| 28. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the particle ulai {אוּלַי | ʾû-lay} ‘perhaps’, signaling a tentative, deferential proposal that softens Abraham’s bold intercession. The finite verb yakhserun {יַחְסְרוּן | yaḥ-sə-rûn} ‘will lack’ precedes its subject phrase, producing the sequence “perhaps will lack fifty the righteous five,” which Hebrew hearers would understand as a hypothetical numerical shortfall among the righteous. The cluster khamishim hatsaddiqim khamishah {חֲמִשִּׁים הַצַּדִּיקִם חֲמִשָּׁה | ḥă-miš-šîm haṣ-ṣad-dî-qîm ḥă-miš-šāh} is a compact way of saying “fifty righteous, five lacking,” which the formal rendering expands slightly for clarity. The interrogative form hatachshit {הֲתַשְׁחִית | ha-taš-ḥît} ‘will You destroy?’ combined with the prepositional phrase bakhamishah {בַּחֲמִשָּׁה | ba-ḥă-miš-šāh} and the object phrase et kol haʿir {אֶת־כָּל־הָעִיר | ʾeṯ kol hā-ʿîr} yields the sense “Will You destroy all the city on account of five?” The second half of the verse is introduced by vayomer {וַיֹּאמֶר | way-yō-mer} “and he said,” whose subject is contextually Yahweh, followed by a direct quotation. Within the divine reply, lo ashkhit {לֹא אַשְׁחִית | lōʾ ʾaš-ḥît} places the negation before the Hifil imperfect, strongly asserting God’s refusal to destroy. The conditional clause im emtsa sham arbaʿim vakhammishah {אִם־אֶמְצָא שָׁם אַרְבָּעִים וַחֲמִשָּׁה | ʾim-ʾem-ṣāʾ šām ʾar-bā-ʿîm wa-ḥă-miš-šāh} tightly links the promised restraint from judgment to the specific number “forty and five.” The English renderings mirror this structure by preserving the hypothetical opening (“Perhaps… / What if…”), the pointed question about destroying “the whole city,” and the explicit conditional promise (“I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there”), thereby reflecting both the logical precision and the relational tone of the dialogue. |