Lesson 7 | Qal Perfect
Song: לֹא־גָבַהּ לִבִּי
Let’s now learn a new song with words consisting of the entirety of Psalm 131. This song is sung in the video below by a variety of famous Israelis and is mixed together in truly a beautiful way. However, these singers, as with the masses in Israel, do not yet know what it truly means to hope in the Lord—in the salvation he has brought us through יֵשׁוּעַ the promised מָשִׁיחַ. So as you listen to and sing this song, I encourage you to also make it a prayer for them.
As you watch the video below, be aware that the first four words of the psalm are the psalm title and are not sung, and that other phrases are repeated in different ways. Listen to it once before you focus on understanding each word in the text below the song.
You know many of the words in the song, but there are some that appear fewer than 100 times in the תנ״ך and so have not been in your vocab. Click through them in the box below to get a sense of their meaning. Then listen to the song again.
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Note: You might be wondering what exactly this phrase in verse 1 means: “and I have not walked in greats and in extraordinaries from me” (וְלֹא־הִלַּ֓כְתִּי בִּגְדֹלוֹת וּבְנִפְלָאוֹת מִמֶּֽנִּי). This is a tough phrase. Its meaning is something like, “and I have not walked in things too great or wonderful for me.”
A New Cheat Sheet
A Method to Mark the Hebrew TextpdfNow that you’ve learned the qal perfect form, it’s time to highlight more than conjunctions and participles. You’ll need this cheat sheet for the rest of Hebrew II and beyond. It will help us observe the verbs in the text carefully as an aid in translation.
Practice
There are two qal perfect verbs in verse 1, so let’s get some practice parsing, highlighting, and translating them. The questions we ask are meant to train you to intuitively consider these same sort of questions whenever you meet a Hebrew verb.
גָבַהּ
What is the root of גָבַהּ? (No need to include vowels.)
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Is גָבַהּ derived from a hollow verb?
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Does גָבַהּ’s root have a weak final letter?
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Is גָבַהּ, in fact, conjugated in the qal stem?
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Given the stem, with what color should גָבַהּ be zigzag underlined?
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Given its form, with what color should גָבַהּ be highlighted?
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What aspect does this form demand?
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Highlight and zigzag גָבַהּ in the passage above accordingly.
In light of these things, גָבַהּ could be translated .
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רָמוּ
What is the root of רָמוּ? (No need to include vowels.)
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Is רָמוּ derived from a hollow verb?
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Does רָמוּ’s root have a weak final letter?
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Is רָמוּ, in fact, conjugated in the qal stem?
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Given the stem, with what color should רָמוּ be zigzag underlined?
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Given its form, with what color should רָמוּ be highlighted?
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What aspect does this form demand?
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Highlight and zigzag רָמוּ in the passage above accordingly.
In light of these things, רָמוּ could be translated .
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