| 27. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the vav-consecutive vayhi {וַיְהִ֣י | va-ye-hî} introducing a temporal clause, followed by the compound temporal expression mimmachorat {מִמָּחֳרָת | mim-ma-ḥô-rāt} “from the morrow.” A second vav-consecutive vayhi {וַיְהִ֣י | va-ye-hî} precedes the construct chain hayom hasheni lachodesh {הַיּוֹם הַשֵּׁנִי לַחֹדֶשׁ | ha-yôm ha-šê-nî la-ḥō-ḏêš} “the day the second of the month.” The conjunctive vav and perfect umalah {וּמָלְאָ֥ה | u-mā-lə́-’āh} introduce a result clause with pronominal mekomo {מְקוֹמוֹ | mĕ-qō-mō} “its place,” yielding “and it was filled its place.” The next vav-consecutive vayomer {וַיֹּאמֶר | va-yō-mēr} shifts to direct discourse. The prepositional phrase el-yonatan {אֶל־יוֹנָתָ֔ן | ʾel-yō-nā-ṯān} marks Jonathan as indirect object. The interrogative lamah {לָמָּה | lā-māh} frames the question, negated by lo in loba {לֹא־בָא | lō-bā’} to express expected absence. The construct ben-yishai {בֶן־יִשַׁי | ben-yi-šā́y} identifies David by lineage, and the coordinated temporal phrase hayom vegam et-etmol {הַיּוֹם וְגַם־אֶת־אֶתְמוֹל | ha-yôm wĕ-gam-’et-’et-mōl} “today and also yesterday” emphasizes continuous absence. The Hebrew VSO interrogative is rendered as English SVO, and the series of vav-consecutives preserves narrative flow. |