| 18. Linguistic Exegesis The verse is a single extended narrative sentence driven by a chain of wayyiqtol forms: wayyiqqah {וַיִּקַּ֣ח | wayyiqqāḥ} ‘and he took’, wayyitnem {וַֽיִּתְּנֵ֖ם | wayyiṯnēm} ‘and he gave them’, and wayyishlahem {וַיִּשְׁלָחֵ֞ם | wayyišlāḥēm} ‘and he sent them’. This sequence advances the plot from acquisition, to transfer, to diplomatic delivery. The object “all the silver and the gold” is qualified by the participle hannotarim {הַֽנּוֹתָרִ֣ים | han-nōṯārîm} ‘the remaining’, narrowing the items to what was still available. Two coordinated source locations follow: beotsrot bet Yahweh {בְּאוֹצְר֣וֹת בֵּית־יְהוָ֗ה | bə-ʾōṣrōṯ bêt Yə-hō-wāh} ‘in the treasuries of the house of the LORD’ and veet otsrot bet melek hammelek {וְאֶת־אֽוֹצְרוֹת֙ בֵּ֣ית מלך הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ | wə-ʾeṯ ʾōṣrōṯ bêt melek hammelek} ‘and the treasuries of the house of king, the king’. The unexpected doublet melek ... hammelek {מלך ... הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ | melek ... hammelek} is retained in translation as an appositional, palace-identifying repetition rather than ignored, since the syntax still points to the royal complex as the second source. The phrase beyad avadav {בְּיַד־עֲבָדָ֑יו | bə-yad-ʿăḇāḏāyw} ‘into the hand of his servants’ marks mediated agency: Asa does not personally carry the valuables. The recipient is identified with a lineage chain (ben-hadad ... ben-tabrimmon ... ben-hezyon), followed by title and locale (melek Aram ... bedammesek), and the participle hayyoshev {הַיֹּשֵׁ֥ב | hayyōšēḇ} ‘dwelling’ functions as a descriptive modifier anchoring Ben-hadad in Damascus. Finally, lemor {לֵאמֹֽר | lēʾmōr} introduces the direct speech that follows in the next verse, so English preserves the open-ended “saying,”. |