Psalm 37/Notes/Verbal.v. 20.160529

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The future destruction of YHWH's enemies is so certain that the psalmist can speak of it as though it is already complete: "they are finished!" (cf. LXX: ἐξέλιπον). Most English translations use a future-tense verb: "shall/will be consumed" (NJPS, NIV), "will disappear" (NLT, GNT) (cf. Jerome: consumentur). "In some cases qatal appears indeed to be used to refer to an event that has not yet occurred.... The use of qatal in these cases appears to be exxagerated rhetoric by which a future event is described 'as good as done'" (Rogland 2003, 113). This use of qatal is especially common with verbs that belong to the semantic domain of 'perishing' (cf. JM §112g), which is exactly what we find in Ps 37 (vv. 20, 28, 38). E.g., “We will die! (גָּוַ֛עְנוּ) We are lost (אָבַ֖דְנוּ), we are all lost (כֻּלָּ֥נוּ אָבַֽדְנוּ)! Anyone who even comes near the tabernacle of the LORD will die (יָמ֑וּת). Are we all going to die (תַּ֖מְנוּ לִגְוֺֽעַ)?” (Num. 17:27 NIV; cf. Gen. 17:20; 30:13; examples cited in IBHS §30.5.1e as 'accidental perfectives', where "a speaker vividly and dramatically represents a future situation both as complete and as independent;" see also Isa 6:5; Lam 3:54).