| 21. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with vayomer {וַיֹּאמֶר | wayyōʾmer} ‘and he said’, the standard narrative wayyiqtol form that advances the storyline after Abram’s victory. The subject is specified as melech Sedom {מֶלֶךְ־סְדֹם | meleḵ-səḏōm} ‘king of Sodom’, a construct chain where the head noun melech governs the proper name Sedom, signaling political authority tied to this particular city. The prepositional phrase el Avram {אֶל־אַבְרָם | ʾel-ʾaḇrām} ‘to Abram’ marks the addressee of the speech. Within the quoted speech, two imperatives structure a negotiation: ten {תֶּן | ten} ‘give’ and kakh {קַח | qaḥ} ‘take’. The first imperative governs the pronominal complement li {לִי | lī} ‘to me’, followed by the object hanefesh {הַנֶּפֶשׁ | hannep̄eš} which, though singular in form, functions collectively as ‘the persons’ or ‘the people’, likely referring to recovered captives. The second imperative kakh takes the object veharekhush {וְהָרְכֻשׁ | wəhārəḵuš} ‘and the possessions’, encompassing the material spoils. The parallel structure “Give to me the persons / and the possessions take for yourself” places people first for rhetorical emphasis, distinguishing between human lives and goods. English formal and dynamic renderings preserve the two coordinated commands and reflect the implicit contrast between human and material assets by consistently translating hanefesh as “people” and rekhush as “possessions/wealth.” |