| 11. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the nominal phrase kol-tsippor {כָּל־צִפּוֹר | kā·l ṣip·pôr} ‘all birds’, functioning as the subject. The adjective tehorah {טְהֹרָה | tə·hō·rāh} ‘clean’ follows the noun as an attributive qualifier, yielding a single NP that specifies which birds. The verb tokhelu {תֹּאכֵלוּ | tō·ʾă·ḵê·lû} ‘you shall eat’, a Qal imperfect 2nd person masculine plural, acts as a permissive directive in the Deuteronomic law. Hebrew allows subject-fronting without a copula; English therefore inserts a modal verb to convey permission. This SV order emphasizes the category of permitted birds before the action of eating. |