the Lord God of heaven, who TOOK me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred, and who SPAKE unto me, and that SWARE unto me, saying, Unto thy seed GIVE I this land, he SENDETH his angel before thee, Gen. xxiv. 7. are all ,נִשְׁבַּע and ,לָקַח דִּבֶּר Here we see the first three verbs לאמֹר in the preterite tense. The first is necessarily so, by the operation he sends, he now * In these cases the use of the tenses is relative: or rather, partly absolute, and partly relative. + Of this kind are all those expressions in the Arabic, in which the leading verb is found in the preterite tense, and the following ones in the present, or (as التمس شيا لياكله فلم يجد . . : the Grammarians have termed in the future كَانَا يَنْطَحَانِ he sought something that he might (now) eat it, but he finds not; bilik 99 Lay they two were (so situated that) they (now, i. e. in those circumstances) butt with the horns of them both. The same principle generally holds good, when two preterites follow each other without an intervening conjunction; for then, the first will have respect to some time anterior to that from which the writer had set out, the second to one anterior to that of such verb: e. g. u, ވހ إلي خراسان and he was (so circumstanced that) he went out (before that time) to Khorásán, i. e. and he had gone out. Corollary. Hence citations will generally be made in the words of the first speaker: i. e. it is not said, that God sware and declared, THAT HE WOULD GIVE the land to Abraham's seed, &c. but, in the original terms of the oath, unto thy seed DO, or WILL, I GIVE it: and also, that preterites and futures more or less remote from the time in which any declaration is made, answering to our imperfects, perfects, pluperfects, simple, compound, or paulo-post, futures, may be formed Mr. de Sacy remarks, that "le verbe u employé comme auxiliare influe sur les prétérits, &c. et les convertit tous en preterits anterieur,” Arab. Gram., vol. i. p. 131. The reason of this is, that each of these verbs involves a preterite tense in its own right, and the reader is by the combination of both carried back into a time more remote than either alone could express. This the European Grammarians have termed the Pluperfect tense. As the Persian language has for several centuries been cultivated on the principles of the Arabic grammar, it may not be amiss to cite Mr. Lumsden's remarks on this use of the present tense. "In the conversation of the Persians," says he (Pers. Gram., vol. ii. p. 336.), “though seldom perhaps in written composition, the present is often found to supersede the past tense of the verb, in the statement of those propositions which, though past in point of fact (i. e. as to the absolute time in which the statement is made) are recalled by the memory as if they were present. .ވ ـب كُذَرَم نَزَدِ دوستي افتاد در آنجا : Example دِي شب 1691 تَمَاشَائِي مِي كُنَم last night I went rather عجب بزمي مي بينم و طرفه تماشائي I go) to the house of a friend, and there saw (see) a delightful assembly, and enjoyed (enjoy) a most pleasing spectacle. Of this nature,” adds he, are the ex 9 66 پیغامبر ވ چنان : The writer thus observes مصنف چنین گوید amples the Prophet informs (or has informed) us.”—This must bring to every one's mind, the Qŋoì, ait, and inquit, of the Greeks and Latins, which are used in the same way, and upon the same principle. Citations are made in a similar manner in the Persian; as, Zaid said, I am going to Calcutta, not obliquely, said that he was going, &c., but in the words of the original enunciation. See Pers. Gram., ib., pp. 349–355. at the pleasure of the writer. The following passage apwa UN WAS HATH Jehovah said of his anointed, of Cyrus, whose right hand I HAVE HOLDEN, for the subduing of nations before him, and that I MAY UNLOOSE the loins of kings; to open before him, the two-leaved gates, and (that the) gates MAY not BE SHUT: I GO, (or WILL GO,) before thee, and MAKE LEVEL mountainous places; the gates of brass DO I BREAK, and the bars of iron DO I CUT ASUNDER. And I have given thee the treasures of darkness, and the hidden treasures of secret places, that thou MAYEST KNOW, that I am Jehovah who CALL (thee) by thy name, &c., Is. xlv. 1—3. Although this citation is not quite direct in the first verse, the passage is nevertheless all put in the first person; and the second verse is a direct citation. As to the tenses, the first verb is in the preterite, because the prophet recites