| 6. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the regnal formula bishnat hatschiʿit {בִּשְׁנַ֨ת הַתְּשִׁיעִ֜ית | biš-nat ha-tə-šî‘ît} ‘in the ninth year.’ The prepositional phrase lehoshea {לְהוֹשֵׁ֗עַ | lə-hō-šê‘a} marks the count of the reign. The main verb lakad {לָכַד | lā-kad} ‘he captured’ is in Qal perfect third person masculine singular. The narrative then employs two Vav-consecutive imperfects—vayegel {וַיֶּ֥גֶל | way-ye-ḡel} ‘and he exiled’ and vayoshev {וַיֹּ֨שֶׁב | way-yō-šeḇ} ‘and he settled’—to advance the historical action. Direct object markers et {אֶת־ | ’et} indicate objects without an English equivalent. Locative forms ashurah {אַשּׁ֑וּרָה | ’aššû-rā} ‘to Assyria,’ bachlach {בַּחְלַ֧ח | ba-ḥlaḥ} ‘in Halah,’ and uvechavor {וּבְחָב֛וֹר | u-bə-ḥā-bôr} ‘and in Habor’ reflect forced‐movement destinations. The construct phrase nehargozan {נְהַ֥ר גּוֹזָ֖ן | nəh-ar go-zān} ‘river of Gozan’ and the compound vearēi madai {וְעָרֵ֥י מָדָֽי | wə-‘ā-rê mā-dāy} ‘towns of Media’ form a distributive listing of exile locations. |