| 10. Linguistic Exegesis The verse uses a paired construction with repeated gam {גַּם | gam} ‘also’ to intensify inclusion: “also gray-haired” and “also very aged,” presenting two overlapping categories to stress the breadth of seniority present. The placement of banu {בָּנוּ | bānû} ‘with us’ after the two age descriptors foregrounds group solidarity and authority: the speaker claims that such elders belong to his side of the dispute. The adjective kabir {כַּבִּיר | kabbîr} ‘great’ is applied to yamim {יָמִים | yāmîm} ‘days,’ a common Hebrew idiom in which “days” stands metonymically for length of life and accumulated experience; the comparison is sharpened by me-avikha {מֵאָבִיךָ | mē-ʾāḇîkā} ‘than your father.’ The sentence’s compact, nominal style (no explicit finite verb) heightens rhetorical force, making the claim sound like an established fact rather than an argument. |