HEBREW · LESSON 19
שְׁמֹר · אֶשְׁמְרָה · יִשְׁמֹר
Qal Imperative, Cohortative, and Jussive
The three volitional forms of the Qal verb — the verbs that express not what is but what the speaker wills. Direct command, self-exhortation, third-person wish. The grammar behind "let there be light" and "Hear, O Israel."
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Why this matters
Beyond Statement — Speech That Wills
Up to now in this unit you have met the Qal verbs of statement: the perfect, the imperfect, the participle, the wayyiqtol. These describe what was, is, or will be.
But much of the Hebrew Bible is not statement. It is command, blessing, prayer, exhortation — speech directed at making something happen. For this Hebrew has a dedicated set of forms: the volitionals.
Three forms, one for each person:
- Imperative — 2nd person ("guard!")
- Cohortative — 1st person ("let me guard")
- Jussive — 3rd person ("let him guard")
All three are derived from the imperfect by small modifications. Learn the imperfect well, and the volitionals come easily.
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2nd-person command
The Imperative — Direct Command
The imperative is the simplest volitional. It exists only in the 2nd person — you can only directly command someone you are addressing.
It is built by taking the 2nd-person imperfect and dropping the prefix. What remains is the imperative.
תִּשְׁמֹר → שְׁמֹר
From the 2ms imperfect tishmor "you shall guard," drop the תּ prefix → shemor "guard!" The imperative is the imperfect stem standing alone.
There are four imperative forms, matching the four 2nd-person imperfects: 2ms, 2fs, 2mp, 2fp.
03 / 22
The four forms
The Qal Imperative Paradigm
שְׁמֹר
2ms — shemor
"Guard!" (to one male)
שִׁמְרִי
2fs — shimri
"Guard!" (to one female)
שִׁמְרוּ
2mp — shimru
"Guard!" (to males or mixed group)
שְׁמֹרְנָה
2fp — shemornah
"Guard!" (to several females)
The endings (י, וּ, ְנָה) match the endings of the corresponding 2nd-person imperfect forms.
04 / 22
Mechanical derivation
Drop the תּ — Get the Imperative
The relationship between imperfect and imperative is mechanical. Strip the prefix, keep the rest.
תִּשְׁמֹר → שְׁמֹר
2ms
drop the תּ; the stem stands alone
תִּשְׁמְרִי → שִׁמְרִי
2fs
drop the תּ; the -i ending remains
תִּשְׁמְרוּ → שִׁמְרוּ
2mp
drop the תּ; the -u ending remains
תִּשְׁמֹרְנָה → שְׁמֹרְנָה
2fp
drop the תּ; the -nah ending remains
Same recipe for every regular Qal verb. Master one imperfect, and you have the imperative.
05 / 22
Common biblical imperatives
Three Imperatives You Will Meet Everywhere
לֵךְ
lekh
"Go!" 2ms of הָלַךְ. Gen 12:1 — "go for yourself" — God to Abram.
בּוֹא
bo
"Come!" 2ms of בּוֹא. Found in dozens of narrative dialogues.
שְׁמַע
shema
"Hear!" 2ms of שָׁמַע. The opening word of the Shema (Deut 6:4).
קוּם
qum
"Arise!" 2ms of קוּם. Frequent prophetic call: "arise and go."
רְאֵה
re'eh
"See!" 2ms of רָאָה. Deut 11:26 — "See, I set before you a blessing and a curse."
06 / 22
1st-person volitional
The Cohortative — "Let Me / Let Us"
The 1st-person volitional. Take the 1st-person imperfect and add a final ה (he, without mappiq).
אֶשְׁמֹר → אֶשְׁמְרָה
From the 1cs imperfect eshmor "I shall guard," add the cohortative ה → eshmerah "let me guard."
נִשְׁמֹר → נִשְׁמְרָה
From the 1cp imperfect nishmor "we shall guard," add the cohortative ה → nishmerah "let us guard."
The marker is the final ה plus the qamatz under the previous consonant. Unmistakable once you know it.
07 / 22
What the cohortative does
Resolution, Request, Exhortation
The cohortative is the form Hebrew uses when the speaker is acting on himself — making a resolve, asking permission, exhorting his own group.
- Resolution — "let me cross over the Jordan" (Deut 3:25). Moses prays.
- Request — "let me see the good land." A polite "may I…"
- Exhortation to self/group — "let us make man in our image" (Gen 1:26). 1cp cohortative inside the mouth of God.
