Many thanks everyone for your very considered responses. Lots for me to look into here. I'm clearly in esteemed company!
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Many thanks everyone for your very considered responses. Lots for me to look into here. I'm clearly in esteemed company!
In the late '70s, Daniel Grossberg did a dissertation at NYU on "Nominalization in Biblical Hebrew." I don't have a copy handy, but I remember speaking with him at an SBL session, and I'm pretty sure he documented numerous examples of verb clauses functioning nominally. I clearly remember that he treated Gen 1:1 in this way, with the finite clause "God created" in construct with ראשית. That would provide a framework for explaining forms such as בצר even as a finite verb.