| 3. Linguistic Exegesis The verse employs a series of vav-consecutive {וַיָּשָׁב | vayyašāḇ} verbs in the Qal stem (imperfect third person masculine singular), including vayashav ‘and he returned’, vayiven ‘and he built’, vayyaqem ‘and he erected’, vayyaʿas ‘and he made’, vayyishtachu ‘and he bowed down’, and vayyaʿavod ‘and he served’, which drive the narrative of apostasy. The compound et ha-bamot {אֶת־הַבָּמוֹת | ʾet-hab-bā-môṯ} unites the direct object marker with “high places,” highlighting the focus of his actions. The relative pronoun asher {אֲשֶׁר | ʾăšer} introduces the clause linking these sites to those his father had demolished (nittatz {נִתַּץ | niṭṭas̱}). The construct chain mizbechot la-baʿālīm {מִזְבְּחוֹת לַבְּעָלִים | miz-bə-ḥôṯ la-ba-ʿā-lîm} signals idolatrous worship of local deities, while the phrase le-kol-tseva ha-šā-ma-yim {לְכָל־צְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם | lə-kol-ṣə-vāʾ ha-šā-ma-yim} denotes devotion to celestial beings. English rendering retains Hebrew word order and sequential conjunctions, smoothing punctuation for readability. |