Lesson 4 | Types of Offline Clauses
[2] Indenting Offline Clauses
As you know, offline clauses are supposed to be indented, thus revealing the backbone of the passage in the mainline clauses on the margin. They are generally easy to spot, but don’t think that they are therefore easy to indent!
How far do I indent this offline clause?
This is the basic question to answer in order to properly visualize the structure of a Hebrew text. You will remember from Lesson 2 that when you see a vav, you need to ask, "What previous element is this vav connected to?” Let’s now press in further with offline clauses by asking, “What is this clause coordinate with?” and “What is it subordinate to?”
If an offline clause beginning with a vav immediately follows a clause not beginning with a vav, these clauses will typically be coordinate to one another.
For example, in the text below, the vav + qal imperfect in 20c and in 20d join their clauses to the מִ֤י-fronted clause above them, making these three clauses (an asyndeton followed by a chain of two vav-clauses) into a single block that is collectively subordinate to 20a. So even though 20c–d are logically the purpose of 20b, grammatically they are all coordinate clauses.
Sometimes, though, an offline clause modifies a previous offline clause, not a mainline clause as above.
For example, there are several clauses in Genesis 2:5–6 before the first mainline clause in verse 7. Notice that 5c–6b, a block made up of a non-prefix conjunction clause followed by a chain of three vav-clauses, are all subordinate to 5a–b. And 5a–b, in turn, is setting the stage for (and thus subordinate to) the first mainline clause found in 7a.
To sum up, offline clauses that begin with a vav will typically indicate the continuation of a subordinate block whereas other offline clauses usually begin a new subordinate thought.
The former are coordinate, therefore, to the offline clause(s) that came before. The latter—asyndeton clauses (also called “asyndetic clauses”) and those beginning with a non-prefix connecting word—may stand alone or begin a block.
But what do I do with a jumbled clause?
This doesn’t happen very often, but sometimes a verb is separated from its subject or direct object by another verbal clause. That means that the intervening verbal clause needs to be extracted and placed beneath the clause it interrupts.
In the verse below, notice that the relative clause אֲשֶׁ֣ר לֹא־יֵֽעָשׂ֔וּ comes between the direct object מַעֲשִׂים֙ and its verb עָשִׂ֖יתָ. Therefore, the relative clause has been extracted and placed underneath the previous clause.
(Notice further that 9d, beginning with a vav, follows immediately after an asyndetic clause, 9c. Thus, according to the principle outlined above, 9c and 9d are coordinate, forming a block.)
Important Side Note: Don’t think that just because a clause is indented, it is unimportant! A mainline clause shows the structure of the narrative, yes, but that means it is normal, ordinary—what we might call unmarked. By contrast, an indented clause is marked: it is signaling that something special has happened; it reaches out and grabs your attention.
