| 10. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the vav-consecutive Qal perfect ve’asita {וְעָשִׂיתָ | və-ʿā-śî-ṯā} ‘and you shall act’, framing a legal imperative. This is followed by the prepositional construct al-pi {עַל־פִּי | ʿal-pî} ‘according to the mouth’, which establishes the authoritative source. A relative clause with asher {אֲשֶׁר | ʾă-šer} ‘which’ links to the Hiphil imperfect yagidu {יַגִּידוּ | yaḡ-gi-dū} ‘they declare’, specifying the content. The locative phrase min-ha-makom {מִן־הַמָּקוֹם | min-ha-mā-qōm} ‘from the place’ introduces the setting, further defined by asher {אֲשֶׁר | ʾă-šer} ‘that’ and the Qal imperfect yivchar {יִבְחַר | yiv-ḥar} ‘he chooses’, with Yahweh {יְהוָה | Yə-hō-wāh} as the subject. The second vav-consecutive Qal perfect ve-shamarta {וְשָׁמַרְתָּ | wə-šam-mar-tā} ‘and you shall be careful’ creates a syntactic parallelism, followed by the infinitive la-asot {לַעֲשׂוֹת | la-ʿă-sōṯ} ‘to do’ and the distributive construction ke-kol {כְּכֹל | kə-ḵōl} ‘according to all’, linked by asher {אֲשֶׁר | ʾă-šer} to the Hiphil imperfect yorukha {יוֹרֽוּךָ | yō-rū-ḵā} ‘they instruct you’. This sequence of relative clauses and vav-consecutives highlights a graded chain of authority, emphasizing obedience to divinely sanctioned judicial decisions. |