| 14. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens by fronting the object with ve'et {וְאֵת | wəʾēt} to highlight what is being acted upon: “the bronze altar.” The altar is then identified by a relative clause, asher {אֲשֶׁר | ʾăšer} + lifnei Yahweh {לִפְנֵי יְהוָה | lipnê Yə-hō-wāh} ‘before the LORD,’ grounding the action in the temple’s sacred space. The narrative sequence advances with the vav-consecutive verb va-yakrev {וַיַּקְרֵב | way-yaqrēb} ‘and he brought near,’ where the Hiphil stem conveys purposeful causation; in this spatial context it denotes deliberate repositioning. The movement is mapped by stacked “from” phrases: me'et penei ha-bayit {מֵאֵת פְּנֵי הַבַּיִת | mēʾēt pənê hab-bayiṯ} ‘away from the face/front of the house’ followed by the paired separators mi-bein ... u-mi-bein {מִבֵּין ... וּמִבֵּין | mib-bēn ... um-mib-bēn} ‘from between ... and from between ...,’ specifying the precise former location between “the altar” and “the house of the LORD.” The closing clause uses va-yitten {וַיִּתֵּן | way-yittēn} ‘and he set’ to complete the relocation, and the placement phrase al-yerekh {עַל־יֶרֶךְ | ʿal-yēreḵ} with tsafonah {צָפוֹנָה | tsāfōnā} ‘northward’ fixes the new orientation, preserving the text’s careful spatial precision in English. |