| 13. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the causal preposition el kol-chatto’ot {אֶל כָּל־חַטֹּאות | ʾel kol-ḥaṭ-ṭō-ʼōṯ} ‘because of all the sins’. A construct chain links chatto’ot to the proper names Baasha {בַּעְשָׁא | Ba-ʻa-šāʼ} ‘Baasha’ and Elah {אֵלָה | ʼê-lāh} ‘Elah’, marking possession. The relative pronouns asher {אֲשֶׁר | ʼă-šer} ‘which’ and va-asher {וַאֲשֶׁר | wa-ʼă-šer} ‘and which’ introduce two perfect clauses: the Qal perfect chate’u {חָטְאוּ | ḥā-ṭə-ʼû} ‘they sinned’ and the Hiphil perfect hechti’u {הֶחֱטִיאוּ | he-ḥe-ṭî-ʼû} ‘they caused to sin’, distinguishing personal transgression from leading Israel astray. The infinitive le-hach’is {לְהַכְעִיס | lə-ḥaḵ-ʼîs} ‘to provoke’ functions as a purpose clause targeting et-Yisra’el {אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל | ʻeṯ Yiś-rā-ʼēl} ‘Israel’ and et-Yahweh Elohei Yisra’el {אֶת־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל | ʻeṯ Yə-hō-wāh ʼĕ-lō-hê Yiś-rā-ʼēl} ‘the LORD the God of Israel’, with the prepositional phrase be-havleihem {בְּהַבְלֵיהֶם | bə-hav-lê-hem} ‘with their vanities’ indicating the means of provocation. The parallel structure of sin and provocation highlights the causative relationship between human actions and divine reaction. |