2. The ordinals are sometimes used in this sense without a following noun or suffix, when one may readily be supplied from the context, e. g. a third (of the people), 2 Sam. 18: 2. Ezek. 5:12., a fourth (of the day), Neh. 9:3., a fifth (of the increase), Gen. 47: 24. 1 Kings 6:31, 33.

§ 946. Besides the above, there are two fractional numbers of the Cegholate form bp, viz. one fourth, Num. 23: 10. 2 Kings 6 : 25., and one fifth, Gen. 47: 26.* This latter is also employed as an ordinal in 2 Sam. 2:23. 3:27. &c.

Distributives.

§ 947. The distributive numbers, singly, by twos, by threes, &c. (Lat. singuli, bini, trini, &c.), are denoted, as is frequently the case in English, by a repetition of the cardinals, e. g.

by twos, or by sevens, or seven by seven,

Multiples.

§ 948. The multiple numbers, or those answering the question how many fold? are denoted in Hebrew by the feminine dual form of the cardinals as far as ten, which form, as it intimates reduplication, is perfectly analogous to the Latin and English terminations plex and fold, e.g. four-fold (quadruplex), 2 Sam. 12: 6., 7 seven-fold, Gen. 4:15. Is. 30: 26. Ps. 12:7. 79: 12. Beyond ten they are expressed by the simple form of the cardinals, e. g. seventyseven fold, Gen. 4:24.

Numeral Adverbs.

§ 949. 1. The numeral adverbs, or those which signify the number of times an event occurs, as once, twice, &c., are usually denoted by the noun stroke, beat, corresponding in its use to the English time, Fr.

, فعل or فعل These correspond to the regular Arabic fractionals of the form •

which extend from three to ten.

fois, Germ. mal, with an accompanying cardinal number, e. g. x DVD once, lit. one time (une fois), Josh. 6:3, 11, 14., 72 twice, Gen. 27:36. 41:32., thrice, or three times, Ex. 23: 17. 34 : 23.

1 Kings 7:4., y five times, 2 Kings 13: 19.,

אֶלֶף פְּעָמִים,a hundred times מֵאָה פְעָמִים .14:22 .ten times, Num

thousand times, Deut. 1: 11.

2. Other words are occasionally employed for the same purpose: thus steps, e. g. three times, Num. 22: 28, 32, 33.;* □ parts, e. g. □ ten times, Gen. 31 : 7, 41. 3. Sometimes the feminine forms of and this signification, e. g.

once,

are used alone in twice, 2 Kings 6:10. Ps. 62:12.

CHAPTER XII.

TENSES OF VERBS.

§ 950. THE verb, or that word which is used to predicate a state of action or a state of being, and thus forms the grand animating princi. ple of all discourse (§ 131), presents in its syntactical use two important points for consideration peculiar to itself: these are its modes of specifying, first the time, and secondly the manner, in which the action or state of being takes place; or in other words, of indicating the external or objective relations of the verb by means of tenses, and its internal or subjective relations by modes.

• The words

and

derive their use in this manner from the habit of counting by tapping with the hand or foot (comp. the musical terms Eng. beat,

Germ. takt). They both have their counterparts in the Arabic and .

§ 951. We have seen in the Etymology, that the Hebrew verb possesses but two primary forms for the designation of time, viz. the original simple form in which the idea of the action* is predominant over that of the person, called the preterite, as (§ 160), and the derived form termed the future, in which the person predominates over the action, as bp (162). As to the modes, there are, besides the indicative, two forms of the future, which answer in good measure to what are called in occidental grammar the optative and potential: these are the paragogic (§ 204) and the apocopate (208) forms. In addition to which there are also the imperative and infinitive modes and the parti ciples.

The Tenses.

§ 952. As the two primary temporal forms up and bp with their secondary ones bp (212) and bp (218) are employed to denote not only the simple past and future, but all the gradations of time to which in the occidental languages distinct verbal forms are assigned, and this too in an apparently irregular and arbitrary manner, the attempt to reduce their use to a set of rules few in number and simple in application has proved a source of great labour and perplexity to grammarians, hitherto attended with very incomplete success. Some have sought to elude at the outset the difficulties which the undertaking presents, by changing the customary appellations of the two tenses from preterite and future to first and second mode; the sole result of which is to represent the Hebrew as destitute of tenses altogether: while others who have retained the ancient nomenclature have almost as signally failed in exhibiting practically its correctness. Whether or not the present attempt has been more successful, it is left for others to judge.

