| 13. Linguistic Exegesis The verse is a concise regnal notice. It begins with the subject “Shallum” followed by a patronymic, ben-Yavesh {בֶּן־יָבֵישׁ֙ | ben-yāvēš} ‘son of Jabesh,’ a common identification formula in Kings. The main verb malakh {מָלַ֔ךְ | mālaḵ} ‘he became king’ reports accession with perfect aspect, presenting the enthronement as a completed event. The temporal phrase bishnat {בִּשְׁנַ֨ת | bišnat} introduces a synchronism: “in the year of thirty and nine,” using cardinal numbers (sheloshim … va-tesha) plus shanah {שָׁנָ֔ה | šānāh} to yield the ordinal sense “thirty-ninth year.” The prepositional marker le-Uziyyah {לְעֻזִיָּ֖ה | ləʿûziyyāh} anchors the dating to Judah’s king, creating a cross-kingdom chronological coordinate. The narrative then advances with va-yimlokh {וַיִּמְלֹ֥ךְ | wayyimlōḵ} ‘and he reigned,’ where the vav-consecutive imperfect shifts from accession to the resulting reign period. The duration is compressed into the idiom yerakh-yamim {יֶֽרַח־יָמִ֖ים | yēraḥ-yāmîm} ‘month of days,’ emphasizing how short the reign was, and the closing locative be-Shomron {בְּשֹׁמְרֽוֹן׃ | bəšōmrôn} ‘in Samaria’ specifies the political center from which he ruled. |