| 24. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the distributive expression vekol ish yisrael {וְכֹל אִישׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל | wə-ḵôl ʾîš yiś-rā-ʾēl} ‘each man of Israel.’ The infinitive construct birotam {בִּרְאוֹתָם | bir-ʾō-tām} functions as a temporal clause indicating immediate reaction. The direct-object marker et {אֶת | ʾet} signals Goliath as the object. Two sequential vav-consecutive verbs, wayyanusu {וַיָּנֻסוּ | wa-yā-nû-sû} ‘and they fled’ followed by wayyire’u {וַיִּירְאוּ | wa-yī-rə-ʾû} ‘and they feared,’ convey instantaneous flight and terror. The prepositional phrase mippanav {מִפָּנָיו | mip-pə-nāw} ‘from his presence’ indicates source, and the adverb meod {מְאֹד | mə-ʾōḏ} ‘very’ intensifies the fear. English smoothing transforms the distributive into a collective subject and preserves the sequence of events. |