are regulated, has arisen out of the circumstance, that the Hebrews, in common with some other nations of the East, often represent events, of the future occurrence of which they have no doubt, as having already taken place.*

כִּי־יֶלֶד וְלַד לָנוּ בֵּן נִתַּן־לָנוּ וַתְּהִי : Examples

The following observations on this use of the past tense of a Persian verb are taken from the Persian Grammar of Mr. Lumsden, vol. ii. p. 326. "The prophetic denunciation of a future event will be often expressed in the past tense, in order to indicate the certainty of its occurrence. Examples:

C

کافر امروز اگرچه خوش است لیکن فرداست که طوق لعنت بر

The infidel, honeever happy ، گردن کشیده و بانواع عذاب گرفتار گردیده

to-day, will be encircled to-morrow by a collar of curses, and will suffer miseries of every description.'

66

It seems to me," continues Mr. Lurnsden, “ that most of the preceding rules have their basis in the following principle....that the occurrence of a future event is naturally a matter of great uncertainty, and generally speaking, will be so considered, if expressed by the future tense of the verb. Past events having already occurred, are subject to no uncertainty at all. And hence it happens, that a Persian, having occasion to speak of a future event, which he believes to be of certain occurrence, will naturally enough employ the past tense of the verb: by the use of which he means to apprise his auditor, that the occurrence of the event, though still future, is, in his opinion, not less certain, than if it were past."

Of this character is the passage cited by Mr. de Sacy, from the "Concessus

of Hariri, Arab. Gram., vol. i. p. 123, &c. glembab Y I WILL BY NO MEANS TOUCH your meat, unless, &c. See Storr, p. 163-4. Pococke's Specim. Hist. Arab., p. 57. Gram. Syr. Isaac Sciadrensis, Rom. 1636,

The following passages copied from a very valuable commentary on the

which is preserved نجم الدين العراقي Arabic Grammar of Ibn Ulhajib, by

in the public library of Canbridge, will" put this question out of all doubt, as to the practice of the Orientals. Speaking of the preterite tense, it is said:

وينصرف الي الاستقبال بالانشاء الطلبي اما دعاء نحو رحمك الله او امرا نحو قول علي عليه السلام اجزا امر قرنه آسا اخاه بنفسه وينصرف الي

Diby for a child HAS BEEN (i. e. shall surely be) BORN to us, a Son HATH BEEN (or surely shall be) GIVEN to us, so the government is upon his shoulder, and

ވ

الاستقبال ايضاً بان يخبر من الامور المستقبلة ان قصد القطع بوقوعها من حيث افادة المتكلم الجنة ... انه كقوله تعالي ونادي اصحاب الجنة لوقوع الفعل قطعاً كانه وقع ومضي ... وينقلب الماضي اليه ايضاً اذا كان فعلت ... منفيا او ان كان في جواب القسم نحو والله لا فعلت وان فعلتُ وينقلب ايضا اليه بدخول كلم المجازاة غير او واما كان فقد يبقي

و

، وينقلب ايضاً معها علي المضي نحو قوله تعالي ان كنت قلته

....

. .c, i بدخول ما النائبة عن الظرف ... نحو ما دامت السموات .

MAY GOD HAVE رحمك الله desire-whether in prayer ; as

"The preterite takes the future signification, when used in passages intimating

THEE;-or,

MERCY ON

HIS

command, as in the saying of Ali, LET THE MAN REWARD NEIGHBOUR pret.) WHO IN HIS OWN PERSON HAS DONE GOOD TO HIS BROTHER. It is also changed into the future, when speaking of some future event, and intending to enounce it AS CERTAIN TO COME TO PASS; as in the passage (of the Koran), The inhabitants of Paradise SHALL call, &c. (have called. Surat. Alaraf.) where the speaker mentions the event as HAVING ALIt is also taken as a future, when accompanied by a negative, or, as an answer to an oath: as, BY GOD, I WILL NOT DO IT, or, SHOULD I DO IT. It is also used as a future in hypothetical sentences, except with the

READY COME TO PASS.

وكان

SHOULD, UNLESS, &c. But, as to the verb لو particle

ما

it will retain

its preterite signification: as, IF I HAD SAID IT. It is also changed when the particle is used intimating time: e. g. As LONG AS THE HEAVENS HAVE ENDURED (i. e. SHALL ENDURE"), &c. It is very evident, that the same principle prevails throughout every instance here adduced, (if we except the hypothetical ones, of which something will be said hereafter, and which is used as an auxiliary), namely, that of certainty, and thence intense petition, or command, grafted upon this certainty.-See Viger de idiotismis Græcis, Winer's Gram. of the New Test., p. 167. Edit. 1813, with the notes. p. 105. (b).

