| 8. Linguistic Exegesis The narrative opening vayomer {וַיֹּאמֶר | wayyōʾămer} ‘and he said’ employs the vav-consecutive to introduce direct speech. The subject ḥizqiyyahu ‘Hezekiah’ precedes the indirect object ʾel yᵉšaʿyāhu {אֶל־יְשַׁעְיָהוּ | ʾel yᵉšaʿyāhû} ‘to Isaiah,’ reflecting Hebrew VSO order with the preposition fronting the object. The interrogative clause māh ʾôt kî {מָה אוֹת כִּי | māh ʾôt kî} ‘what sign that’ leads into the subordinate kî-yirpāʾ Yahweh lî {כִּי־יִרְפָּא יְהוָה לִי | kî-yirpāʾ Yə-hō-wāh lî} ‘that the LORD will heal me,’ where kî ‘that’ introduces two coordinated result clauses and the suffix lî ‘to me’ marks the beneficiary. The coordinated clause wə-ʿālîtî bayyôm haš-šəlîšî bêt Yahweh {וְעָלִיתִי בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי בֵּית יְהוָה | wə-ʿālîtî bə-yōm haš-šəlîšî bêt Yə-hō-wāh} ‘and I will go up on the third day to the house of the LORD’ combines the temporal phrase bayyôm haš-šəlîšî ‘on the third day’ with the construct chain bêt Yahweh ‘house of the LORD,’ underscoring the anticipated outcome of worship contingent on healing. |