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HEBREW TENSES ILLUSTRATED BY THOSE OF OTHER LANGUAGES. ARABIC--ANCIENT.
RICHARDSON writes:--"The "preterite" is used also in place of the "future", and other tenses, which an attention to the construction only can render familiar.
"The particle "la", 'not,' gives to the "preterite" the signification of the "present", 'the fruit of timidity does not gain hath not gained, and doth not lose hath not lost Perceded by "az", or
"aza", 'when,' it becomes the "future" of the subjunctive, 'when you shall be have been among strange people, to whom you do not belong, then eat whatever is set before you, whether it be bad or good.'
"The "future" corresponds more frequently to our present than to any other tense, as may be remarked in almost every passage It is frequently "restrained" to a "future" tense when the
particle "sa" is prefixed the negative "lana", 'not at all,' together with the particles "saufa, saf,
saw, say", give it likewise the future sense. When preceded by "ma", 'not,' it has for the most part a present signification. "lam" and "lama", 'not yet,' gives it, according to Erpenius, the sense of the
"preterite"."--"Grammar", p. 81-89