| 12. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the narrative formula vayehi {וַיְהִי | wayhî} ‘and it came to pass’, introducing a new, significant scene. This is followed by the temporal infinitive phrase hashemesh lavo {הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ לָבוֹא | haššemeš lāḇôʾ} ‘the sun to go in’, which functions as a circumstantial temporal clause, naturally rendered in English as “as the sun was going down.” The coordinated phrase vetardemah nafla {וְתַרְדֵּמָה נָפְלָה | wətardēmāh nāp̄əlāh} presents ‘a deep sleep’ as the subject and ‘fell’ as the predicate, portraying the sleep as an imposed condition rather than a voluntary act, while the prepositional phrase ʿal-avram {עַל־אַבְרָם | ʿal-ʾaḇrām} ‘upon Abram’ marks him as the one overwhelmed by this state. The particle vehineh {וְהִנֵּה | wəhinnēh} ‘and behold’ introduces a heightened, almost visionary development, signaling that what follows has particular revelatory weight. The sequence eimah chashekah gedolah {אֵימָה חֲשֵׁכָה גְדֹלָה | ʾēmāh ḥăšēḵāh gəḏōlāh} ‘terror, great darkness’ consists of appositional nouns with a modifying adjective, layering emotional (terror) and sensory (great darkness) elements to intensify the atmosphere. The participle nofelet {נֹפֶלֶת | nōp̄eleṯ} ‘falling’ with the prepositional phrase alav {עָלָיו | ʿālāyw} ‘upon him’ presents the dread and darkness as an ongoing, enveloping process rather than a completed event. The formal translation preserves the series of clauses and the explicit “behold” to mirror the Hebrew narrative progression, while the dynamic translation employs smoother temporal linkage (“as the sun was setting”) and the adverb “suddenly” for vehineh to communicate the abrupt, overwhelming shift in Abram’s experience. |