| 43. Linguistic Exegesis The verse is driven by a pair of wayyiqtol verbs: vayelchu {וַיֵּלְכ֥וּ | wayyəleḵû} ‘and they went’ advances the communal action, and vayissov {וַיִּסֹּ֥ב | wayyiśśōḇ} ‘and he turned back’ shifts focus to David as the singular subject. The phrase kol-haam {כָל־הָעָ֖ם | kol-hāʿām} expresses the whole group, then the distributive construction ish {אִ֣ישׁ | ʾîš} + leveito {לְבֵית֑וֹ | lə-vêṯô} specifies that the departure occurred person-by-person to one’s own household. The final clause uses the purpose infinitive levarekh {לְבָרֵ֥ךְ | lə-bārēḵ} ‘to bless’ to explain David’s return, while et-beito {אֶת־בֵּיתֽוֹ | ʾet-bêṯô} marks “his house” as the direct object, presenting the blessing as directed toward his household sphere. The concluding peh {פ | pē} signals a scribal paragraph division, reinforcing the sense of closure after the public celebration. |