- Vow or promise — "let me declare your name" (Ps 22:22). The psalmist's commitment.
English renders all of these with "let" or "may". The cohortative is the Hebrew home for that idea.
08 / 22
The full set
The Qal Cohortative Paradigm
אֶשְׁמְרָה
1cs cohortative
eshmerah — "let me guard"
נִשְׁמְרָה
1cp cohortative
nishmerah — "let us guard"
Only two forms — the cohortative exists only in the 1st person.
Compare with the regular imperfect:
אֶשְׁמֹר
eshmor
1cs imperfect — "I shall guard"
אֶשְׁמְרָה
eshmerah
1cs cohortative — "let me guard"
One letter (final ה) makes a future fact into an act of will.
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3rd-person volitional
The Jussive — "Let Him / Let Her"
The 3rd-person volitional. The form God uses to speak commands about things, the form humans use to bless or curse third parties.
יִשְׁמֹר
3ms — "let him guard, may he guard." In strong verbs, this looks identical to the regular imperfect yishmor "he will guard." Context decides which.
תִּשְׁמֹר
3fs — "let her guard, may she guard." Same form as the 3fs imperfect; context distinguishes.
In weak verbs (especially III-he), the jussive shows a distinct shortened (apocopated) form — final vowel-letters get trimmed off.
10 / 22
The forms
The Qal Jussive Paradigm
יִשְׁמֹר
3ms — yishmor
"Let him guard / may he guard" — same form as imperfect in strong verbs
תִּשְׁמֹר
3fs — tishmor
"Let her guard / may she guard" — same form as imperfect
In weak verbs, the apocopated jussive shows clearly:
יִהְיֶה → יְהִי
היה — to be
imperfect yihyeh "he will be" → jussive yehi "let it be"
יַעֲשֶׂה → יַעַשׂ
עשה — to do
imperfect ya'aseh "he will do" → jussive ya'as "let him do"
11 / 22
A genuine ambiguity
Jussive ≈ Imperfect (Sometimes)
In strong verbs, the 3rd-person jussive and the 3rd-person imperfect have the same written form. יִשְׁמֹר can mean:
- "He will guard" (imperfect — statement of future fact)
- "Let him guard" / "may he guard" (jussive — volitional wish)
How to tell:
- Is there an אַל negating it? → jussive ("do not…")
- Is the context prayer, blessing, or command? → jussive
- Does the form look noticeably shorter than the regular imperfect (weak verb)? → jussive
- Otherwise → read as ordinary imperfect
In weak verbs, the apocopation makes the jussive unmistakable.
12 / 22
⚠ Two ways to forbid
לֹא vs אַל — Two Negatives, Two Forces
Hebrew has no negative imperative. To forbid, you negate a volitional form. The choice of negative carries the nuance.
לֹא תִגְנֹב
"You shall not steal" (Exod 20:15). לֹא + 2ms imperfect. Solemn, permanent, absolute. The form of the Ten Commandments.
אַל־תִּירָא
"Do not fear" (Gen 15:1). אַל + 2ms jussive. Immediate, situational, pastoral. The form God uses to comfort.
Rule: לֹא + imperfect for moral law; אַל + jussive for direct address. The Ten Commandments use לֹא; "do not fear" uses אַל.
13 / 22
The first creative word
Walking through יְהִי אוֹר
יְהִי אוֹר
"Let there be light" — Genesis 1:3. Two words; an entire grammar in miniature.
- יְהִי — 3ms Qal jussive of הָיָה ("to be"). The regular imperfect יִהְיֶה trims its final ה → the apocopated yehi.
- אוֹר — masculine singular noun, "light." The subject.
Word-for-word: "let-it-be light." The first speech act of the creating God is grammatically a 3rd-person jussive — a wish addressed to a thing not yet existing, which becomes a fact in the next verb (וַיְהִי).
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The central confession
Walking through שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל
שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל
"Hear, O Israel" — Deuteronomy 6:4. The opening of the Shema.
- שְׁמַע — 2ms Qal imperative of שָׁמַע ("to hear, listen, obey"). The patach (rather than holem) appears under the second radical because of the guttural ayin.
- יִשְׂרָאֵל — proper noun, vocative.
The full verse: שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד "Hear, O Israel: the LORD is our God, the LORD is one."
The central confession of Israel opens with a 2ms Qal imperative. Jesus calls this the first commandment (Mark 12:29).
