| 33. Linguistic Exegesis The verse follows the regnal formula with an age-at-accession clause, a reign-length clause, and a maternal introduction. The idiom ben-ʿeśerîm wə-ḥāmeš šānāh hāyāh bəmalkô {בֶּן־עֶשְׂרִ֨ים וְחָמֵ֤שׁ שָׁנָה֙ הָיָ֣ה בְמָלְכ֔וֹ | ben-ʿeśerîm wə-ḥāmeš šānāh hāyāh bə-malkô} ‘he was twenty-five years in his reign’ uses the construct chain ben + numeral + šānāh to express age. The continuation wə-šēš-ʿeśrêh šānāh mālaḵ bī-rûšālāyim {וְשֵׁשׁ־עֶשְׂרֵ֣ה שָׁנָ֔ה מָלַ֖ךְ בִּירוּשָׁלָ֑͏ִם | wə-šēš-ʿeśrêh šānāh mālaḵ bī-rûšālāyim} ‘and sixteen years he reigned in Jerusalem’ foregrounds the action mālaḵ in verb-first order for emphasis. The maternal note veshem immô {וְשֵׁ֣ם אִמּ֔וֹ | wə-šēm immô} ‘and the name of his mother’ followed by Yĕrûšāʾ {יְרוּשָׁ֖א | Yĕrûšāʾ} and bat-Ṣādôq {בַּת־צָדֽוֹק | bat-Ṣādôq} asserts dynastic legitimacy through matrilineal identification. The English version mirrors Hebrew temporal sequence and emphasis while adopting an SVO structure for clarity. |