| 8. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the prefixed waw-consecutive and the imperfect verb vayomer {וַיֹּ֤אמֶר | way·yō·ʼmer} ‘and he said’, signaling reported speech. The construct chain ish-haelohim {אִישׁ־הָֽאֱלֹהִים | ʼîš·ha·ʼĕ·lō·hîm} ‘man of God’ functions as a prophetic designation. The preposition el {אֶל־ | ʼel} ‘to’ introduces hamelekh {הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ | ha·me·leḵ} ‘the king’, establishing the audience. The conditional particle im {אִם־ | ʼim} ‘if’ with the imperfect titen {תִּתֶּן־ | ti·tēn} ‘you give’ sets up a hypothetical, with the direct object marker et {אֶת־ | ʼet} marking chatsi {חֲצִ֣י | ḥa·ṣī} ‘half’ of beitecha {בֵיתֶ֔כָּה | bey·te·ḵā} ‘your house’. The sequence of negatives lo {לֹ֥א | lōʾ} + avo {אָבֹ֖א | ʼā·ḇōʾ} ‘I will come’, velo {וְלֹֽא־ | wə·lōʾ} + okhal {אֹ֤כַל | ʼō·ḵal} ‘I will eat’, and velo {וְלֹ֣א | wə·lōʾ} + eshteh {אֶשְׁתֶּה־ | ʼeš·teh} ‘I will drink’ with mayim {מַיִם | ma·yim} ‘water’ employs parallelism to emphasize refusal. The locative bamakom hazeh {בַּמָּק֖וֹם הַזֶּה | ba·ma·qōm ha·zeh} ‘in this place’ specifies the setting. In translation, the repeated negatives are rendered as “would not” to reflect the original’s force, and “go with you” preserves the sense of “come with you” in idiomatic English. |