| 26. Linguistic Exegesis Hebrew narrative employs the vav-consecutive under vayishma {וַיִּשְׁמַ֣ע | wayyišmaʿ} ‘and he heard’ to signal sequential action. The formulaic designation hanavi asher heshivo min-haderekh {הַנָּבִיא אֲשֶׁר הֱשִׁיבוֹ מִן־הַדֶּרֶךְ | hannāḇîʾ ʾăšer hešîḇôw min-hadderēḵ} ‘the prophet who had brought him back from the way’ uses the relative pronoun asher {אֲשֶׁר | ʾăšer}. Direct speech is introduced by vayomer {וַיֹּאמֶר | wayyōʾmer} ‘and he said’. The emphatic copula hu {הוּא | hūʾ} in ish haelohim hu asher marah et-pi Yahweh {אִישׁ הָאֱלֹהִים הוּא אֲשֶׁר מָרָה אֶת־פִּי יְהוָה | ʾîš hāʼĕlōhîm hūʾ ʾăšer marāh ʾet-pî Yəhōwāh} ‘It is the man of God who rebelled against the mouth of the LORD’ highlights the subject. The sequential divine-judicial verbs vayittenehu, vayishberehu, vayemitehu {וַיִּתְּנֵהוּ, וַֽיִּשְׁבְּרֵהוּ֙, וַיְמִתֵ֔הוּ | wayyiṭnēhū, wayyišberehū, wayyəmītehū} ‘gave him over’, ‘mauled him’, ‘killed him’ underscore divine action. The concluding clause kidvar Yahweh asher diber-lo {כִּדְבַר יְהוָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר־לֽוֹ | kîdᵉḇār Yəhōwāh ʾăšer dibber-lô} ‘according to the word of the LORD which He spoke to him’ frames fulfillment of divine decree. The Hebrew VSO structure is rendered in natural English SVO order to preserve readability while maintaining the sequence of theological motifs. |