what he had already received, perhaps at some distance of time. The next is also preterite as referring to past events. The following and are pre2 sent, referring to what may have been done at the time when the declaration was first made, or immediately subsequent to it. The same may be said of the four following verbs. The next, ? is a preterite to be taken in an absolute future signification (see Art. 236.) and the following is present to the fulfilment of this or immediately subsequent to it. The second preterite, A refers to a time anterior to that of, with which the declaration commences, though perhaps not so much so as to bear our pluperfect in the translation. The next two, TN and 20, though presents or futures to Pin, seem, nevertheless, to be an and ,אֲשֶׁר אֵלֵךְ,as to tense. In the next place אָמַר terior to 972, are evidently present or future to, and consequently, in a tense future to E and P. In the last place, 'n is manifestly future with respect to the preceding verb YT, &c. and I, which is present or immediately future to this, may be considered as referring to something still further removed into futurity. Numerous instances of this kind occur in the New Testament. For examples in which the present tense is thus carried backward or forward, see Matt. ii. 13, paívelaı; Mark ii. 4, χαλῶσι, &c. As future, Matt. ii. 4, yevalar; Ib. v. 46, exele; Ib. xvii. 11, egxela; Ib. xxvi. 29, niv. Paulo-post future, Matt. xxvi. 24, Tagadidola; Ib. v. 45. See Mark xiv. 41, Luke xxii. 21, 22, John xiii. 3. 11. 27. 33, &c. In like manner the Aorists are also used for the past, present, or future. It will be unnecessary to give examples of the past. Of the present, Matt. iii. 17, ¿vdóxnoa. So Ib. xxiii. 2, Ļuke i. 47, xv. 16, John i. 12, 1 John iv. 8. Of the future, John xi. 56, eλon: xv. 6, éßλýon, Engvon. See also Rom. viii. 20. With πρίν οι πρὸ preceding, Mark xiv. 30, John iv. 49, viii. 58, xiii. 19, &c. See also Matthia's Greek Grammar, vol. ii., Artt. 504, 505, &c. 14. From what has been said it must have appeared, that the writer, placing both himself and his reader in times contemporary with the events of which he is treating, can supply all the deficiency of tenses apparent in the Hebrew paradigm; an expedient often resorted to, indeed, by the Latin and Greek historians, without the necessity which presents itself here. We must not hence suppose, however, that they never recur to the original time from which they set out. This they appear to do optionally, just as we find it done in the Greek and Latin historians* (Art. 231. 6.): e. g. Dish Dubs 87?" קָרָא nbı? 872 awnby Diso God CALLS the light day; but the darkness he CALLED night, Gen. i. 5; in Ima * So, "INSTANT Volsci recentes, qui è castris impetum FECERANT; INTEGRANT et illi pugnam, qui simulata cESSERANT fuga. Livy, lib. vi., § 24. 'ENPAKAƐ δ' ἜΦΗ ὦ κῦρε, τὴν γυναῖκα, ἦν με ΚΕΛΕΥΕΙΣ φυλάττειν; Μὰ Δὶ ΕΦΗ ὁ κύρος, &c. Xenoph. Cyropedia. Pantheia. See Matthia's Greek Gram., vol. ii., Art. 504. 1. till the morning, as Moses HAD COMMANDED, and it DID not BECOME foetid, &c., Exod. xvi. 24. 232. If then events consecutive of each other may be enounced by verbs intimating a presence of action, with reference to those primarily introduced into the context, then may Subjunctive or Conditional sentences also be enounced upon the same principle, by the present tense, while the dependence of the different members one upon another will be determined by the signification of the particles introduced for that purpose. Examples: :y and now, if ye ARE DEALING kindly and truly with my master, tell me; and if not, tell me; and I turn (or that I MAY TURN) to the right hand or to the : DVD DRY- then the servant said (says) to him, Perhaps the woman MAY not BE (or, putting the case that she is not,) WILLING to follow me to this land, must I surely bring back thy son unto the land from whence thou camest? 233. There are, moreover, other modes of construction, by which hypothetical and other sentences, exhibiting certain relations between their leading and subsequent members, are formed. These constructions have hitherto been unobserved by Christian Grammarians and Commentators. Some of the Jews seem to have entertained a few very imperfect notions respecting them,* * *The words of D. Kimkhi on this subject are to be found in the Mikhlol, fol. verso, and are ויש וו אחר במקום אם :as follows והיא מורה לתשובת התנאי ומענהו כמוֹ אִם קֵחָה הַבַּרְזֶל התשובה Ꮓ |