| 32. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with a vav-consecutive response chain vayaan … vayomer {וַיַּעַן … וַיֹּאמֶר | wə-yā-‘an … wə-yō-me-r} ‘and he answered … and he said’, a hallmark of Hebrew narrative dialogue. Jonadab’s identity is emphasized through the construct chain ben-Shim‘ah achi-David {בֶּן־שִׁמְעָה אֲחִי־דָוִד | ben-Šim-‘āh ’a-ḥî-Dā-wîḏ} ‘son of Shimeah, brother of David’, underlining his intimate vantage point. The negative jussive al-yomar {אַל־יֹאמַר | ’al-yō-mar} ‘do not let him say’ politely corrects the implied statement. The object of hemitu {הֵמִיתוּ | hē-mî-tu} ‘they killed’ is marked by et {אֵת | ’ēt} preceding kol hanearim benei hamelekh {כָּל־הַנְּעָרִים בְּנֵי־הַמֶּלֶךְ | kol-han-ne-’ă-rîm bĕ-nê-ham-mé-leḵ} ‘all the young men, sons of the king’, ensuring clarity. The adversative conjunction ki {כִּי | kî} introduces both the factual correction and the motive clause. The passive participle sumah {שׂוּמָה | sû-māh} ‘determined’ denotes the settled nature of Absalom’s plot, while the temporal phrase mi-yom annoto et Tamar {מִיּוֹם עַנֹּתוֹ אֵת תָּמָר | mi-yôm ’an-nô-ṯô ’ēt ṯā-mār} ‘from the day he afflicted Tamar’ underscores its enduring character. English uses an SVO pattern for readability but preserves the Hebrew sequence of assertion, correction, and motive for rhetorical force. |