The verb ending "-edst"

On Wednesday, i7sharp inquired about the verb ending "-edst" that is found in the King James translation. He had found my post about the Use of "-est" and "-eth" in the KJV. In that post, I did not consider or discuss the use of "-edst". I looked up some of the words he mentioned, and found a few others.[i] What follows is a tentative conclusion based on the examples I examined.

As best I can tell the "-edst" ending is only used for the second person singular when it is past tense. So it is matched with the “thou” pronoun. However, "-edst" is not always used in such cases. For example, in Genesis 49:4, both "-est" and "-edst" are used with the past tense (wentest and defiledst).[ii] Perhaps it is used only where it is needed to distinguish between the past and present – e.g. anointest vs. anointedst.

Here are some of the verses i7sharp mentioned plus some that I found that use the "-edst" ending. If you know of other examples, please share them.

• Genesis 31:13 -- thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me
• Genesis 31:30 -- thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longedst after thy father’s house
• Genesis 49:4 -- thou wentest up to thy father’s bed then defiledst thou it [iii]
• Exodus 2:14 -- as thou killedst the Egyptian
• Deuteronomy 6:11 -- houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not
• Deuteronomy 18:16 -- According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God
• 1 Samuel 24:18 -- thou killedst me not.
• 1 Samuel 28:18 -- thou obeyedst not the voice of the Lord, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek
• Psalm 73:18 -- Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.
• Isaiah 12:1 -- thou comfortedst me
• Isaiah 57:8 -- thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest it.
• Jeremiah 22:21 -- thou obeyedst not my voice
• Ezekiel 27:33 -- thou filledst many people
• Matthew 18:32 -- because thou desiredst me
• John 17:24 -- thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

The English language is a language full of irregular verbs. It has many exceptions to its rules. There probably are some exceptions to the above “rule”. It needs more research, but this is a small beginning.

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[i] I could not figure out how to search for just the "-edst" ending in the program I use. I also tried using Google to search it and a few others, but that did not work either. 

[ii] The past is already in the form “went’ without a need for the “ed”.

[iii] “Defiled” is used in 70 verses in the King James Bible – with he, they, the 3rd person singular and plural.