| 41. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the narrative Vav-consecutive in vayemaher {וַיְמַהֵ֕ר | va-ye-ma-HER} ‘and he hastened’ followed by vayasar {וַיָּ֙סַר֙ | va-ya-SAHR} ‘and he removed’, conveying rapid, sequential action. The object phrase et-ha’aper {אֶת־הָ֣אֲפֵ֔ר | ʾeṯ-ha-ʾap̄êr} ‘the covering’ is followed by the double prepositional sequence me’al {מֵעַל | me-ʿal} ‘from above’ and meʿalei {מֵעֲלֵ֖י | me-ʿa-lei} ‘from upon’, precisely localizing the removal over his eyes. The recognition verb vayaker {וַיַּכֵּ֤ר | va-ya-KER} ‘and he recognized’ takes oto {אֹתוֹ֙ | ʾō-to} ‘him’ as its object, with the subject expressed in melek yisrael {מֶ֣לֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל | mê-leḵ yi-sra-ʾêl} ‘the king of Israel’. The closing clause introduced by ki {כִּ֥י | kî} ‘for/because’ and the predicate mehanneviim hu {מֵֽהַנְּבִאִים הֽוּא׃ | mê-ha-nə-vi-im hūʾ} ‘he was one of the prophets’ functions as an identifying explanatory statement. Hebrew word order delays the revelation of identity until after the dramatic act of removing the covering, which is maintained in the formal text and smoothed in the dynamic rendering for clarity. |