| 27. Linguistic Exegesis The narrative uses the wayyiqtol form vayomer {וַיֹּאמֶר | wayyōmer} ‘and he said’ to introduce direct speech. The substantive participle hatsofeh {הַצֹּפֶה | hattzōp̄eh} ‘watchman’ serves as the subject of the first utterance, and eni ro’eh {אֵנִי רֹאֶה | ’ēnî rō’eh} ‘I see’ combines the first person pronoun with a participle to express perception. The construct chain merutsat harishon {מְרוּצַת הָרִאשׁוֹן | mərūṣāṯ hārīʼšôn} ‘running of the first’ and the prepositional participle kimerutsat {כִּמְרוּצַת | kimməruṣāṯ} ‘like the running’ form a simile with Ahimaaz. The second wayyiqtol introduces the king’s response, which uses parallelism in tov ish tov hu {טוֹב אִישׁ טוֹב הוּא | ṭōḇ ’îš ṭōḇ hûʼ} ‘good man, good he is’ to affirm character, and the idiom ve’el besorah yavo {וְאֶל־בְּשׂוֹרָה יָבֹא | wə-’el bəśôrā yāḇōʼ} ‘and to a message he will come’ functions as a result clause indicating that his arrival delivers news. |