| 12. Linguistic Exegesis The causal preposition al {עַל | ʿal} ‘because of’ introduces the reason clause. The relative pronoun asher lo sham‘ū {אֲשֶׁר לֹא שָׁמְעוּ | ʾă-šer lōʾ šā-me-ʾū} ‘that they did not obey’ with the prepositional phrase be-qōl Yahweh elōhêhem {בְּקוֹל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיהֶם | bə-qōl Yəhōwāh ʾĕ-lō-hê-hem} ‘in the voice of the LORD their God’ establishes the grounds for judgment. The vav-consecutive wayya‘ăḇrū {וַיַּעַבְרוּ | way-ya-‘aḇ-rū} ‘and they transgressed’ shifts to active breach. The double object marker ʾēt {אֶת | ʾēṯ} frames bərîtō and kol ’ăšer ṣivvāh Mōšē ʿeḇeḏ Yahweh {כָּל אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה מֹשֶׁה עֶבֶד יְהוָה | kol ʾăšer ṣiv-vāh Mō-šē ʿe-ḇeḏ Yəhōwāh}, marking the full extent of disobedience. The final parallelism wə-lō šā-me-ʾū wə-lō ʿāśū {וְלֹא שָׁמְעוּ וְלֹא עָשׂוּ | wə-lō-ʾ šā-me-ʾū wə-lō-ʾ ʿā-śū} ‘they neither listened nor did’ intensifies the indictment by coupling refusal to hear with failure to act. |