| 21. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with vayomer {וַיֹּאמֶר | way-yō-mer} ‘and he said’, the standard narrative continuation marker in Hebrew prose, which introduces Jacob’s direct speech. The subject Yaakov {יַעֲקֹב | ya-ʿă-qōḇ} follows the verb, and the prepositional phrase el-Lavan {אֶל־לָבָן | ʾel-lā-ḇān} ‘to Laban’ specifies the addressee, forming a typical verb-subject-indirect-object sequence. The imperative havah {הָבָה | hā-ḇāh} ‘give’ conveys an urgent request, and the direct object marker et {אֶת | ʾeṯ} introduces ishti {אִשְׁתִּי | ʾiš-tî} ‘my wife’, foregrounding the relationship at issue. The conjunction ki {כִּי | kî} links the request to its basis in the clause malu yamai {מָלְאוּ יָמָי | māl-ʾû yā-māy} ‘my days are fulfilled’, an idiom for completion of a fixed service term. The possessive suffixes on ishti and yamai highlight Jacob’s personal stake. The final clause ve-avoah eleha {וְאָבוֹאָה אֵלֶיהָ | wə-ʾā-ḇō-ʾāh ʾê-lê-hā} literally ‘and I will go in to her’ uses a conventional Hebrew euphemism for marital consummation. The translation preserves the request–reason–purpose structure while rendering the euphemism in an accessible form. |