| 30. Linguistic Exegesis The narrative opens with the vav-consecutive in vayyaʿăś {וַיַּ֨עַשׂ | wayyaʿăś} ‘and he did’, which introduces a past action in sequence. The subject is Achav ben ʿOmrî {אַחְאָ֧ב בֶּן־עָמְרִ֛י | ’Aḥʾāb ben ʿOmrî} ‘Ahab son of Omri’, followed by the direct object hāraʿ {הָרַ֖ע | hāraʿ} ‘the evil’. The evaluation phrase bə-ʿēnê Yəhōwāh {בְּעֵינֵ֣י יְהוָ֑ה | bə-ʿēnê Yəhōwāh} ‘in the eyes of the LORD’ places the act under divine scrutiny. The comparative clause mi-kōl ’ăšer lə-pānāw {מִכֹּ֖ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר לְפָנָֽיו | mi-kōl ’ăšer lə-pānāw} ‘from all that were before him’ intensifies Ahab’s wrongdoing. In English, the sentence structure shifts to subject-verb-object, and idioms are rendered as “in the sight of” or “from God’s perspective” for clarity. |