The Long Form of the Prefix Conjugation Referring to the Past in Biblical Hebrew Prose

This paper seeks to contribute to the debate on the function of biblical Hebrew yiqtol by collecting and categorizing the occurrences of this verbal form in past tense contexts. The following usages are identified: prospective, prospective in an object clause, modal, and iterative. A few occurrences that do not fit in any of these categories must be considered anomalous. There are no certain cases in prose of yiqtol expressing duration in the past. The fundamental meaning of yiqtol underlying its different contextual functions is best described in terms of modality: yiqtol presents an action as not (yet) real.