| 4. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the conjunction ve’et {וְאֶת־ | wə-ʾet} ‘and + direct-object marker’, linking the direct object beneihem {בְּנֵיהֶם | bə-nē-hēm} ‘their sons’ to the verb hemit {הֵמִית | hē-mît} ‘put to death’, which is negated by lo {לֹא | lōʾ} ‘not’. The conjunction ki {כִּי | kî} ‘for, because’ introduces a legal citation marked by kakatub {כַכָּתוּב | ka-ḵā-tūḇ} ‘as it is written’ and locative phrases batorah {בַּתּוֹרָה | ba-ṯō-rāh} ‘in the Law’ and be-sefer {بְּסֵפֶר | bə-sē-pher} ‘in the book’, specifying the source. The relative clause headed by asher-tsivah {أֲשֶׁר־צִוָּה | ʾă-šer ṣî-wā} ‘which commanded’ attributes authority to Yahweh. The injunction employs distributive parallelism in lo-yamutu avot al-banim ū-bā-nīm lo-yamutu al-avot {לֹא־יָמוּתוּ אָבוֹת עַל־בָּנִים וּבָנִים לֹא־יָמוּתוּ עַל־אָבוֹת} ‘fathers shall not die for sons and sons shall not die for fathers’, emphasizing reciprocal justice, and the concluding clause ki ish be-chet’o yamut{u} {כִּי אִישׁ בְּחֶטְאוֹ יָמוּתוּ | kî ʾîš bə-ḥê-ṭō yā-mū-tū} ‘for each one shall die for his own sin’ underscores individual responsibility. The translation preserves the Hebrew word order for legal formality and the parallel structure for theological emphasis. |