The Rise of Wayyiqṭol

The distribution of wayyiqṭol throughout the Hebrew Bible is far from uniform. In much of Archaic Biblical Hebrew, it is altogether absent. In other portions, it is present, but not uniform in tense/aspect semantics. In the book of Job, wayyiqṭol is common, but behaves as a freely chaining verb (continuing the tense and aspect of a preceding situation) rather than as a preterite. This brief inventory of the uses of wayyiqṭol is not well reflected in traditional definitions of it as a perfective past. An exclusively semantic definition might not be adequate to define wayyiqṭol.