Getting the walk right

To begin my investigation of verbs in Hebrew I started with the first verb in the Psalms - walk. The first verb is in a negative expression -

Happy is the one who has not walked לֹא הָלַךְ

in the advice of the wicked

Has not walked is my rendering of the qal perfect 3rd person singular of HLK - with the negative particle. How should the tense / mood / aspect of this verb be expressed? Is has not walked better than did not walk? Or should it be is not walking or does not walk? These questions catch the problem of the verb related to its time - past, present, or future, and its ongoing or complete nature. To be blunt, after two years of messing about with Hebrew, it seems to me that one can do almost anything with a verb. To see if this is true, or not, I will painstakingly list all occurrences of HLK in the psalms and see if I can decipher a pattern of usage.

To make things more interesting, this first verb is very similar to another verb YLK which is also sometimes translated 'walk' - so here is my first cut at all the instances of these two roots (HLK first then YLK) in the psalms (missing a few rows and columns which I will have to add by hand and containing a few rows I will have to delete since my root algorithm needs so many exceptions - O brute force!).

Walk is frequently used in Hithpael, that rare conjugation - right away an interesting statistic. Also one can see that the KJV translates the perfect as 'walketh' in psalm 1 and the imperfect as 'walketh' in psalm 91. There is no 1 to 1 mapping of English to Hebrew tenses / moods / aspect / conjugation.

This is impossible to read. But constructing it was a good first exercise in verbs. I think I maintain my first impression - you can almost do what you want in English whatever the form of the verb is in Hebrew. Occasionally, as the YLK example shows, come, lead, and walk are dependent on the binyan in Hebrew - lead is a kind of causative walk and come a commanding walk.

