| 33. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the fronted object marker et {אֶת־ | ʾeṯ-} attached to Yahweh {יְהוָה | Yə-hō-wāh}, placing the object before the verbal idea and giving prominence to the One they claim to fear. The same object-fronting pattern recurs with ve-et-eloheihem {וְאֶת־אֱלֹהֵיהֶם | wə-ʾeṯ-ʾĕlōhêhem}, creating a deliberate parallelism: two objects, two ongoing postures. The construction hayu {הָיוּ | hāyû} + participle (yereiim {יְרֵאִים | yərēʾîm} ‘fearing’, ovdim {עֹבְדִים | ʿōvədîm} ‘serving’) portrays continuing, habitual behavior rather than a single event, underscoring a sustained mixture of reverence and worship. The prepositional phrase ke-mishpat {כְמִשְׁפָּט | kə-mišpāṭ} ‘according to the custom’ governs ha-goyim {הַגּוֹיִם | ha-gōyim} ‘the nations’, locating their practice within foreign norms. The relative clause asher-higlu otam misham {אֲשֶׁר־הִגְלוּ אֹתָם מִשָּׁם | ʾăšer-hîglû ʾōṯām miššām} identifies those nations as the ones connected with their displacement, providing the historical setting that explains why such mixed worship patterns persisted. |