| 18. Linguistic Exegesis The narrative uses vav-consecutive verbs—vayyār {וַיַּרְא | wă-yyār} ‘and he saw’ and vayyāgēḏ {וַיַּגֵּד | wă-yyā-ḡēḏ} ‘and he told’—to mark sequence. The pronoun ōṯām {אֹתָם | ō-ṯām} identifies ‘them,’ while the noun naʿār {נַעַר | na-ʿār} introduces the observer. The phrase vayyēlĕḵû šənēhēm məhērāh {וַיֵּלְכוּ שְׁנֵיהֶם מְהֵרָה | wă-yyē-lĕ-ḵû šĕ-nē-hēm mə-hē-rāh} ‘and the two of them went quickly’ uses dual morphology and an adverb of urgency. The directional phrase ʾel bēt-ʾîš {אֶל־בֵּית־אִישׁ | ʾēl bēt-ʾîš} ‘to the house of a man’ is followed by the locative bəbāḥûrîm {בְּבַחוּרִים | bə-bā-ḥû-rîm} ‘in Bahurim.’ The conjunction wəlōw {וְלוֹ | wə-lōw} ‘and to him’ introduces possession of the well, described by bə-ʾēr {בְאֵר | bə-ʾēr} ‘a well’ and the spatial phrase bâḥăṣērô {בַּחֲצֵר֖וֹ | bâ-ḥă-ṣĕ-rô} ‘in his courtyard.’ Finally, vayyērḏû šām {וַיֵּרְדוּ שָׁם | wă-yyēr-ḏû šām} ‘and they went down there’ completes the sequence, portraying concealment and urgency. |