| 23. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the discourse marker veʿattah {וְעַתָּה | wə-ʿat-tāh} ‘and now’, signaling a shift to a formal covenantal charge. The Niphal imperative hiššāḇəʿāh {הִשָּׁבְעָה | hiš-šā-ḇə-ʿāh} ‘swear’ takes lī {לִּי | lī} ‘to me’ as indirect object and the prepositional phrase bəʾelohim {בֵאלֹהִים | bē-ʾĕ-lō-hîm} ‘by God’ as witness. The adverb hēnnāh {הֵנָּה | hēn-nāh} ‘here’ adds immediacy. A protasis introduced by ʾim {אִם | ʾim} ‘if’ plus Qal imperfect tišqor {תִּשְׁקֹר | tiš-qōr} ‘deal falsely’ lists consecutive covenant scope through coordinated indirect objects: lī, ûlənînî {וּלְנִינִי | û-lə-nî-nî} ‘and to my descendant’, ûləneḵdî {וּלְנֶכְדִּי | û-lə-neḵ-dî} ‘and to my grandson’. The comparative standard kaḥesed {כַּחֶסֶד | ka-ḥe-seḏ} ‘according to the kindness’ is followed by the relative clause ʾăšer ʿāśîtî {אֲשֶׁר־עָשִׂיתִי | ʾă-šer-ʿā-śî-tî} ‘which I have done’ with ʿimməḵā {עִמְּךָ | ʿim-mə-ḵā} ‘with you’. The apodosis taʿăśeh {תַּעֲשֶׂה | ta-ʿă-śeh} ‘you shall do’ extends the obligation to ʿimmādî {עִמָּדִי | ʿim-mā-dî} ‘with me’ and to the land via wəʿim-hāʾāreṣ {וְעִם־הָאָרֶץ | wə-ʿim-hā-ʾā-reṣ} ‘and with the land’ and its defining relative clause ʾăšer gārəttā bāh {אֲשֶׁר־גַּרְתָּה בָּהּ | ʾă-šer-gar-rə-tā-bāh} ‘in which you have sojourned’. The structure preserves the legal force of the oath while clarifying generational scope and covenantal reciprocity in English subordinate clauses. |