| 29. Linguistic Exegesis The Hebrew text links actions with vav-consecutive verbs (vayyitten {וַיִּתֵּן | wayyiṯtēn} “and he gave”; wayyəhî {וַיְהִי | wayyəhî} “and it became”). The repeated prepositional phrase lachatzi {לַחֲצִי | laḥaṣṣî} “to half” emphasizes the division of inheritance. Shevet {שֵׁבֶט | šēweṭ} “tribe” coordinates with maṭṭēh {מַטֵּה | maṭṭēh} “branch” to clarify subgroups, while the construct bənē-Mənaššēh {בְנֵי־מְנַשֶּׁה | bənē-mənaššēh} “sons of Manasseh” specifies lineage. The distributive suffix in ləmišpəḥōṯām {לְמִשְׁפְּחוֹתָם | ləmišpəḥōṯām} marks allocation by family. English reorders the construct chains for readability without losing the proportional inheritance structure. |