| 19. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with ba {בָּא | bāʼ} ‘he came’, establishing a VSO narrative that identifies Pul king-of-Assyria as the actor. The prepositional phrase al-haaretz {עַל־הָאָ֔רֶץ | ʿal-hāʾāreṣ} ‘against the land’ frames the adversarial action. The vav-consecutive on wayyitten {וַיִּתֵּן | wayyitten} ‘and he gave’ shifts focus to Menahem’s tributary payment. The noun phrase elef kikkar kasef {אֶלֶף כִּכַּר־כָּסֶף | ʾelep̄ kikkar kasep̄} ‘a thousand talents of silver’ functions as the direct object, followed by two Pi‘el infinitives lihiyot {לִהְיוֹת | lihyôt} ‘to be’ and ləhaḥăzîq {לְהַחֲזִיק | ləhaḥăzîq} ‘to support’, which express purpose. The idiom yadav itto {יָדָיו אִתּוֹ | yādāyw ʾittô} ‘his hands with him’ metaphorically indicates political backing. In English, the Hebrew VSO order is rendered as SVO, preserving temporal and causal connections through conjunctions and purpose clauses. |