| 5. Linguistic Exegesis The narrative employs the vav-consecutive prefix to sequence military actions, beginning with vayya‘al {וַיַּ֥עַל | way-ya-ʿal} ‘and he went up’. The prepositional phrase bekhol ha-’āreṣ {בְּכָל־הָאָרֶץ | bə-khol hā-’ā-reṣ} ‘throughout the land’ sets the operational scope before focusing on šomron {שֹׁמְרוֹן | šōm-rōn} ‘Samaria’. A second vayya‘al marks forward movement while vayyaṣar {וַיָּ֥צַר | way-ya-ṣar} ‘and he besieged’ with ʿāleyhā {עָלֶ֖יהָ | ʿā-le-hā} ‘upon it’ denotes the commencement of siege. Duration is expressed by the cardinal-plus-noun construction šalōš šānîm {שָׁלֹשׁ שָׁנִים | šalōš šā-nîm} ‘three years’. English rendering preserves the Hebrew verb-subject-object order by fronting the verb for narrative continuity. |