| 4. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with ani {אֲנִי | ʾă-nî} fronting the first person pronoun for emphasis, followed by the emphatic particle hinneh {הִנֵּה | hin-nēh} ‘behold,’ which highlights the solemn declaration. The sequence beriti ittakh {בְּרִיתִי אִתָּךְ | bə-rî-tî ʾit-tāḵ} forms a verbless nominal clause in which beriti ‘my covenant’ serves as the subject and the prepositional complement ittakh ‘with you’ marks the beneficiary, necessitating the English copula “is.” The following vehayita {וְהָיִיתָ | wə-hā-yî-ṯā} ‘and you shall be’ is a Qal perfect with vav conjunction conveying a future-result, introducing Abram’s future role. The phrase leav {לְאַב | lə-ʾav} ‘for a father’ acts as the predicate complement, while the construct chain hamon goyim {הֲמוֹן גּוֹיִם | hă-môn gô-yim} ‘multitude of nations’ specifies the breadth of that role. The two-step Hebrew structure—first establishing the divine covenant relationship, then declaring the future vocation—is reflected in both translations to preserve the syntactic and theological flow. |