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STODDART writes.--""Present tense". This is sometimes used ... as a "future", 'we are going after a month;' so in Ge. 6.17, where in the modern language we have the "present" tense, and in the ancient the active participle.
""Preterite tense".--1) Used as a "present": e.g., a man in distress says; '"I died", i.e., I am dead; "I choked", i.e., I am choked, or I am drowned.' A boy in recitation, if confused, will say '"it lost on me",' i.e., I have lost it. Ask a man how his business is to-day, and he may reply, 'It remained remains just so.' Persons coming to make a petition will tell us, 'we poured (i.e., we now place) our hope on you.' Compare Ancient Syriac, (Hoff. P 129, 4.b.c.) (Compare also Ps. 1.1, in the Ancient and Modern.
"4) As a "future", e.g., if you died to-morrow, you perished; if you believe, Christ just now (i.e., at this moment) received will receive] you;' this is no doubt an emphatic future. Compare Nordh. P
966. 1,c.
"5) As a "subjunctive present" Many of the idioms mentioned above give force and vivacity to
the language. We are thus allowed to speak of events and actions which are present or future, though definite, or future and contingent, as if they had actually transpired and were recorded in the past. On this account the preterite is often used in Hebrew in the language of prophecy.
"It is not strange that these different idioms lead to ambiguity, which no acquaintance with the language will fully remove; e.g., a certain given phrase may be translated, 'our sweet voices let us all raise; "or" we do all raise, "or" we will all raise.' The perplexity thus caused, however, is as nothing compared with the puzzling expressions we often find in Hebrew."--"Grammar", p. 158- 164.