| 23. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with gam {גַּם | gam} ‘also’, linking to prior divine judgments. The prefixed pronoun in the Niphal perfect nishbaʿti {נִשְׁבַּעְתִּי | niš-baʿ-tî} ‘I swore’ conveys a solemn oath by the divine speaker. The direct object marker et-hem {אֶת־הֶם | ʾet-hem} clarifies the recipients of the oath. The locative prepositional phrase ba-midbar {בַּמִּדְבָּר | ba-mid-bār} ‘in the wilderness’ establishes the historical covenantal setting. A coordinated Hiphil infinitive construct sequence—le-hafitz {לְהָפִיץ | lə-hā-fîṣ} ‘to scatter’ and u-lezarot {וּלְזָרוֹת | u-lə-zā-rōṯ} ‘to disperse’—expresses parallel divine purposes, each followed by otam {אֹתָם | ʾō-tām} ‘them’, intensifying personal consequence. The spatial phrases ba-goyim {בַּגּוֹיִם | ba-gō-yim} ‘among the nations’ and ba-aratzot {בָּאֲרָצוֹת | ba-ʾă-rā-ṣōṯ} ‘in the lands’ expand the scope from ethnic groups to broad territories, a structure preserved in the English translation to maintain biblical parallelism and emphasis. |