Niphal Perfect

3ms נִשְׁמַר he was kept

3fs נִשְׁמְרָה she was kept

2ms נִשְׁמַרְתָּ you were kept

2fs נִשְׁמַרְתְּ you were kept

1cs נִשְׁמַרְתִּי I was kept

3cp נִשְׁמְרוּ they were kept

2mp נִשְׁמַרְתֶּם you all were kept

2fp נִשְׁמַרְתֶּן you all were kept

1cp נִשְׁמַרְנוּ we were kept

Genesis 1:1-13

Here is a pdf of Genesis 1:1-13 typed out in Hebrew with each word listed underneath the verse.
This may help some doing the midterm. If you print out the pdf you can fill in your parsing and translation without having to write out each verse.

Genesis 1_1-13.pdf

NOTE: I uploaded a new copy of this file at 1:20 P.M.
I discovered that I left out the vav conversive at the beginning of verse 10.
If you already downloaded it, just add a vav with a pathah under it.

Review of Perfect and Imperfect

This is basically a cut and paste from an earlier post.

Note:
The perfects indicate completed action and so would be translated normally as past action.

The imperfects indicate incomplete action and so would be translated normally as future action.

The vav conversive will essentially "flip" the past to future or the future to past in your translation.

The perfects follow the vowel patterns for the PAL nomenclature

Qal ("a" vowels)
Niphal ("i-a" vowel pattern)

Piel ("i-e" vowel pattern)
Pual ("u-a" vowel pattern)

Hiphil ("i-i" vowel pattern)
Hophal ("o-a" vowel pattern)

Hitpael (first syllable begins with ה and "i" vowel ands end with ת)

Imperfects have a prefix. Here are my observations:
1.)Prefix with a hireq is a Qal or a Niphal
(If the next vowel is an "a" vowel it's a Niphal anything else is Qal -note: the Hitpael also starts with hireq under the prefix, but it is pretty hard to mistake the "hit" or "yit" sound of the Hitpael)

2.)Prefix with a sheva is a Piel or a Pual
(It's pretty hard to miss the "u" vowel of the Pual or the "a" vowel of the Piel - both will double the middle radical as well)

3.)Prefix with a pathah is a Hiphil

4.)Prefix with a Qamets is a Hophal
(The next radical will have a sheva making it a closed syllable and thus a Qamets hatuph - "o" vowel)

5.)An aleph prefix is always 1cs
A nun prefix is always 1cp - note: this is in the imperfects
A yod prefix is always 3m ( with a וּ suffix it is plural)
The נה suffix is feminine plural (it could be 2nd or 3rd person)

More midterm

Just a couple more things to look for in the first three days of Genesis 1.

When you see a vav - ו - in front of a verb look to see what vowel is underneath it.
If it is a pathah - וַ - and the verb is an imperfect verb (one with a prefix such as י, א, ת) it is a vav conversive and you will give a translation that is "past" instead of "future" because of the vav conversive. You still will add the conjunction "and" in your translation to account for the vav.
If this vav - וַ - is in front of a perfect verb it is just the conjunction "and" so the tense is not "converted."

If the vowel under the vav is a shevah - וְ - and the verb is a perfect (one with no prefix) it is a vav conversive and you will give a translation that indicates "future" instead of "past" because of the vav conversive. Again, you still will add the conjunction "and" in your translation to account for the vav. (note: look for this in verse 14 and 15)
If this vav - וְ - is in front of a perfect verb it is just the conjunction "and" so the tense is not "converted."

A prefixed lamed - ל - is usually the prepostion "to" or "for." (note: there is an infinitive construct in verse 18)

Midterm Information

I'm hoping this works. My FTP server is down temporarily so this is a link to Dr. Staats talking about the midterm in class:


Midterm Info

Let me know if there are problems.
If not, I'll post the audio of the whole class.

Study

A student asked me to put up some "study aids" for the upcoming Hebrew midterm.

Here are a few, "off the top of my head" thoughts about parsing and taking the test.

Dr. Staats has been so gracious to allow the use of two different color pens so that you can do part of the exam from memory and part with tools. My thinking is you cannot do yourself any harm by trying to do what you can from memory first, and then filling in what you need tools for with another color pen. Just leave yourself room on the paper for what you think you will need to add. Do all you can from memory first. You can do more than you now think you can.

Simple things you could get:

וַיֹּאמֶר אֳלֹהִים

This is a Qal imperfect 3ms (note the י prefix after the ו) with a vav conversive from the root אָמַר (he said) so the imperfect "he will say" is turned over by the vav conversive making it "and he said" --- What follows then is the masculine plural noun which means "God," so a literal, wooden translation would be "And he said God" with God being the speaker. In English we put the noun first so a smooth English translation would be "And God said"

This appears multiple times. Put this parsing in your mind and you will get it right each time it comes up in the text.

וַיּ appears in front of other verbs also multiple times in the text for the exam.

Whenever you see it you know it is a Qal imperfect 3m with a vav conversive.
This form will appear with "he said," "he called," "he saw."

יְהִי this is a Qal imperfect/jussive 3ms from הָיָה (he/it was) "let there be"

I may add more if I can think of simple things, but working on your vowel patterns would be helpful. In the perfects you already know the vowel patterns as they are included in the name of the form (i/i for Hiphil, etc.) So just work on the imperfects.

Genesis 1:15

וְהָיוּ לִמְאֹורֹת בִּרְקִיעַ הַשָּׁמַיִם לְהָאִיר עַל־הָאָרֶץ וַיְהִי־כֵן׃

וְהָיוּ Qal perfect 3rd masculine plural from הָיָה (he was) "they were" with a vav conversive making it "and they will be"

לִמְאֹורֹת preposition with noun feminine plural "for light holders"

בִּרְקִיעַ preposition with noun masculine singular in construct "in the expanse of"

הַשָּׁמַיִם definite article with noun masculine dual "the heavens"

לְהָאִיר Hiphil infinitive from אוֹר (it became light) "to cause to shine light"

עַל־הָאָרֶץ preposition with definite article and noun feminine singular "upon the earth"

וַיְהִי־כֵן Qal imperfect 3ms from הָיָה (he was) "it [he] will be" with a vav conversive making it "and it was" with the adverb "so"