The death of a virtuous woman? Proverbs 31.10-31,gnomic qatal,and the role of translation in the analysis of the Hebrew verbal system

Abstract

This article draws attention to the phenomenon of translation-based interference in the analysis of Biblical Hebrew. It is argued that the so-called gnomic qatal only exists when we translate certain passages in a certain way. Based on Joüon’s approach to the verbs in Prov 31.10-31, it is demonstrated that it is possible to interpret the woman in the poem as deceased. Consequently, the predominant verbal forms in the passage (qatal and wayyiqtol) are not gnomic, contrary to the almost universal rendering of the forms as present tense in modern translations. Rather, they have their usual anterior meaning. Other examples of translation-based interference in the analysis of Biblical Hebrew (including the question of the verbs in biblical poetry) are discussed, and a case is made for relative tense as the appropriate category for describing the semantic content of the basic opposition between the (non-volitive) finite verbal forms.