| 12. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with veDavid {וְדָוִד֩ | wə-dā-wîḏ} ‘and David’ as the narrative introduction. The construct chain ben- {בֶּן־ | ben-} ‘son of’ + ish {אִ֨ישׁ | ʾîš} ‘man’ + efrati {אֶפְרָתִ֜י | ʾeprāṯî} ‘Ephrathite’ + hazzeh {הַזֶּה | haz-zēh} ‘this’ establishes David’s lineage. Mibbet lechem Yehudah {מִבֵּ֥ית לֶ֙חֶם֙ | mibbēt leḥem yəhû-ḏāh} ‘from the house of Bethlehem, Judah’ identifies his hometown. In the appositional clause ushmo Yishai {וּשְׁמ֣וֹ יִשַׁ֔י | wə-šmô yišaʾy} ‘and his name Jesse’, the pronominal suffix conveys personal identification. The idiom velo shmona banim {וְל֖וֹ שְׁמֹנָ֣ה בָנִ֑ים | wə-lō šəmōnā bənîm} ‘and to him eight sons’ functions as a possessive expression (‘he had eight sons’). The temporal bimei Shaul {בִּימֵ֣י שָׁא֔וּל | bî-mê šāʾûl} ‘in the days of Saul’ introduces the time frame. The adjective zaken {זָקֵ֖ן | zāqēn} ‘old’ precedes the perfect ba {בָּ֥א | bāʾ}, with the locative ba’anashim {בַאֲנָשִֽׁים | ba-ʾănāšîm} ‘among the men’, forming an idiomatic verbless clause (‘the man was old’). This construction is rendered as ‘he was old’ in the formal reconstruction and ‘he was an elderly man’ in the dynamic reconstruction, preserving the sense of advanced age without adding action. |