(one) calls his name Wonder, Counsellor (or Preacher), Mighty God, the Father (or Proprietor) of an age, the

TT

וְהָיָה בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא יִשְׁרֹק 18 .Prince of peace ; Ib. vii c., and it sHALL& יְהוָה לַזְבוּב אֲשֶׁר בִּקְצֵה יְאֹרֵי מִצְרָיִם

(certainly) COME TO PASS, in that day, Jehovah hisses (or shall hiss) to the bee which (is) in the extremity of the rivers of Egypt, &c.; Ib. 19, 2

D200 in &c. and they SHALL (certainly) COME, and SHALL all REST in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks.

2. Upon the same principle, the Preterite tense is often used as an Imperative; which may, therefore, be termed emphatical: e. g. Deut. vi. 5, nin; as EDNI

Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day SHALL BE upon thy heart: and thou SHALT DILIGENTLY IMPRESS them upon thy children: and thou SHALT TALK of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And THOU SHALT BIND them for a sign on thy hand, and THEY SHALL BE for frontlets between thy eyes. And thou SHALT write them upon the posts of thy house, and upon thy gates.

It will be imagined, perhaps, from the use of the accents here, that these preterites have been affected by the preceding imperative (Art. 233. 3.). But this is unnecessary, as it regards their forms; because, had nothing but a simple imperative been intended, the common imperative forms would have been used. Innumerable instances occur, however, in which no such

form precedes, as is also the case with the prophetic preterites just noticed. See Gen. xl. 14, xlv. 13, xlvi. 34, Ezek. ii. 4, iii. 17, iv. 5, 6.

3. In the following example, we have both the preterite and present tenses, used as prophetical futures; the former for the purpose of intimating certainty, and thence of affording assurance; the latter for the reasons already given (Artt. 231. 11. 235. 3.). Gen. xxvi. 3,

TEND? Sojourn in this land, and I am (or WILL BE) with thee, and so I bless (or WILL BLESS) thee; for to thee and to thy seed I give (or WILL GIVE) all these lands: and I WILL (surely) ESTABLISH the oath which I sware to Abraham thy father.

4. The following has a prohibitive sentence in the Present, followed by two predictions enounced in the Preterite, tense: Gen. xxvi. 24, JA8DE STA-IN

thee and WILL (surely) BLESS thee, and MULTIPLY thy seed.

5. When a preterite follows a present (prophetical) tense in the same order of events, and in the same context, the second of these, with as many succeeding verbs as follow in the same tense, order, &c. may be translated by the English compound tense, shall have-shall have had-or the like.* Examples:

* In this case, the preterite is reckoned, not from the period in which the declaration is made, but from one future to it, as it is even in the English. The reason is: futurity is intended in the first, and consequently in every subsequent verb, whatever other particulars the context may require in this respect.

Jehovah thy God BRINGETH (or shall bring) THEE to the land whither thou art going to possess it, and SHALL HAVE CAST OUT many great nations from before thee.... and Jehovah thy God SHALL HAVE DELIVERED them up before thee, and thou SHALT HAVE SMITTEN them, (then) devote thou them to utter destruction.

6. In like manner when two events are enounced, one of which is prior to the other, and that which occurred first in the order of time, being to be taken in the past tense, (with reference to the time in which the relation was originally made,) the following one may be translated into English in the preterpluperfect tense:* as, Gen. xxvi. 18, 172 872-wg niową niow 107 sp : so he calls them (i. e. at that time by) names, according to the names (by) which his father CALLED THEM (i. e. had called.).

237. General opinions may be enounced either in the preterite, the participles, or in the present tense.

* In this case, the verb 77 is an historical present, and hence contemporary in act with the preceding verb 2, and therefore preterite with reference to the time in which the narration is made: but, the following verb 77 is preterite with reference to this time, i. e. to the time of and 77, it is, therefore, a preterite still more remote, and equivalent to our pluperfect. So

¿ in Arabic, as already noticed.

ވ

had you لو اخذتني معك لعملت عسلا مثلك So in the Arabic + لَوْ

لو كان الناس كلهم عقالا ; taken me with you, I had made honey like yourself

خربت الدنيا

HAD IT BEEN (So that) all men were wise, the world HAD BEEN DESTROYED. Mr. Lumsden has, I think, been very happy in his remarks on this sort of construction. "General opinions," says he, "ought to result from the observation of facts; and whether we state a general opinion, or the facts