| 1. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the conjunction u-ven-hadad {וּבֶן־הֲדַד | ū-ḇĕn-hă-ḏăḏ} ‘and Ben-Hadad,’ introducing the subject. The construct chain melech-aram {מֶֽלֶךְ־אֲרָם | me-lĕḵ-ʼă-rām} specifies his royal title. The perfect verb kavatz {קָבַץ֙ | qā-vaṣ} ‘gathered’ takes the object phrase et-kol-cheylo {אֶת־כָּל־חֵיל֔וֹ | ʼet-kōl-ḥē-lō}, where the et marker signals definiteness and kol-cheylo indicates total force. The cardinal sequence u-shloshim u-shnayim melech {וּשְׁלֹשִׁ֨ים וּשְׁנַ֥יִם מֶ֛לֶךְ | ū-šĕ-lō-šîm ū-šnay-yim me-lĕḵ} ‘thirty and two kings’ follows Hebrew numeric order, with the singular noun after the numeral. The phrase itto {אִתּ֖וֹ | ʼit-tō} ‘with him’ marks accompaniment, and ve-sus va-rachev {וְס֣וּס וָרָ֑כֶב | wə-sūs wā-rā-ḵeb} ‘horses and chariots’ lists military assets. The sequence of vav-consecutive imperfect verbs—va-ya-al {וַיַּ֗עַל | va-yă-ʻăl} ‘he went up,’ va-yatzar {וַיָּ֙צַר֙ | va-yā-ṣar} ‘he besieged,’ and va-yilachem bāh {וַיִלָּ֖חֶם בָּֽהּ | va-yĭ-lā-ḥem bāh} ‘he fought in it’—creates a chronological progression of the military campaign. |