| 17. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the vav-consecutive form vaechmol {וָאֶחְמֹל | wā-ʾeḥ-mōl} ‘and I had compassion’, marking a shift from expected judgment. The idiom eini alehem {עֵינִי עֲלֵיהֶם | ʿê-nî ʿă-lê-hem} ‘my eye upon them’ conveys watchful favor. The infinitive mishchitam {מִשְׁחִיתָם | miš-ḥî-ṯām} ‘from destroying them’ frames the averted outcome. The phrase velo-hishmadtim {וְלֹא־הִשְׁמַדְתִּים | wə-lō-hiš-maḏ-tîm} ‘and I did not make them perish’ uses the Hiphil perfect to emphasize withheld causative action. The setting bamidbar {בַּמִּדְבָּר | ba-mmid-bār} ‘in the wilderness’ recalls Israel’s desert testing. The English order mirrors the Hebrew sequence—compassion, protective gaze, averted destruction, and desert context—preserving the verse’s theological tension. |