§ 953. The obstacles that have opposed the elucidation of the uses of the tenses in Hebrew and its cognate dialects, seem mostly to have arisen from the notions derived by occidental scholars from the manner in which the various points of time are indicated in the Indo-European languages, rather than from the nature of the subject itself. We shall

• Or state of being. This the reader will supply in those cases where, in order to avoid unnecessary repetition, we have mentioned action only, the denoting of which is the principal office of verbs in general (§ 133).

accordingly permit ourselves a few preliminary remarks, 1st, with respect to time abstractedly considered, and 2dly, on the mode in which time is specified in Hebrew, which will serve as the basis of the development we shall then enter upon.

§ 954. Time considered abstractedly, and without reference to the manner in which it is specified in language, may be said to consist of a constant flow or succession of moments, whose beginning and end are lost in eternity. This uninterrupted and endless series of instants may not unaptly be compared to a straight line continued ad infinitum, which is not susceptible of specification in its whole extent, but which by the assumption of a point in any part of it is immediately converted into two lines branching off from such point in opposite directions. Thus let us suppose AB to be an indefinite straight line proceeding from left to right, and representing an indefinite extent of time. If we now

A

C

B

assume in it a point C to represent the present, that portion of the line extending from C in the direction of A will represent past time, and that from C in the opposite direction of B will represent future time. From this we see that the times called past and future are purely relative, and depend for their determination on the position of the moment called the present; so that on shifting this last they may be mutually converted, the past into future, and the future into past time. Thus, to return to our illustration, if C be taken as the present, CA will represent all past, and CB all future time but if we shift this point back to d, the portion of time Cd, which before was past, will now be future;

A

d

C

e

B

and by advancing it to e, the portion of time Ce will be converted from future into past.

§ 955. The point of time called the present is practically established by a speaker or writer in two different ways. 1st. It is often tacitly fixed by the time of narration, so that all events spoken of as past, unless otherwise specified, are understood to have taken place anterior to the time of narration, and all those spoken of as future are considered as subsequent to such period. The tenses whose import is thus established by the time of narration itself may be termed for convenience's sake the absolute preterite and future. 2dly. Events may also be specified as to time with relation to some other period expressly intimated; in which case those spoken of as past are understood to

take place anterior to such period, and those as future subsequent thereto; the tenses employed in this connection we shall name the relative past and future. Thus for example, if we say "he came to see me, but will not repeat his visit," it is understood without further specification that the preterite and future tenses are used absolutely with reference to the time of narration. But in the phrases "he had been to see me when I came to visit you," "I shall have seen him to-morrow," an event is represented as taking place anterior to an event or point of time preceeding or following the time of narration. So too if we say, "we waited on you after your return," "I will visit you when you shall have been to see me," we represent an event as taking place posterior to another event or period preceding or following the time of

narration.

§ 956. In the Indo-European languages the signification of the present is not restricted to the mere point of time properly so called, but is extended in such manner as to require a separate verbal form for its designation: so that they possess three principal or absolute tenses denoting present, past, and future time, and three corresponding relative ones; thus,

In the ancient languages belonging to this stock, these tenses both absolute and relative are denoted by forms made by internal changes or by external additions to the verb itself, and sometimes by both these means simultaneously employed; though in the modern tongues, their descendants, many of these changes are dropped, and the same end is attained by the use of auxiliaries.

§ 957. But when we come to the consideration of the manner in which time is specified in Hebrew, we must begin by discarding the preconceived notions we may have acquired from the above mentioned source as to the proper functions of the tenses, and retain in mind only the abstract idea of the nature of time itself and its susceptibility of specification as above described, to which the Hebrew will be seen to have remained constant in a peculiar degree. As time passes on from eternity to eternity in a continuous flow, which by the adoption of a point in it is separated into two portions, an indefinite past and an indefinite future, so this language has in its verbs but two primary