15 / 22
A historical kinship
Wayyiqtol and Jussive — Two Sides of One Form
The wayyiqtol (Lesson 18) is itself a shortened imperfect. The same apocopation that produces the jussive also produces the wayyiqtol.
יְהִי
jussive
"let it be" — apocopated 3ms of היה
וַיְהִי
wayyiqtol
"and it came to pass" — same apocopated stem, plus the wayyiqtol prefix
Both forms descend from a Proto-Semitic short imperfect. The jussive uses the short form for volitional meaning; the wayyiqtol uses it for narrative-past meaning. Same root form, different uses.
This is why Genesis 1:3 can say יְהִי אוֹר וַיְהִי־אוֹר — "let there be light, and there was light" — using the same shortened stem on both sides of the verb of fulfillment.
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⚠ Top beginner errors
What Students Get Wrong
- Reading every 3ms יִקְטֹל-form as a future imperfect. In a prayer or blessing context, it is likely a jussive: "let him…" not "he will…"
- Missing the cohortative ה. The final ה on a 1st-person imperfect is not decoration — it marks the cohortative.
- Treating לֹא and אַל as interchangeable. The Ten Commandments use לֹא because they are permanent law. "Do not fear" uses אַל because it is immediate address.
- Forgetting that imperatives are 2nd-person only. "Let him guard" cannot be an imperative — it must be a jussive.
- Failing to recognize apocopated weak verbs. יְהִי, יַעַשׂ, יֵרֶא are jussives, not strange imperfects.
- Mis-stripping the imperative. Drop only the prefix-letter, not the vowel pattern of the stem.
17 / 22
Five days
The Drill Plan
Day 1
Write all four imperatives of שָׁמַר with translations. Read each aloud.
Day 2
Write the cohortative 1cs and 1cp. Compare with the corresponding imperfects.
Day 3
Write the jussive 3ms and 3fs. Identify the apocopated form of יְהִי.
Day 4
Drill negative prohibitions: five לֹא + imperfect; five אַל + jussive.
Day 5
Memorize יְהִי אוֹר and שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל. Parse every word.
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Recap
What You Now Know
- Three volitional forms: imperative, cohortative, jussive — one for each person.
- Imperative: 2nd person only. Drop the תּ-prefix of the 2nd-person imperfect.
- Cohortative: 1st person. Add final ה to the 1st-person imperfect. "Let me / let us…"
- Jussive: 3rd person. Same as imperfect in strong verbs; apocopated in weak verbs. "Let him / may she…"
- Negative prohibitions: לֹא + imperfect (permanent) vs אַל + jussive (immediate).
- Wayyiqtol = jussive in stem: both are apocopated forms of the imperfect.
- Biblical anchors: יְהִי אוֹר (jussive) and שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל (imperative).
19 / 22
A point of devotion
Speech That Creates
Genesis 1:3 packs the doctrine of creation by word into three verbs:
וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים יְהִי אוֹר וַיְהִי־אוֹר
- וַיֹּאמֶר — "and he said" (wayyiqtol)
- יְהִי — "let there be" (jussive)
- וַיְהִי — "and there was" (wayyiqtol)
The verb of command (yehi) and the verb of fulfillment (vayehi) share the same apocopated stem, separated only by a vav.
God's wish becomes the world's fact in a single grammatical breath. The whole doctrine of creation by word is encoded in three Hebrew verbs.
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Practice now
Parse and Translate
Read each line aloud. Identify the volitional form (imperative / cohortative / jussive). Translate.
שְׁמֹר
shemor
2ms imperative — "guard!"
לֵךְ־לְךָ
lekh-lekha
2ms imperative — "go for yourself!" (Gen 12:1)
נַעֲשֶׂה אָדָם
naaseh adam
1cp cohortative — "let us make man" (Gen 1:26)
יְהִי אוֹר
yehi or
3ms jussive — "let there be light" (Gen 1:3)
אַל־תִּירָא
al-tira
אַל + 2ms jussive — "do not fear" (Gen 15:1)
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End of Lesson 19
You Can Now Speak Hebrew Will
שְׁמֹר · אֶשְׁמְרָה · יִשְׁמֹר
Three volitional forms, one for each person. Drop the תּ for the imperative. Add the ה for the cohortative. Apocopate for the jussive. The grammar of command, exhortation, and blessing.
Next lesson: the Qal infinitive — construct and absolute. The two non-finite forms that finish out the Qal verb system.
Next: Lesson 20 · Qal Infinitive Construct and Absolute
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