| 14. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the wayyiqtol verb wayyar {וַיַּרְא | wayyărʾ} ‘and he saw’, which introduces the narrative clause. The subject follows as the noun phrase choten Mosheh {חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה | ḥō-tēn mō-šeh} ‘father-in-law of Moses’. The particle ʾet {אֵת | ʾēt} signals the definite direct object, here the headless relative clause kol-ă-šer hū ʿō-seh lā-ʿām {כָּל־אֲשֶׁר־ה֥וּא עֹשֶׂה לָעָם | kāl-ă-šer hūʾ ʿō-śeh lā-ʿām} ‘all that he is doing for the people’, emphasizing totality. The second wayyiqtol wayyō-mer {וַיֹּאמֶר | way-yō-mer} ‘and he said’ introduces two coordinated interrogative clauses: the first uses māh {מָה־ | māh} with the demonstrative haz-zeh {הַזֶּה | haz-zeh} to form the exclamation māh had-dāvar haz-zeh {מָה־הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה} ‘what is this matter’; the second uses the interrogative adverb mad-dûaʿ {מַדּוּעַ | mad-dû-aʿ} ‘why’ with the Qal participle yō-šēv {יוֹשֵׁב | yō-šēḇ} ‘sitting’ contrasted with the Niphal participle niṣ-ṣāḇ {נִצָּב | niṣ-ṣāḇ} ‘standing’ in the clause wə-kol hā-ʿām niṣ-ṣāḇ ʿā-le-kā {וְכָל־הָעָם נִצָּב עָלֶיךָ} ‘while all the people stand before you’. The temporal frame is marked by the prepositions min {מִן־ | min} ‘from’ and ʿaḏ {עַד | ʿaḏ} ‘until’ with bō-ker {בֹּקֶר | bō-ker} ‘morning’ and ʿā-ḇ {עָרֶב | ʿā-ḇ} ‘evening’. The Hebrew word order moves from a report of Moses’ activity to his isolation to the people’s response, a sequence preserved in English through parallel structuring of sight, question, and contrast between “sitting” and “standing.” |