| 5. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with vayehi {וַיְהִי | wa-ye-hî} ‘and it happened’, where the vav-consecutive Qal imperfect marks a new narrative development. The conjunction kaʾasher {כַּאֲשֶׁר | ka-ʾă-šer} ‘when’ introduces a temporal clause, which is realized by chazkah {חָזְקָה | ḥā-zə-qāh} ‘it was strong’ in a nominal statement with hamamlakhah {הַמַּמְלָכָה | ham-mǎl-lā-kāh} ‘the kingdom’ and the prepositional phrase beyado {בְּיָדוֹ | bə-yā-dô} ‘in his hand’ indicating possession. The main clause centers on vayyakh {וַיַּךְ | way-yaḵ} ‘he struck’, a Hiphil verb conveying a causative, executional action. The Hiphil participle hamakkim {הַמַּכִּים | ham-maḵ-kîm} ‘the ones striking’ modifies et-avadav {אֶת־עֲבָדָיו | ʾet-ʿā-vā-ḏāw} ‘his servants’, specifying the victims, and the sequence et-hamelech {אֶת־הַמֶּלֶךְ | ʾet-ham-mé-leḵ} ‘the king’ with aviv {אָבִיו | ʾā-vîw} ‘his father’ completes the object. Hebrew often uses participial modification to express causality, here rendered in English with a defining relative clause to capture the causal relationship. |