Lesson 3 | Verbs—imperfect

קוּמִי אוֹרִי

Singing to Jerusalem
Songs of hope, promise and redemption are so sweet to our souls. In this passage (Isaiah 60:1-2), the city of Jerusalem is addressed as made clear by the audience being feminine singular (cities are always spoken of in the feminine gender in Hebrew). This is also clearly seen in the continuation of the chapter. And the promises Jerusalem receives are simply breathtaking—promises that belong to all believers in the King of Glory (יֵשׁוּעַ!) who shall shine upon and rule over this eternal city!
Begin by learning, singing and enjoying the song. Instead of reading the translation provided in the video, do you best to just listen and see which words you can pick out. The text is provided at the end of this lesson step if you would like to follow along with your eyes while the song plays.

The vocab
Of the 22 words in this song, you should already know 16 of them! That is amazing and should greatly encourage you. Let’s take a look at the six new words.

כָּבוֹד200x
honor, glory (noun)
115x

      כָּבַד
      be honored, be heavy (verb)
      
      from the same root
      
39x

      כָּבֵד
      heavy (adjective)
      
      from the same root
      
זָרַח18x
rise (verb)

חֹשֶׁךְ80x
darkness (noun)

כָּסָה152x
cover (verb)

עֲרָפֶל15x
cloud (noun)

לְאֹם36x
people (noun)

      poetic
      
Isaiah 60:1-2
Note that the first two words of the text are commands (“Arise, shine”), which we have not learned yet. But next come two qal perfects which you should be able to read and parse. The imperfects arrive in the second verse, but only one of them is qal. Again, do your best to understand and parse each word before clicking on it to get help.
Finally, after you understand each word in this text, take some time to think through how the perfect and imperfect verbs are being used.

          קוּמִי
        
          אוֹרִי
        
          כִּי
        
          בָא
        
          אוֹרֵךְ
        
          וּכְבוֹד
        
          יְהוָה
        
          עָלַיִךְ
        
          זָרָח׃
        
          כִּי
        
          הִנֵּה
        
          הַחֹשֶׁךְ
        
          יְכַסֶּה
        
          אֶרֶץ
        
          וַעֲרָפֶל
        
          לְאֻמִּים
        
          וְעָלַיִךְ
        
          יִזְרַח
        
          יְהוָה
        
          וּכְבוֹדוֹ
        
          עָלַיִךְ
        
          יֵרָאֶה׃
        
Purchase the MP3 of this songThe more you listen to the songs in this course, the more you will learn Hebrew verses which make up their lyrics. Thus we strongly encourage you to purchase the MP3 of this song or the entire album and to listen to it throughout the day. This particular album contains 7 songs taught in this course.