Psalm	Root	English	Hebrew	Conjugation
Psalm 1:1	הלך	has not walked	לֹא הָלַךְ	Qal, perfect
Psalm 12:8	הלך	are walking	יִתְהַלָּכוּן	Hithpael, imperfect
Psalm 15:2	הלך	Walking	הוֹלֵךְ	Qal, active participle
Psalm 26:1	הלך	I have walked	הָלַכְתִּי	Qal, perfect
Psalm 26:3	הלך	and I have walked myself	וְהִתְהַלַּכְתִּי	Hithpael, perfect
Psalm 35:14	הלך	I walked	הִתְהַלָּכְתִּי	Hithpael, perfect
Psalm 38:6	הלך	I walk	הִלָּכְתִּי	Qal, perfect
Psalm 39:6	הלך	so walks a man	יִתְהַלֶּךְ אִישׁ	Hithpael, imperfect
Psalm 43:2	הלך	will I walk	אֶתְהַלֵּךְ	Hithpael, imperfect
Psalm 55:14	missed	we walked	נְהַלֵּךְ	Piel, imperfect
Psalm 56:13	missed	so I will walk	לְהִֽתְהַלֵּךְ	Hithpael, infinitive
Psalm 58:7	הלך	wandering about them	יִתְהַלְּכוּ לָמוֹ	Hithpael, imperfect
Psalm 58:8	הלך	he will go away	יַהֲלֹךְ	Qal, imperfect
Psalm 68:21	הלך	hair of one walking	שֵׂעָר מִתְהַלֵּךְ	Hithpael, participle
Psalm 73:9	הלך	will strut	תִּהֲלַךְ	Qal, imperfect
Psalm 77:17	הלך	also walked about	יִתְהַלָּכוּ	Hithpael, imperfect
Psalm 78:39	הלך	walking	הוֹלֵךְ	Qal, active participle
Psalm 81:13	הלך	would walk	יְהַלֵּכוּ	Piel, imperfect
Psalm 82:5	הלך	they are walking	יִתְהַלָּכוּ	Hithpael, imperfect
Psalm 84:11	הלך	from those walking	לַהֹלְכִים	Qal, active participle
Psalm 85:13	הלך	will go	יְהַלֵּךְ	Piel, imperfect
Psalm 86:11	הלך	I will walk	אֲהַלֵּךְ	Piel, imperfect
Psalm 89:15	missed	they will walk	יְהַלֵּכֽוּן	Piel, imperfect
Psalm 91:6	הלך	he walks	יַהֲלֹךְ	Qal, imperfect
Psalm 101:2	הלך	I will walk continually	אֶתְהַלֵּךְ	Hithpael, imperfect
Psalm 101:6	הלך	walking	הֹלֵךְ	Qal, active participle
Psalm 104:3	missed	walking on the wings of the wind	הַֽמְהַלֵּךְ	Piel, participle
Psalm 104:10	missed	they run	יְהַלֵּכֽוּן	Piel, imperfect
Psalm 104:26	missed	there go	יְהַלֵּכוּן	Piel, imperfect
Psalm 105:13	הלך	and they were going	וַיִּתְהַלְּכוּ	Hithpael, imperfect
Psalm 105:41	הלך	they ran	הָלְכוּ	Qal, perfect
Psalm 115:7	הלך	will they walk	יְהַלֵּכוּ	Piel, imperfect
Psalm 116:9	הלך	I will walk	אֶתְהַלֵּךְ	Hithpael, imperfect
Psalm 119:1	הלך	those walking	הַהֹלְכִים	Qal, active participle
Psalm 119:3	הלך	they walk	הָלָכוּ	Qal, perfect
Psalm 119:45	הלך	walk I will	וְאֶתְהַלְּכָה	Hithpael, imperfect
Psalm 126:6	missed	going he will go out	הָלֹוךְ יֵלֵךְ	Qal, infinitive see also below
Psalm 128:1	הלך	those walking	הַהֹלֵךְ	Qal, active participle
Psalm 131:1	הלך	nor do I walk	וְלֹא הִלַּכְתִּי	Piel, perfect
Psalm 142:3	הלך	I walk	אֲהַלֵּךְ	Piel, imperfect
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Psalm 23:4	ילך	even if I walk in the valley	כִּי-אֵלֵךְ בְּגֵיא	Qal, imperfect
Psalm 26:11	ילך	I will walk	אֵלֵךְ	Qal, imperfect
Psalm 32:8	ילך	you will go	תֵלֵךְ	Qal, imperfect
Psalm 34:1	ילך	and he went	וַיֵּלַךְ	Qal, imperfect
Psalm 34:11	ילך	come children	לְכוּ בָנִים	Qal, imperative
Psalm 39:13	ילך	I go	אֵלֵךְ	Qal, imperfect
Psalm 42:9	ילך	do I walk	אֵלֵךְ	Qal, imperfect
Psalm 46:8	ילך	Come see	לְכוּ-חֲזוּ	Qal, imperative
Psalm 66:5	ילך	Come	לְכוּ	Qal, imperative
Psalm 66:16	ילך	come and hear	לְכוּ שִׁמְעוּ	Qal, imperative
Psalm 78:10	missed	to walk	לָלֶֽכֶת	Qal, infinitive
Psalm 80:2	missed	come	וּלְכָה	Qal, imperative
Psalm 81:12	ילך	and they walk	יֵלְכוּ	Qal, imperfect
Psalm 83:4	ילך	they have said come	אָמְרוּ לְכוּ	Qal, imperative
Psalm 84:7	ילך	They will go	יֵלְכוּ	Qal, imperfect
Psalm 89:30	ילך	remain	יֵלֵכוּן	Qal, imperfect
Psalm 95:1	ילך	Walk	לְכוּ	Qal, imperative
Psalm 97:3	ילך	goes	תֵּלֵךְ	Qal, imperfect
Psalm 106:9	missed	he led them	וַיֹּולִיכֵם	Hiphil, imperfect
Psalm 107:7	missed	to walk	לָלֶכֶת	Qal, infinitive
Psalm 122:1	ילך	we will go	נֵלֵֽךְ	Qal, imperfect
Psalm 125:5	missed	he will lead them	יֹולִיכֵם	Hiphil, imperfect
Psalm 126:6	ילך	he will go out	יֵלֵךְ	Qal, imperfect
Psalm 136:16	missed	for leading	לְמֹולִיךְ	Hiphil, participle
Psalm 138:7	ילך	Though I walk	אִם-אֵלֵךְ	Qal, imperfect
Psalm 139:7	ילך	will I go	אֵלֵךְ	Qal, imperfect
Psalm 143:8	ילך	I should walk	אֵלֵךְ	Qal, imperfect