| 11. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with vayehi {וַיְהִי | wa-yə-ḥî} ‘and it happened’, a vav-consecutive Qal imperfect linking narrative; the temporal clause midei-vo {מִדֵּי־בּוֹא | min + dēyî bo} ‘whenever coming’ uses a prepositional plus construct infinitive to signal repeated actions; the subject ha-melekh {הַמֶּלֶךְ | ham-melekh} ‘the king’ is followed by the construct chain beit Yahweh {בֵּית יְהוָה | bêyt Yə-hō-wāh} ‘house of the LORD’; the verb bau {בָּאוּ | bā’û} ‘they came’ introduces ha-ratzim {הָרָצִים | hā-rā-ṣîm} ‘the guards’; the coordinated verbs u-nesa’um {וּנְשָׂאוּם | wə-nĕ-sā-ʾûm} ‘and they carried them’ and ve-heshivum {וֶהֱשִׁיבוּם | wə-hē-šî-bûm} ‘and they returned them’ each take the same plural object suffix referring to shields understood from context; the final prepositional phrase el-ta {אֶל־תָּא | ’el-tā} ‘to the chamber’ specifies their destination. English translation retains the Hebrew SVO and habitual sense through “whenever”/“each time,” preserving the sequence of entry, carrying, and returning. |