van is prefixed to

196

IT

Dominant Verbs.

Vau Conversive of the Preterite.

(1.) The Preterite preceded by a dominant participle. With reference to I. 5, which is the first of the passages in Ecclesiastes containing vau conversive, it may be observed that the dominant antecedent is a participle or group of participles (7, and ny) expressive of continuity, and that the preterites and are here used frequentatively, to set forth, not merely facts of repetition past and completed, like the daily eating of the manna in the wilderness, and the daily sounding of the cornets at Jericho, but facts the repetition of which continues down to the present moment; and thus renders the imperfect tense peculiarly appropriate where the copulative vau does not occur, as, for instance, in the words wow-771", 2 Samuel 23. 4, and wenn, Psalm 104. 22 (py, like the Latin dies, being sometimes masculine and sometimes feminine). Ecclesiastes 1. 4-5, as thus compared with these two passages, affords a clear and simple twofold instance of vau conversive, the PRETERITES (2) being so appended to the dominant participles (d) as to form a series of verbs arranged in strict syntactical accordance with the ancient idiom of the Hebrew tongue. Besides being thus preceded by dominant participles, these preterites merge into the participles Ni and it which follow them; so that the conversive character of the vau is attested both by the participles going before and by the participles coming after, as well as by the scope of the

David's Charge to Solomon.

197

preterites themselves. It may be further observed, for the sake of illustration, that David's farewell address to Solomon contains three preterites similarly preceded by the same dominant participle

Whereas however the preterites in Ecclesiastes I. 5 are used frequentatively in the third person, the preterites in 1 Kings 2. 2, 3 are used imperatively in the second person:-Now the days of David drew near that he should die; and he charged his son Solomon, saying,

I go the way of all the earth: BUT BE THOU STRONG, AND SHOW THYSELF a man, AND KEEP the charge of Jehovah thy God, . . .

וחזקת והיית לאיש : ושמרת את משמרת יהוה אלהיך ....

דור הלך ודור בא והארץ ,One generation passeth away לעולם עמדת : "וזרח השמש : and another generation cometh

וּבָא השמש ואל-מקומו שואף

זורח הוא שם:

but the earth abideth for ever. The sun ALSO ARISETH; AND the sun GOETH DOWN, and panteth unto his place where he arose.

This identity of syntactical usage in two prominent passages so unlike one another as the Prologue to the Book of Ecclesiastes and David's farewell address to Solomon is well fitted to illustrate the thorough harmony between the style of Ecclesiastes and the ascription of the book to Solomon as its author. The following passages likewise afford specimens of a dominant participle, followed by the PRETERITE with vau conversive, and show that in this respect the syntax of Ecclesiastes 1. 4, 5 is consistent not only with the Hebrew of Solomon's Proverbs, but also with Hebrew of much earlier date :

Behold I stand before thee there over the rock in Horeb; AND THOU SHALT SMITE the rock, AND waters SHALL GO FORTH from it, AND the people SHALL DRINK.

(2) JUDGES 7. 17.

והנה אנכי בא ... וְהָיָה

And behold WHEN I come to the border of the camp, IT SHALL BE that as I do, so shall ye do.

(3) I KINGS 20. 36.

הנך הוֹלֵךְ מאתי וְהִכָּךְ האריה ...:

והנה אנכי הוֹלֵךְ ... וִידַעְתֶּם

Behold WHEN thou goest from me the lion SHALL SMITE thee.

(4) JOSHUA 23. 14.

DAYT

And behold I go this day the way of all the earth; AND YE KNOW with all your heart and with all your soul that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which Jehovah your God spake concerning you.

WHEN any man sacrificeth a sacrifice, the priest's servant COMETH while the flesh is seething, and the hook of three teeth in his hand, AND SMITETH it into the pan, (6) PROVERBS 29. 9. pry my bus - DEWI DON-WIN

...

ואין נחת:

If a wise man contend with a foolish man, WHETHER HE RAGE OR LAUGH, there is no rest.

In these and similar passages the dominant participles, with the preterites attached to them by means of vau conversive, express events either absolutely future (1, 2, 3);—or facts presently existent and continuous (4);-or usages which were wont to be practised habitually from time to time, and thus extended from the past to the future (5); -or maxims of general application in the circumstances specified (6). Numerous other passages,